Kemble railway station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

that serves the village of Kemble in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England. The station is on the to "Golden Valley" line, from the zero point at . Despite its rural location, Kemble station has a high number of passengers, due mainly to the proximity of

Cirencester Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...

History

The station was opened by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

(GWR) as an exchange station on 12 May 1845 with the line opening from Swindon to Gloucester. Only on 1 May 1882 did it become a public station replacing the nearby . The distance between the platforms and the large clearance between the remaining running lines is a legacy from when Kemble first opened because it originally accommodated Brunel's broad gauge tracks. These were changed to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

tracks in 1892. Until the 1960s the station was a junction, with services to the nearby market towns of (to the northeast) and (southwest). Both the Tetbury branch line and the Cirencester Branch Line were closed to traffic under '' The Reshaping of British Railways'', the first day without service being 6 April 1964. British Rail reduced the line to Swindon to single track in 1968 but the second track was reinstated in 2014.

Stationmasters

*Jeremiah Greenaway ca. 1869 – 1900 *John William Boyd 1900 - 1922 (formerly station master at Tetbury) *G. Evans 1922 – 1929 (formerly station master at Purton) *M.E. Waters until 1935 (also station master at Cirencester Town, afterwards station master at Cirencester Town) *C. Feldwick. 1935 – 1942 (afterwards station master at Cirencester Town) *Walter John Butt Watts from 1942 (formerly station master at Brimscombe)

Description

The station has two platforms in use. The former Tetbury bound platform remains but the track has been lifted. The building on the down platform (no. 2) has been out of use for several years, containing toilets and a waiting room, which are still ''in situ''. On the former Cirencester platform, a short stub of track remains for the occasional stabling of track machines. This ends at a buffer stop just before the station car park. In 2013, Cotswold District Council refused an application by Network Rail to demolish part of the Grade II listed Cirencester bay platform in connection with the redoubling of the line from Swindon. According to the Council, the platform was still in a good state of repair and any public benefit from the demolition would not outweigh the damage that would be caused to the historical significance of the station. The station has a ticket office and a small café. The limestone bridge, at the south end of the station, was Grade II listed from 5 November 2015 and the station and water tank from 27 February 1986. File:Kemble station geograph-2398408-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg, Diesel-hauled Up stopping train in 1962 File:Station entrance, Kemble - geograph.org.uk - 337280.jpg, Station entrance File:Kemble Station Signals.jpg, Signals at Kemble Station File:Kemble station former Cirencester platform.jpg, The former Cirencester platform, June 2009 File:Kemble station platforms.jpg, Station platforms looking north-west. The old Cirencester line branches to the right. File:Water_tank,_Kemble_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1235771.jpg, The Grade II listed water tank

Services

operate all services at Kemble using mainly Class 800 bi-mode trains. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to London Paddington * 1 tph to via The station is also served by limited services extending beyond Cheltenham Spa to . There is also a limited service to/from via the Wessex Main Line. The station is occasionally served by trains to and from and during periods of engineering work.

References

External links

History of the line

Gloucestershire Transport
* {{Transport in Gloucestershire Railway stations in Gloucestershire DfT Category D stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1882 Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire Grade II listed railway stations Kemble, Gloucestershire