Bath Spa railway station

Bath Spa
Bath Spa platforms
Location
Place	Bath
Local authority	Bath and North East Somerset
Coordinates	51.3775°N 2.3564°W / 51.3775; -2.3564
Operations
Station code	BTH
Managed by	First Great Western
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2002/03 *	3.333 million
2004/05 *	3.726 million
2005/06 *	3.905 million
2006/07 *	4.245 million
2007/08 *	4.478 million
2008/09 *	4.757 million
2009/10 *	4.779 million
History
Original company	Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
31 August 1840	Opened as Bath
1949	Renamed Bath Spa
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Bath Spa from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

Bath Spa railway station is the principal railway station serving the city of Bath, in South West England and is served mainly by First Great Western as well as South West Trains and CrossCountry. It is situated on the Great Western Main Line and connects to the Wessex Main Line via Bradford-on-Avon.

Architecture

Bath Spa station in 1962

Bath Spa station was built in 1840 for the Great Western Railway by Brunel and is a grade II* listed building. It is in an asymmetrical Tudor style with curving gables, and lies on the north bank of the Avon, with the line swerving across from the southern bank to the station and then back again. Opened on 31 August 1840, the station was originally named Bath, but was given its present name of Bath Spa in 1949 to distinguish it from the other station at Bath, Bath Green Park, which did not have its name altered from Bath until 1951.

A convenient characteristic for passengers was that ramps lead up to both platforms, permitting the disabled or those with luggage to have ready access from the platforms to cars or taxis. However in 2011 the northern ramp was removed in a station redevelopment which provided lifts instead. There is also a footbridge, formerly tolled, leading directly from the station across the Avon and allowing direct access to the area of Widcombe. The Ha'penny Bridge which previously crossed the river collapsed in 1877.

The station has wide spacing between the platforms as it was originally built when the GWR used broad gauge track. When it was originally built a hammerbeam roof covered the area between the platforms; however this was removed in 1897. This large gap between the up and down-lines used to accommodate a through bi-directional line but is now empty.

Services

Since the closure of the Midland Region station at Green Park after the Beeching report, all of Bath's rail services run through Bath Spa. The station is also conveniently situated for connection with bus services.

The station has regular (approximately half-hourly each way) inter-city services to London Paddington via Swindon & Reading & Chippenham and to Bristol Temple Meads (with some extensions to Weston-super-Mare, Taunton and beyond).

It is also served hourly (two-hourly on Sundays) by the Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour and Gloucester & Bristol to Westbury and Weymouth regional trains, plus a limited service to London Waterloo via Salisbury and Basingstoke (four per day Monday-Saturday, two on Sunday).

Since the May 2010 timetable started, an early morning CrossCountry service to Glasgow Central via Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh starts at Bath. It departs at 0609 on Mondays to Fridays, but does not run on weekends. It arrives into Glasgow at 14:12. There is no southbound return.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Bristol Temple Meads		First Great Western London - Bristol		Chippenham
Oldfield Park		First Great Western Great Malvern/Gloucester - Westbury/South Coast		Freshford
Bristol Temple Meads		First Great Western Cardiff Central - Portsmouth Harbour		Bradford-on-Avon
		South West Trains London Waterloo - Bristol
Bristol Temple Meads		CrossCountry Cross Country Route One northbound early morning journey		Terminus

Redevelopment

Station from the south, showing SouthGate and Manvers Street to the north

Since railway privatisation First Great Western has managed Bath Spa. In 2005 they obtained listed building consent for a number of alterations to the building, including the installation of lifts to the platforms. Ticket barriers have also been installed.

Other developments started in 2011 to more closely integrate the station with the new Bath bus station and SouthGate shopping centre, and redevelop some of the station car park and northern ramp into a restaurant complex at a cost of £12 million. There are also plans to change some of the arches at the station to encourage retail use.

Other stations in Bath

Railway stations in Bath
Legend  Great Western Main Line to London  Bathford Halt  Wessex Main Line to Westbury  Bathampton Hampton Row Halt Bath Spa(ex-GWR) Bath Green Park(MR and SDJR) Westmoreland Street(GWR, later goods only) Oldfield Park ( SDJR to Radstock ) Weston (Bath) Twerton-on-Avon ( MR to Bristol and Gloucester )  Great Western Main Line to Bristol

The only other open station in Bath is Oldfield Park, a small commuter station in a western suburb, with limited services to Bristol or Bath Spa, and onward stations.

Other now closed stations in Bath were Green Park (the Midland terminus, of which the over-all roof and primary buildings survive, and which for most of its life was named "Bath Queen Square"), Bathampton and Weston (a suburban station on the Midland line which closed in 1953). Westmoreland Street, later a goods station, was the original GWR passenger station, and is now demolished). Twerton-on-Avon, and Hampton Row Halt, both on the GWR route, closed after World War I.

External links

• Slow motion video of Bath Spa