Bourne End railway station 1861486 706a4360

Bourne End railway station serves Bourne End in Buckinghamshire,

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. It is on the Marlow Branch Line between and , down the line from Maidenhead and measured from . Services are provided by Great Western Railway. The ticket office is open on weekday and Saturday mornings. There is a customer car park south of the station. The station has two platforms.

History

The station was originally named Marlow Road station. In 1874 Marlow Road station was renamed Bourne End to obviate confusion with the newly opened Marlow station. The station was opened in 1854 as part of the

Wycombe Railway The Wycombe Railway was a British railway between and that connected with the Great Western Railway at both ends; there was one branch, to . History The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an act of Parliament passed in 1846. The act ...

Company line between station and . To reach Bourne End, a wooden viaduct was built across

Cockmarsh Cock Marsh is an area of marsh land and steep chalk slope covering more than north of Maidenhead in Berkshire. It includes a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is also the location of a Round barrow cemetery and common la ...

and a wooden bridge was built across the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. In 1873 a line linking Bourne End with Marlow was opened to the public, with 1,700 tickets being sold in the first week. Originally the branch line was served by a third platform on the west side of the station. The service on the branch line is known locally as the "Marlow Donkey", which is commemorated by a local

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

of the same name, although the origin of the term is unclear. The 'small' waiting room building from Bourne End Station (left of picture) lives on at Bourne Again Junction on the Fawley Hill Railway, home of the late Sir William McAlpine. A

camping coach Camping coaches were holiday accommodation offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland from the 1930s. The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to ...

was positioned here by the Western Region in 1960.

Partial closure

British Rail closed the line between Bourne End and

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

in May 1970, but trains still run between Maidenhead and Marlow.

Future

It has been proposed that the Line between Bourne End and High Wycombe be reopened. A feasibility study is under way to see if it is economic to do so.

Services

Bourne End is a terminus but effectively acts as a through station, with the driver having to change ends to continue to the next station. During peak hours service frequency is increased by having two trains work the line, each using Bourne End as the terminus: one runs Marlow – Bourne End and one Maidenhead – Bourne End, with passengers changing trains at Bourne End. This service pattern is needed to meet peak-time demand, as the platforms at Bourne End are not long enough to accommodate longer trains. While Bourne End has two platforms, platform 2 is only accessible from Maidenhead and not from Marlow, and so cannot be used as a passing loop. Since May 2017 there are no through trains to London Paddington. The basic daytime service runs hourly each way to Maidenhead & Marlow seven days a week, with the additional peak services operating half hourly Monday to Friday only.

References

External links

{{Railway stations in Buckinghamshire Railway stations in Buckinghamshire DfT Category E stations Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1854 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway 1854 establishments in England