Avoncliff railway station

Avoncliff
Location
Place	Avoncliff
Local authority	Wiltshire
Coordinates	51°20′22″N 2°16′56″W / 51.3395°N 2.2821°WCoordinates: 51°20′22″N 2°16′56″W / 51.3395°N 2.2821°W
Grid reference	ST804600
Operations
Station code	AVF
Managed by	Great Western Railway
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	19,650
2011/12	18,284
2012/13	16,404
2013/14	19,394
2014/15	19,432
History
Original company	Great Western Railway
9 July 1906	Station opens as Avoncliff Halt
5 May 1969	Station renamed Avoncliff
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Avoncliff from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Avoncliff railway station serves the hamlet of Avoncliff in Wiltshire, England. It also serves the nearby villages of Westwood and Winsley, and Turleigh hamlet. It is situated next to the Kennet and Avon Canal and located almost adjacent to the Avoncliff Aqueduct so it is popular for walkers and cyclists who wish to travel along the canal path or the many picturesque walks around the station.

This station was a request stop, until July 2010. It now has trains scheduled to stop there, whether or not passengers want to board or alight. The station has two platforms, each long enough for  1 ¹⁄₂ coaches,^[1] with a waiting shelter and original lamp-posts, and is served by Great Western Railway. Residents have voluntarily decorated the station with many pots of flowers and, to mark its 100-year anniversary on the 9 July 2006, decorated the station with bunting and dressed in Victorian clothing for the celebrations.

History

Opened by the Great Western Railway opened as Avoncliff Halt on 9 July 1906, it remained part of that company during the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the Western Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The suffix 'Halt' was dropped from 5 May 1969.

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Regional Railways until the privatisation of British Railways.

Services

A half-hourly peak and hourly off-peak service is currently provided northbound to Bath and Bristol and southbound to Bradford on Avon, Trowbridge, Westbury and then further to Weymouth and Southampton.

Gallery

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  Preserved GWR seat and old station sign

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  Entrance to station seen from Kennet and Avon Canal

References

1. Yonge, John; Padgett, David (August 2010) [1989]. Bridge, Mike, ed. Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 4C. ISBN 978-0-9549866-6-7.

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-9068-9999-0. OCLC 228266687.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0086-1. OCLC 22311137.
• Station on navigable O.S. map