Goring & Streatley railway station

Goring & Streatley railway station is on the Great Western Main Line serving the twin villages of Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and Streatley, Berkshire in England. The station is in Goring-on-Thames, adjacent to the village centre and some five minutes walk from Goring and Streatley Bridge, which connects the village with Streatley, across the River Thames. It is 44 miles 60 chains (72.0 km) down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Pangbourne to the east and Cholsey to the west. It is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway (GWR).

Goring & Streatley
The station with the new footbridge and electrification in progress
Location	Goring-on-Thames, District of South Oxfordshire England
Grid reference	SU602806
Managed by	Great Western Railway
Platforms	4
Other information
Station code	GOR
Classification	DfT category E
History
Opened	1 June 1840
Original company	Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Key dates
1 June 1840	GWR Reading to Steventon opened
1 June 1840	Opened as Goring
9 November 1895	Renamed Goring & Streatley
Passengers
2015/16	0.410 million
2016/17	0.422 million
2017/18	0.404 million
2018/19	0.433 million
2019/20	0.437 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station has two side platforms (platform 1 on the down main line and platform 4 on the up relief line) and a central island platform with two faces (platform 2 on the up main line and platform 3 on the down relief line).[1] Platforms 1 and 2 are only used when engineering works cause stopping trains to use the fast tracks, and the platform edges are closed off by fences incorporating normally closed (but not locked) gates.

The main station building is to the east of the station, alongside platform 4 and on the opposite side of the station to the village centre. There is a large car park to the south of the station building. There are also two pedestrian entrances onto platform 1, one of which links directly to Goring village centre. Access between the platforms is via a footbridge, accessed by steps and lifts from all platforms.

History

The station was on the original line of the Great Western Railway, on the section between Reading and Steventon that opened on 1 June 1840. Originally named Goring, the station was located between Pangbourne and Moulsford stations. In 1892, Moulsford station was closed and replaced by the current Cholsey station. Goring station was renamed Goring & Streatley on 9 November 1895 to prevent confusion with Goring-By-Sea.[2][3][4]

Preparation for the electrification of the line between Paddington and Bristol/Oxford required raised clearances and hence the replacement of the old footbridge. Following a strong local campaign led by the mobility group MIGGS (Mobility Issues Group for Goring and Streatley), Network Rail included lifts in the new footbridge, which was opened in June 2016. These changes also resulted in the demolition of the former ladies waiting room and toilet block on the island platform. The ticket office, toilets and waiting rooms are only open when the station is staffed in the mornings (Mondays to Saturdays). There is a bus stop in the road immediately outside the ticket office, with local buses running to Cleeve, South & North Stoke and Wallingford (Mondays to Saturdays) operated by Going Forward Buses CIC.

Services

Goring & Streatley station is served by electric multiple unit stopping services run by GWR between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway. The typical off-peak service from the station is every 30 minutes in each direction with an hourly service on Sundays. There are also additional semi-fast services to and from Paddington during morning and evening peak hours on weekdays, and also some through diesel trains between Reading and Oxford.

Typical journey times are approximately 15 minutes to Didcot Parkway and Reading, 40 minutes to Oxford, and approximately 1 hour 15 minutes (50 minutes by semi-fast weekday peak services) to London Paddington.[5]

Gallery

• 
  Main entrance to Goring & Streatley station
• 
  The old footbridge and stairs on platform 4; bridge and stairs since demolished
• 
  The temporary footbridge used between demolition of old and build of new
• 
  A GWR service to London at platform 4
• 
  The little-used platform 1, showing fencing off of platforms 1 and 2

References

1. Yonge, John; Padgett, David (August 2010) [1989]. Bridge, Mike (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 3C. ISBN 978-0-9549866-6-7.
2. MacDermot, E.T. (1927). "Chapter IV Construction". History of the Great Western Railway. 1 (1st ed.). Paddington: Great Western Railway. p. 102.
3. Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (March 2002). "Figure 53". Reading to Didcot. Western Main Lines. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-901706-79-6.
4. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. pp. 165, 240. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
5. https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/timetables/2018/amended-june/t10,-d-,web-v2.pdf?la=en

Bibliography

• 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 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
• 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 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.