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Taplow railway station

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Taplow
General information
LocationSouth Bucks
Managed byFirst Great Western
Platforms2 (4 operational)
Other information
Station codeTAP
History
Opened1871

Taplow railway station is a railway station in Taplow, Buckinghamshire, close to Slough, Berkshire, England. The station is served by local services operated by First Great Western (FGW) from London Paddington, 36 km (22½ miles) to the east, to Reading stations, using class Class 165, Class 166 and on rare occasion, class 180 DMU trains. The station is on the original line of the Great Western Railway (GWR).

History

Taplow station was originally ¼ of a mile west of the present station and was called Maidenhead Riverside: completed in 1830 it was the terminus of the Great Western Railway until the opening of Maidenhead Railway Bridge in 1838. With the opening of Maidenhead railway station in 1871 the station was closed and moved to its current location and renamed Taplow. As with Burnham railway station, the actual station is a significant distance south of the village that it takes its name from.

The current station was probably designed by GWR architect J. E. Danks, and largely dates from the quadrupling of the line, with dual gauge main line tracks. It is unusually large and grand in appearance, despite the fact it only serves a relatively small number of passengers during the day. The first reason for this was because several major GWR shareholders lived nearby and therefore used the station in Victorian times. The second being that it was always intended to be part of a high quality network of stations for commuters using the GWR.

During World War II Taplow station played an important part of transporting tanks stored at "the dump" which is now at the site of Slough Trading Estate. The concrete and steel reinforced road that was laid to take the weight of the tanks can still be found in the station's south car park. Just to the north of the station on a rail siding was a large Barbed wire dump. The siding has long since been removed, the remaining noticeable incline being partially occupied by the nearby SGT car dealership buildings.

The remaining buildings of the station are outwardly little changed since their original construction. The station has been used in a scene from the film Highly Dangerous and in the album cover of the 1973 album Back to the future by Man. The south car park and platform 1 buildings were used in filming as Cambridge Station for Chariots of Fire but the sequence does not seem to have been used in the released cut of the film. In 2003, the station was used in a scene in the BBC TV comedy series Catterick, starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. Renamed with signs, it played the part of Northallerton station for its bit part in the show. The station is mentioned in the book The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells.

2006 refurbishment

The picturesque 1884 built station footbrige has recently had a major refurbishment costing £250,000[1]. The footbridge was in a very poor state of repair before the work began. This project also included a repaint of the station buildings, partial resurfacing of the island platforms and renewal of the flower beds. The refurbishment was completed in time for the 2006 World Rowing Championships at Dorney Lake, which used a shuttle bus service to transport spectators to and from the event. During the duration of the event, the station briefly had a Sunday service. The station is also likely to be heavily used during the London 2012 Olympics, because of the rowing and canoeing events at Dorney Lake.

Crossrail

Crossrail trains will call here if or when the scheme is completed, bringing electrification (electric trains, known as EMUs), a higher frequency 4 trains/hour 'stopping' service and for the first time, a regular Sunday service which will utilise Platforms 1 and 2 on Sundays. No services currently use these platforms. The platforms are to be lengthened at the west end of the station to accommodate the longer eight (made up of two four) car Crossrail trains. The longest trains that currently fit station platforms are DMUs running in multiple with six carriages. Crossrail will also probably assume day-to-day running of the station. It is uncertain whether the planned FGW service between Reading and Slough will call at the station once Crossrail begins operation.

According to a 2005 Crossrail document, journey times to and from these major destinations will be as follows:

Heathrow Airport - 32 minutes (including interchange)
Paddington - 37 minutes
Tottenham Court Road - 43 minutes
Liverpool St. - 49 minutes
Canary Wharf - 57 minutes

Several local politicians fear that Taplow along with Maidenhead and Burnham stations will effectively become large park-and-ride schemes, if or when Crossrail becomes reality, vastly increasing local traffic in the surrounding area.

The station

Key features include the Victorian era ticket office, toilets and the aforementioned footbridge. Features installed during the Network SouthEast (NSE) era includes a permit to travel machine installed on platform 4, all the existing passenger seating, station clocks, CCTV monitored help points and a CRT service information screen. Thames Trains Ltd. installed the LED 'next train indicators'. FGW has recently replaced the ticket machine, life-expired NSE-era signage and have repainted the station doors, lamp posts, seats and bike shelter in corporate First Group purple.

Also built into the main station building is a Victorian postbox on the platform 4 side, and a card-only BT payphone on the platform. Riviera Cars (taxi rank) and the Taplow Rail User's Group (TRUG) also occupy the main building. Only platforms 2 and 4 have OPO equipment. The island platform waiting room is usually closed from public use. According to FGW [2], the station has BTP 'Secure Station' accreditation. This is despite the station being in a remote countryside location. WiFi access is likely to be installed in the near future.

There are 2 CCTV monitored car parks, both run by APCOA Parking UK Ltd. on behalf of FGW, one on the north side of the station and one on the south. Inside the south car park is a small South Bucks recycling centre[3]. Next to this car park is a large storage facility, which until the recent refurbishment housed disused and decaying portable railway buildings. It currently houses leftover materials from the recent works.

Original features removed over time, by BR and Network Rail, include

  • the waiting room, ticket office and platform canopy on platform 1
  • the ornate lanterns on the 1884 footbridge[4]
  • the platform 2 canopy
  • the island platforms' remaining red Victorian tiles[5] (removed during the 2006 refurbishment), although these tiles still remain on platform 1.

The station is a popular location for railway photographers due to the secluded location, long views of track alignments and the low number of station users at off-peak times.

Ticket Office hours, service and other information

  • The ticket office on platform 4 is open weekdays only, between 0620 and 1300 [6]. Under Thames Trains' management there was a trial period of Saturday opening. This trial did not lead to permanent Saturday opening, so the opening hours reverted back and still remain 'weekdays only'.
  • A new, touch-screen, cash and card payment ticket machine has been installed (11/2006), offering nationwide destinations for the first time.
  • Monday to Saturdays there is a half-hourly service to London Paddington eastbound (platform 4) and Reading westbound (platform 3).
  • There is currently no regular service on Sundays (excluding the Sunday 0001 departure from London Paddington, which arrives at Taplow normally at 0046).
  • Only platform 4 (London bound) is currently wheelchair accessible.
  • The Taplow Rail User's Group office is run by Mr Jon Willmore and is usually open every Thursday.
  • To get to the station via sat-nav, the postcode is SL6 0NT.
  • The station is now included in the FGW RingGo cashless electronic parking service (operated by Cobalt Telephone Technologies Ltd.). The location code for Taplow station is '1970'.
  • The nearest bus routes from the station (as of June 2007) are the:
53 (Wexham Park Hospital-Bracknell/Bracknell-Wexham Park Hospital) and
75 (Heathrow-Maidenhead/Maidenhead-Heathrow), which run from the nearby A4.
All these services are operated by First Berkshire & the Thames Valley.
  • Rail replacement buses normally operate from either the north car park or the bus stops on Approach Rd. A monthly or weekly list of dates when a rail replacement service operates is placed on notice boards outside the Approach Rd station exit and by the ticket office, and is available online via this link.

Penalty fare rules apply to all FGW trains using this station [7].

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Burnham   First Great Western
Great Western Main Line 		  Maidenhead
Future Development
Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Maidenhead   Crossrail
   Burnham
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