Gobowen railway station

Gobowen for Oswestry
Location
Place	Gobowen
Local authority	Shropshire Council
Coordinates	52.8935°N 3.0371°W / 52.8935; -3.0371
Grid reference	SJ303333
Operations
Station code	GOB
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	140,968
2005/06 *	145,211
2006/07 *	164,866
2007/08 *	177,408
2008/09 *	186,988
2009/10 *	193,032
History
Original company	Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Chester Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
12 October 1848	Opened
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 Gobowen for Oswestry from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

Up fast freight passing in 1960

Gobowen railway station is a railway station on the Shrewsbury to Chester Line serving the village of Gobowen in Shropshire, England. It is the nearest station to the town of Oswestry. The original station building was designed by Thomas Mainwaring Penson, and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.

As of January 2011, train services run on two routes;

• Arriva Trains Wales service from Birmingham International to Holyhead.
• Arriva Trains Wales service from Holyhead to Cardiff.

Gobowen station is 28.5 km (17¾ miles) north west of Shrewsbury railway station.

Buildings

The station has two platforms:

• Platform 1 - For southbound services to Shrewsbury, Cardiff Central or Birmingham New Street
• Platform 2 - For northbound services to Wrexham General, Chester or Holyhead

The station buildings at Gobowen are Grade II listed. They were built in 1846 by the Shrewsbury and Chester railway in a notable Florentine (or Italianate) style with white stucco facing and a small turret. The awnings and the footbridge were added later by the Great Western Railway (the footbridge was demolished in 1987). Although a very small village, Gobowen was the junction station for the much larger regional town of Oswestry some three miles away. When rail services to Oswestry ceased in November 1966, Gobowen was retained as the railhead for the surrounding area. There is a scheme in progress to open this branch as a heritage railway. Until 1967 Gobowen was served by the GWR, latterly BR Western Region, express services between London Paddington and Birkenhead Woodside which was withdrawn upon the electrification of the West Coast Main Line.

Today, the main building which was renovated in 2005 is used as small business space. The booking office is now located in the waiting room on the southbound platform. Unusually, it is not operated directly by the train operating company but by an independent travel agent, Severn-Dee Travel.

• 

  Gobowen station, circa 1910

• 

  Locomotive at Gobowen station, circa 1956

Cambrian Heritage Railway

Gobowen station may become in the near future the northern terminus of the proposed Cambrian Heritage Railways line to Llynclys, Pant and Blodwel via Oswestry. The coal yard at Gobowen is to be bought by Shropshire Council for railway related uses, including car parking for the station. If the plans are realised the station would have three platforms, one of which would be for the Heritage Railway. [1]

References

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Shrewsbury		Arriva Trains Wales Shrewsbury to Wrexham General Line		Chirk
	Historical railways
Whittington Low Level		Great Western Railway Shrewsbury to Chester Line		Weston Rhyn

External links

• Chester to Shrewsbury Rail Partnership
• Details from listed building database (255745) . Images of England. English Heritage.