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Chippenham railway station serves the market town of Chippenham in Wiltshire, England. The station is on the Great Western Main Line, (and connects to the Wessex Main Line via Melksham) in between Swindon and Bath Spa, and is served by First Great Western main line services between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington, and a smaller First Great Western local service that runs between Swindon and Trowbridge, via Chippenham and Melksham over the northern end of the former Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway. It was also the junction for a GWR branch line to Calne from 1863 until its closure (a victim of the 'Beeching Axe') in 1965. Only two of the three platforms at the station are now in use, with the old platform by the main entrance disused but has an outside seating area on the disused platform. The station is managed by First Great Western.

Description

The original station building at Chippenham was to Isambard Kingdom Brunel's design and was opened in 1841. With the subsequent opening of new lines to Salisbury and Weymouth, the station was not adequate to meet the increased demand and was redesigned by J H Bertram in 1856-58; it is Grade II listed. It is constructed in Bath stone ashlar with a bay window at one end and a wing at the other making a long, low composition.

Platform 1 is used for the Great Western Main Line services to Bath, Bristol and towards Taunton; it is also used for Wessex Main Line services to Westbury and some London services. Platform 2 is used for the Great Western Main Line services to Swindon, Didcot, Reading and London; it is also used for Cheltenham and some Bristol services.

In the station yard, there is another Grade II listed building partly in random stone but mainly weather-boarded on a timber frame with a pitched slate roof. It is an early weighbridge house and coal merchant's office. It is known that coal merchants opened a depot in 1840 and the building dates from that time. The building is painted dark green and currently leased by North Wiltshire Artspace (charity), and rented out to various groups.

Immediately west of the station lies Chippenham Viaduct designed by Brunel in 1841. It is Grade II listed. The first arch, over New Road, appears to have been modelled on the Roman triumphal arch. It has a 26-foot (7.9 m) span and is flanked by two smaller pedestrian arches of 10 feet (3.0 m). All is surmounted by a heavy cornice and parapet. The north side is constructed from Bath Stone Ashlar with some brick patching while the south side is in blue brick following widening in the early 1900s.

Services

The station has frequent services to Swindon, Reading and London and to Bath and Bristol Temple Meads, with some Bristol trains continuing to Weston-super-Mare and beyond. There are some train services to Swansea and Cardiff station however, are less frequent with one early in the morning to Swansea via Bristol, Newport and Cardiff and one late evening service to Cardiff Central via Bristol and Newport. Bristol and London (with one train per hour additionally calling at Didcot) services operate approximately every half hour in each direction Monday to Saturday, with some through services to/from Weston-super-Mare and beyond (these run mainly during the weekday business peaks, although certain summer Saturday trains also operate).

The service to Trowbridge and Westbury is much less frequent, with just one morning and one evening train each way per day since 2006 (compared to five each way prior to that). Monday to Friday services run to Southampton Central, although those in the opposite direction start from Westbury, services to Southampton usually come from Great Malvern or from Cheltenham Spa. There is a service to Cheltenham Spa via Swindon and Gloucester in the morning and late afternoon. There are also two Saturday services each way (but at different times to the weekday ones) and a single train each way on Sundays.

Chippenham station connects to the Wessex Main Line via Melksham.

There are proposals that firm Go! Cooperative, who are also recognised as GOCO would run a service between Yeovil to Oxford and Birmingham which would call at Chippenham. This would help connect the West Country to these destinations, without having to change at Didcot or Reading.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Bath Spa		First Great Western London - Bristol		Swindon
Melksham		First Great Western Wessex Main Line
	Disused railways
Terminus		BR (Western Region) Chippenham and Calne Line		Stanley Bridge Halt

Engineering works

Immediately to the north of the station itself is an engineering works, originally founded to support the Great Western Railway, and now supplying equipment to the worldwide rail industry. It was founded in 1842 by Rowland Brotherhood and, as of 2008, is occupied by Invensys Rail Systems and its UK manufacturing subsidiary, Westinghouse Rail Systems. For most of its life, it manufactured railway air braking systems and railway signalling.

References

1. Derrick Beckett (2006), Brunel's Britain, David & Charles, p. 62, ISBN 9780715323601, retrieved 2011-12-17
2. Clark, R H (1981). An Historic Survey of Selected Great Western Stations, volume 3.
3. Biddle, Gordon (2003). Britain's Historic Railway Buildings: an Oxford Gazetteer of Structures and Sites. Oxford University Press.
4. FGW Timetable 25 - Cardiff & Bristol to Southampton & Portsmouth 17 May - 12 December 2009 www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk; Retrieved 2009-06-22
5. "Co-operative train operator planning route from Birmingham to south and west". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 8 June 2010.
6. Timeline from Chippenham Town Council website. Retrieved on March 30, 2008.

• Railway stations in Wiltshire
• Great Western Main Line
• Railway stations opened in 1841
• Railway stations served by First Great Western
• Former Great Western Railway stations
• DfT Category C1 stations