Bourne End railway station

Bourne End railway station serves Bourne End in Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the Marlow Branch Line between Maidenhead and Marlow, 4 miles 36 chains (7.2 km) down the line from Maidenhead and 28 miles 55 chains (46.2 km) measured from London Paddington.

Bourne End
National Rail
Great Western Railway Class 165 121 DMU arrives from Maidenhead. The driver will now change ends to continue to Marlow.
General information
LocationBourne End, Buckinghamshire
England
Grid referenceSU894872
Managed byGreat Western Railway
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeBNE
ClassificationDfT category E
History
Original companyWycombe Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Western Railway
Post-groupingGWR
Key dates
1 August 1854Opened as Marlow Road
1873Marlow branch opened
1874Renamed Bourne End
May 1970line to High Wycombe closed
Passengers
2018/19Increase 0.266 million
 Interchange Increase 104,376
2019/20Decrease 0.261 million
 Interchange Increase 111,635
2020/21Decrease 61,366
 Interchange Decrease 22,960
2021/22Increase 0.167 million
 Interchange Increase 65,042
2022/23Increase 0.194 million
 Interchange Increase 84,287
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

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

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View SW, towards Marlow and Maidenhead in 1959

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 Company line between Maidenhead Boyne Hill station and High Wycombe. To reach Bourne End, a wooden viaduct was built across Cockmarsh and a wooden bridge was built across the River Thames.

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 station also had a number of sidings, a goods shed, a railway hotel and a level crossing across Station Road. The goods shed was on the site where the Bourne End Auction Rooms now stand next to the station.[1]

The service on the branch line is known locally as the "Marlow Donkey", which is commemorated by a local pub of the same name, although the origin of the term is unclear.[2] 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 was positioned here by the Western Region in 1960.[3]

Partial closure

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British Rail closed the line between Bourne End and High Wycombe in May 1970, but trains still run between Maidenhead and Marlow.

 
First Great Western Link 165 at Bourne End Station.

Future

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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.[4]

Services

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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.[5]

 
Shows the Current layout of Bourne End station on the Marlow Branch Line. Platform length data is from Network Rail's sectional appendix which is publicly available.

[6][7][8]

References

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  1. ^ "Bourne End station" (PDF).
  2. ^ "The Story of the Marlow Donkey". (from Summer 2003 Newsletter). The Marlow Society. 22 April 2003. Archived from the original on 22 June 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
  3. ^ McRae, Andrew (1998). British Railways Camping Coach Holidays: A Tour of Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. Vol. Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part Two). Foxline. p. 95. ISBN 1-870119-53-3.
  4. ^ "Councillor forced to justify spending £100k on railway line study". 6 April 2017.
  5. ^ Table 120 National Rail timetable, May 2016
  6. ^ "Freedom of information (FOI)".
  7. ^ "National Electronic Sectional Appendix".
  8. ^ https://sacuksprodnrdigital0001.blob.core.windows.net/sectional-appendix/Sectional%20Appendix%20full%20PDFs%20June%2024/Western%20&%20Wales%20Sectional%20Appendix%20June%202024.pdf [bare URL PDF]
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Preceding station   National Rail Following station
Marlow   Great Western Railway
Marlow Branch Line
  train reverses
Cookham    
Disused railways
Wooburn Green   Wycombe Railway
Until 1970
  Cookham

51°34′37″N 0°42′36″W / 51.577°N 0.710°W / 51.577; -0.710