Disused Cirencester Town railway station – lovely Victorian Gothic in a car park

[editor]

I've been wanting to visit this old station for ages and finally got around to it a few weeks ago. It seems crazy that a market town as important as Cirencester has no stations at all - and with this station being located in the centre of town it seems even madder to have ripped up the tracks in 1964.

Feature: http://www.urban75.org/blog/cirence...station-victorian-gothic-stuck-in-a-car-park/

 

[editor]

There's optimistic plans to reopen the line to Cirencester. I hope they're successful.

EARLY plans to bring a new railway line into Cirencester are steaming ahead after a meeting with top government officials.

The capital of the Cotswolds was buzzing with excitement last week after the Standard broke the news that new track could be laid along the line to Kemble, opening Cirencester to the national rail network for the first time since 1964.

Mayor Mark Harris and Richard and Jane Gunner, of Whiteway Farm, are forging forward with the proposal which would see an ultra-modern, eco-friendly train running the 5km from station to station.


Mayor Harris, who was elected for a second term last week, said he had been “inundated with messages of support for the vision”.

“Everyone is incredibly excited about the prospect of reopening the Kemble to Cirencester railway line,” he said.
Cirencester railway plans steaming ahead after Government meeting

 

[editor]

T'was a lovely branch

Kemble to Cirencester Branch line last day of service 5th April 1964 - Railway-Photography

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The Cotswolds are really inaccessible without a car, anything to change that would be welcome

 

[JimW]

I must have walked past this sometime but I can't say as I remember. Will seek it out next time I'm in Ciren.

 

[Crispy]

This would be a possible application of the Very Light Rail technology under development at Warwick University.

It would be strictly limited to a shuttle service between Cirencester and the Gloucester-Swindon line at Kemble

 

[editor]

This would be a possible application of the Very Light Rail technology under development at Warwick University.

It would be strictly limited to a shuttle service between Cirencester and the Gloucester-Swindon line at Kemble

That would be more than enough - right at the end they ran a similar kind of thing with a tiny diesel railbus operating a shuttle service.

Here's more about the plan. It seems feasible, if the funds can be found:

How it can be done

 

[Crispy]

Hmm. Terminating the line on the edge of town, 1.2 miles from the centre, means most people will have to drive or bus to it. Once you're in your car or bus, why not take it all the way?

I'm all in favour of reopening branches and I realise that the full extent is hard to achieve on a small budget, but this scheme seems too low-fat to be worthwhile to me. I think a tram with some street running - at least as far as the supermarket/leisure centre - would be neccesary to make this a truly useful route.

 

[kebabking]

Hmm. Terminating the line on the edge of town, 1.2 miles from the centre, means most people will have to drive or bus to it. Once you're in your car or bus, why not take it all the way?

I'm all in favour of reopening branches and I realise that the full extent is hard to achieve on a small budget, but this scheme seems too low-fat to be worthwhile to me. I think a tram with some street running - at least as far as the supermarket/leisure centre - would be neccesary to make this a truly useful route.

yeah, i can't really see anyone stumping up the money to relay lines and all the rest for what would be a very sub-optimal result - if we were talking about direct trains from Swindon, or even London, right into the town centre, and up to Gloucester and Cheltenham then it might be a runner - but it would be vastly cheaper, and vastly quicker, to just run a shuttle bus service into Ciren.

the clincher would be if you could connect the Swindon-Gloucester line to the Bristol-Birmingham line somewhere near Cam/Dursley - get that trick sorted and you'd have funding coming out of your arse...

 

[editor]

They're still trying to get the line reopened

Clearly we can't put back the line along the old route to end near Tetbury Road - the dual carriageway has occupied that route. We need to bring the line as near to the town centre as possible - an easy walk from the Market Place.

So we're going to follow the old route some of the way, but branch off to pass the entrance of the RAU, the run alongside Tetbury Road down the hill, to halt opposite the Station Car Park - very near to where the station used to be!

Plans for Cirencester to Kemble railway are a step closer

The team behind Cirencester Community Railway want to reopen the line closed by Dr Beeching in the 1960s

www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk

 

[editor]

Looks like there's a chance the line may actually reopen in some form

Ambitious plans to re-open a railway line in Gloucestershire are moving forward, and the team behind the proposals say the multi-million pound project will go ahead.

The Cirencester Community Railway Project has been set up in a bid to restore the railway line between Kemble and Cirencester - closed by Dr Beeching in the 1960s.

The market town’s railway station was replaced with a car park and what is now Waitrose.

But the group intend to re-open it with what is known as Very Light Railway on a single 8km track between the two towns.

New railway line for county 'will go ahead'

Cirencester Community Railway want to restore a track from the Cotswolds town to Kemble, restoring a line cut in the Beeching Report

www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk

More detail: RailScheme | cirentrain.org.uk

 

[marty21]

It's a lovely town , have been there several times , crazy it doesn't have a rail service.

 

[Dogsauce]

It's a lovely town , have been there several times , crazy it doesn't have a rail service.

It has a mainline station less than four miles away, 20 mins on a bike or a quick drive. That’s probably good enough for a lot of people, though won’t bring people into the town.

I do wish they had the balls/cash to reverse some of the road schemes or development that has blocked some of these old lines, getting right into the centre is important. See also Portishead with it‘s proposed new station 700m from the centre of town, because NR won’t let them have a new level crossing after a road was built on across the formation.

 

[editor]

It has a mainline station less than four miles away, 20 mins on a bike or a quick drive. That’s probably good enough for a lot of people, though won’t bring people into the town.

I do wish they had the balls/cash to reverse some of the road schemes or development that has blocked some of these old lines, getting right into the centre is important. See also Portishead with it‘s proposed new station 700m from the centre of town, because NR won’t let them have a new level crossing after a road was built on across the formation.

But that's the whole point of putting it back: 'short drives' are the things that should be actively discouraged and alternatives offered.