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Swindon railway station is on the Great Western Main Line in South West England, serving the town of Swindon, Wiltshire. The station is down the line from the zero point at and lies between and . It is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates all of the services from the station. It is the busiest station in Wiltshire, and the third busiest station in South West England.
Being roughly halfway between the English and Welsh capitals of London and Cardiff, it is an important junction where the former Great Western Railway line to and , the main line to , and the South Wales Main Line via diverge.
The station is sited approximately from the central bus station and the town centre. It is served by GWR services from Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads; Cheltenham Spa via Gloucester; , and the rest of South Wales; and to .
Meanwhile, the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway had in 1836 been authorised to link the GWR with Gloucester and Cheltenham, and for this line, a junction at Swindon had been decided upon. The GWR line was planned by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to rise from both London and Bristol to a summit near Swindon, and to have easy gradients east of that summit, and steeper gradients to the west. Brunel, and his colleague Daniel Gooch, decided in October 1840 that one locomotive would not be able to manage the whole distance without taking on fuel; and it would be necessary to change locomotives part-way. Reading was chosen as one place to change engines, being both a major station and, at just under , approximately one-third of the distance from Paddington to Bristol. They also felt that it would be convenient to change locomotives at Swindon; not only was this almost two-thirds of the way (just over ) and the site of the junction for the Cheltenham line, it was also the summit of the line; and a train from London could have its fast locomotive replaced by a slower but more powerful locomotive for the journey on to Bristol. Accordingly, it was necessary to provide locomotive maintenance facilities at Swindon.
The proximity of the North Wilts Canal was also a factor, since it would enable coke for the locomotives and coal for the workshops to be supplied from the Somerset Coalfield at a reasonable price. A station was then planned around the junction, and opened at the same time as the first portion of the Cheltenham line (from Swindon to and Cirencester); the GWR main line was extended from Hay Lane to on the same day, 31 May 1841. The GWR had engaged the Westminster firm of Messrs. J. & C. Rigby to build several stations, including all those between and ; this firm was also given the construction contracts for all of the buildings at Swindon, including the station and its refreshment rooms, the locomotive repair shops, 300 houses and other buildings needed for the workers. The GWR was short of money, and in late 1841 the contractors, instead of asking for payment, agreed to give Swindon station and its refreshment rooms to the GWR free of charge, and to lease back the refreshment rooms for 99 years at old penny per year. Part of the deal was that In this "reasonable period", not only could the passengers be refreshed but the locomotive would also be changed. Messrs. Rigby would then be able to use the profits from the refreshment rooms to recover their financial outlay. Not long after the contract was finalised, Rigby then sublet the rights to S. Y. Griffiths of Cheltenham for seven years, for which Griffiths paid Rigby £6,000 up front and then £1,100 per year. Before this expired, Rigby sold the lease to J. R. Phillips for £20,000 in August 1848.
With the railway passing through the town in early 1841, the Goddard Arms public house in Old Swindon was used as a railway booking office in lieu of a station. Tickets purchased included the fare for a horse-drawn carriage to the line at the bottom of the hill.
Swindon railway station opened in 1842 with construction of the GWR's Swindon Works continuing. Until 1895, every train stopped here for at least 10 minutes to change locomotives. The station housed the first recorded railway refreshment rooms, divided according to class. , for a time, were eminently proud that even the current King and Queen of the time had partaken of refreshments there. The station was built of three , with the refreshment rooms on the ground floor, the upper floors comprising the station hotel and lounge. Until 1961, when Swindon Town station closed, the station was known as Swindon Junction.
The Travel Centre (booking office) at Swindon was APTIS-equipped by the end of October 1986, making it one of the first stations with the ticketing system which was eventually found across the UK at all staffed British Rail stations by the end of the 1980s.
In August 2014, Network Rail completed the redoubling of the track between Swindon and Kemble in order to improve services between London and Cheltenham/Gloucester, and to allow for maintenance work in the Severn Tunnel by diverting Swansea services via Gloucester. When originally laid in 1842 the line was double-track throughout, but some of the second track were removed in 1968/69.
An electrification programme for the Great Western Main Line was proposed in 2009 but encountered delays; services powered from 25kVAC overhead lines began to run through Swindon, towards Paddington and Bristol Parkway, at the end of 2018. The lines to Cheltenham/Gloucester and to Chippenham are not electrified.
The station is served by frequent intercity trains to London Paddington eastbound, and westbound to Bristol and Cardiff along the Great Western Main Line. There are services to Cheltenham via Gloucester on the Golden Valley line, and a local service to via the Wessex Main Line.
The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:
Additional services run during the peak periods and some existing services are extended further afield. Some trains are extended beyond Swansea to and a number of trains are extended beyond Bristol Temple Meads to , , , and .
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