page_title: Wantage Road railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wantage Road railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Signals for Wantage Road loop
context_page_description: Wantage Road railway station was a railway station on the Great Western Main Line in the Vale of White Horse district in Oxfordshire. The station was actually at the village of Grove, Oxfordshire, more than two miles north of Wantage. The station closed in December 1964 as part of the Beeching cuts.
context_section_description: Wantage Road station was opened in 1846, six years after the section of the GWR main line that served it.
  In 1873 the independent Wantage Tramway was formed to link Wantage Road station with its terminus at Mill Street, Wantage; it was built parallel to what was then the Besselsleigh Turnpike (now the A338). This short line was opened for goods on 1 October 1875, and to passengers on 11 October. The tramway junction was to the east of Wantage Road station; interchange passengers walked under the bridge to reach the tramway yard, where the westernmost siding (parallel to the road) was reserved for passenger tramcars.
  The tramway closed to passengers on 1 August 1925, and to goods on 22 December 1945.
  On 7 December 1964 British Railways withdrew passenger services from Wantage Road and all other intermediate stations between Didcot and Swindon; the goods yard survived a little longer, closing on 29 March 1965.
  The station buildings have been demolished but the platforms survive.
  In June 2009 the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) produced a report called 'Connecting Communities' in which it was suggested that Wantage Road Station would be a viable station to re-open during any expansion of the rail network.  If a proposed service from Oxford to Westbury is given the green light, it is hoped that a new station entitled either Wantage & Grove or Wantage Parkway can be built as part of the introduction of this service.
caption: Signals for Wantage Road Loop on the Great Western Main Line.
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