Bath Spa railway station

Bath Spa railway station is the principal station serving the city of Bath in Somerset, England. It is on the Great Western Main Line, 106 mi down the line from the zero point at London Paddington between Chippenham to the east and Oldfield Park to the west. It is the busiest station in Somerset, and the second busiest station in South West England after Bristol Temple Meads.

The station is managed by Great Western Railway, who operate all trains at this station.

History
Bath Spa station was built in 1840 for the Great Western Railway by Brunel and is now a Grade II* listed building. It is in an asymmetrical Tudor style with curving gables on the north bank of the Avon where the line curves across from the southern bank to the station and then back again. Opened on 31 August 1840, the station was named Bath and was renamed Bath Spa in 1949 to distinguish it from Bath Green Park station, which did not have its name altered from Bath until 1951.

The station has wide spacing between the platforms because it was built with two broad gauge carriage sidings between the platform lines. The original station featured a hammerbeam roof that covered the area between the platforms, similar to that which still exists at Bristol Temple Meads. However, Bath's roof was removed in 1897 when the station was remodelled with longer platforms.

A three-track goods shed was built immediately west of the station, to the north of the main track. In 1877 a goods depot was built about 500 metres to the west at Westmoreland and the goods shed was demolished for the station remodelling in 1897.

A footbridge leads from the rear of the station across the Avon, allowing direct access to the Widcombe area of the city. Open in 1862, the bridge was originally made from wood and tolled (known locally as Halfpenny Bridge). However, this original structure collapsed disastrously in 1877 with a number of deaths, and the present steel girder bridge was erected as a replacement later that same year.

Redevelopment
Since privatisation Great Western Railway has managed Bath Spa. In 2005 the company obtained listed building consent for alterations to the building, including the installation of lifts to the platforms. Ticket barriers have also been installed.

Other developments started in 2011 to integrate the station with the new Bath bus station and SouthGate shopping centre, and redevelop some of the station car park and northern ramp into a restaurant complex at a cost of £12 million. There are plans to adapt some arches at the station to encourage retail use.

Bath Spa won awards for Best Medium-Sized Station and Overall Best Station at the 2013 International Station Awards.

The station was modified in April 2017 for the Great Western Main Line electrification project. Because of its listed status, the platform canopies could not be cut back to fit overhead electrification equipment on the alignment and so the platforms were widened so that future electrification masts could be installed between the tracks. (Electrification through the station was deferred in November 2016). The work provided a larger circulation area and reduced the gap between train and platform.

Other stations in Bath
The only other open station in Bath is Oldfield Park, a small commuter station in a western suburb, with limited services to Bristol and to Bath Spa, and onward stations.

Former stations now closed in Bath were Green Park (the Midland terminus, whose overall roof and primary buildings survive, and which for part of its life was named "Bath Queen Square"), Bathampton and Weston (a suburban station on the Midland line which closed in 1953). Westmoreland Road was a GWR goods station. Twerton-on-Avon, and Hampton Row Halt, both on the GWR route, closed in 1917 as a World War I economy measure.

Services
All services at Bath Spa are operated by Great Western Railway. They provide services between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads at a frequency of 2 trains per hour (1 train per hour on Sundays). These give a service from Bath to Chippenham, Swindon and Reading 1 train every 2 hours extends beyond Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, and 3 trains a day extend to Taunton or Penzance.

Between Bristol Temple Meads and a further 3 trains per hour are provided, calling at many of the smaller stations along the route. Of these trains 1 train per hour runs between Cardiff Central and Portsmouth Harbour, 1 train per hour runs from Bristol Temple Meads to Salisbury and 1 train per hours runs from Gloucester to, with 1 train per 2 hours extending to Weymouth.

Civil engineering
The GWR line from London crosses the Avon at the east end of the station, then crosses it again to the west of the station before continuing along a viaduct. Both bridges and the viaduct were originally designed by Brunel, and all are listed buildings.

St James's Bridge


The eastern bridge is a elliptical stone arch, with a smaller circular arch either side. It was repaired in brick in 1927. Although not referred to as such, it is a skew bridge, crossing the river at about 45 degrees; it "embodies Brunel's ability to find elegant architectural solutions to engineering challenges."

Skew Bridge


Brunel originally intended the Skew Bridge over the Avon to be constructed of cast iron, but he was unable to let the contract for this. Instead, he designed each arch to consist of six arches of laminated timber. Each arch had five laminations of 6 in thick Baltic pine, bent to shape and held together with bolts and straps of iron. Under the arches, a walkway allowed pedestrians to pass along the south bank of the river; railings were added to the walkway during the 1878 rebuilding.

In 1878, Wakefield Simpson replaced the timber arches with two wrought iron truss spans, supported by iron cylinders which rest on the original piers and abutments. The bridge was strengthened in the 1960s with additional steel supports and superstructure, to allow it to carry the extended platforms of Bath Station.

St James' Viaduct


After the Skew Bridge, the line continues towards Bristol over St James' Viaduct, a "castellated Gothic fantasy" with pointed arches and arrow slots on the northern (Bath-facing) side; the southern side is plainer. There are seventeen arches in total; the spans crossing Wells Road and Lower Bristol Road were rebuilt in steel in 1911–12 as locomotives had become heavier; the former span was again rebuilt in 1961–62.