Thatcham railway station serves the market town of

Thatcham Thatcham is a market town and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. It is situated in the valley of the River Kennet east of Newbury, Berkshire, Newbury, west of Reading, Berkshire, Reading and west of London. The town has a long history d ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, England. It is measured from the zero point at . It is served by

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, ...

local services between and and . It was served before privatisation by

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the networ ...

and from 1996 until 2004 by Thames Trains. A limited semi-fast service between London and and also calls.

Services

Thatcham station is served by GWR local services between Reading and Newbury, and between and Newbury. A limited number of services operate between London Paddington and Bedwyn, as well as destinations in the

West Country The West Country is a loosely defined area within southwest England, usually taken to include the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Bristol, with some considering it to extend to all or parts of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and ...

. These services are summarised as follows.

History

Thatcham station was opened on 21 December 1847 as part of the Berks and Hants Line to Hungerford. Traffic through the station increased when the line was extended to in 1906. The station remained as part of the

(GWR) until railway nationalisation in 1948. After the sectorisation of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

in 1982 the station became part of

until the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...

. From 1996 services were provided by Thames Trains until the franchise was merged with

First Great Western First Greater Western, trading as Great Western Railway (GWR), is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that provides services in the Greater Western franchise area. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR ...

Thatcham Ordnance Depot

In 1940 the 332nd Engineer General Service Regiment of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

built an ordnance depot next to the main line just west of the station. This included a number of sidings that were used for the delivery of equipment. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the site was developed as a base for what later became the

Royal Logistic Corps The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army. History The Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) was formed on 5 April 1993, by the union of five British Army corps: * Royal Engine ...

and had a number of

steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

used for shunting. The base was closed in 1999 and its site has now been developed as a housing estate.

Current layout

Thatcham station has two platforms, one on each side of the main line. At the eastern end of the station there is a footbridge over the line, replacing the old footbridge that was located at the western end. At the western end of the platform there is a level crossing. On the up platform is a ticket office that is open Mondays to Saturdays and two access points to the station car park. On the north side of the line west of the station is a

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

sorting office A sorting office or processing and distribution center (P&DC; name used by the United States Postal Service (USPS)) is any location where postal operators bring mail after collection for sorting into batches for delivery to the addressee, whic ...

next to where the ordnance depot used to be. On the down platform is a small shelter and access to a small car park. The

Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of Navigability, navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than sol ...

runs parallel to the station and can be reached from the road at the western end of the station. During 2018 the station was closed for periods as part of the overhead electrification of the Reading to Taunton line, which allowed for the running of the Hitachi built

British Rail Class 800 The British Rail Class 800, branded as the ''Intercity Express Train'' (IET) by Great Western Railway (train operating company), Great Western Railway (GWR) and ''Azuma'' by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a type of bi-mode multiple uni ...

and Class 387 commuter trains.InterCity 125 v Hitachi: What are the UK's new trains like?
/ref>

References

External links

{{Railway stations in Berkshire Railway stations in Berkshire DfT Category E stations Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1847 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Thatcham 1847 establishments in England