Didcot Parkway is a railway station serving the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire, England. The station was opened as Didcot on 12 June 1844 and renamed Didcot Parkway on 29 July 1985 by British Rail to reflect its role as a park and ride railhead. It is down the line from and is situated between to the east and to the west.
The station is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway from to Didcot and , and by main line services from Paddington to the south-west of England and south Wales.
Just to the north of the station is the Didcot Railway Centre, which is accessed through the station. The centre is a comprehensive exhibition of original Great Western Railway rolling stock, with demonstration running tracks and including a reconstructed station named Didcot Halt.
History
The railway has run through Didcot since 1 June 1840, when the Great Western Railway extended its main line from Reading to . During this period a stagecoach transported passengers to Oxford from Steventon. A few weeks later the line was extended to Faringdon Road station near West Challow, and eventually to Bristol. On 12 June 1844 the line from Didcot to Oxford was opened and Didcot station was opened at the junction. The original intended route would have taken a line from Steventon to Oxford via Abingdon, but Abingdon's townspeople objected to this idea. Otherwise, it is unlikely that Didcot would have evolved into the town it is today, as its initial growth was prompted by the coming of the railway.
The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DN&S) linked Didcot with , carrying services to Southampton via Newbury, , and . In its latter years it was reduced to a rural backwater before its closure just before the Beeching cuts. The DN&S was closed to passengers on 10 September 1962 and to freight in 1967. At the eastern end of Platform 1, there is a raised section of the east car park, which used to be the bay platform for the DN&S line.
On 7 December 1964, local passenger services between Didcot and were withdrawn and the stations at Steventon, , , , and were closed.
In 1985, a new main building for the station was built along with a new 600-space car park on the site of the former provender store to the west of the station for Park and Ride use. These were opened on 29 July 1985 by David Mitchell MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, and on that date the station was renamed Didcot Parkway.
In 2018, a multi-storey car park was opened, costing £20 million and increasing the number of spaces by 65% to 1800. The car park also has a sheltered footbridge.
In 2021, a new cycle storage hub was constructed, providing 600 covered spaces, LED lighting, CCTV cameras and a bike repair station. The project cost £1m, and was completed by a partnership of GWR, DfT and Network Rail.
Stationmasters
John Peach 1860 - 1865 (formerly station master at Hungerford, afterwards station master at Reading) George Bland 1868 - 1872 Henry Maggs 1872 - 1878 (formerly station master at Dorchester West, afterwards station master at Newton Abbot) Henry Larkcom/Larkam 1878 - 1881 (formerly station master at Lydney, afterwards station master at Reading) Charles William Noble 1881 - 1882 (formerly station master at Stourbridge, afterwards station master at Birmingham) H.C. Evans ca. 1885 - 1908 J. Short 1908 - 1912 (afterwards station master at Banbury) Thomas Frederick Edwin Jakeman 1916 - 1917 (afterwards station master at Dorchester West) Arthur Meddows Taylor ca 1928 - 1930 (formerly station master at Stroud, afterwards station master at Swindon) T.G. Curnow 1930 - ca. 1941 William Ferguson Brown 1950 - 1956 (afterwards station master at Reading) R. Hyatt ca. 1960
Layout
Platforms
The station is located just to the north of the town centre in Didcot. It can only be accessed by car from Station Road itself on the south side of the railway, although passengers may park in Foxhall Road Long Stay Car Park, situated on Basil Hill Road, and cross a footbridge to the station. The station entrance is at road level; platforms 2-5 may be accessed by lifts, while platform 1 may be accessed from the ramp to the left of the station building near the taxi rank. All services are operated by Great Western Railway. Platform 1 – Down (westbound) express services to , , and , limited services to Weston-super-Mare, and Carmarthen. Platform 2 – Up (eastbound) express services to London Paddington. Platform 3 – Down (northbound) local services to Oxford, and Banbury. Platform 4 – Up local services to Reading and London Paddington, Platform 5 – Down (northbound) local services to Oxford, Banbury and Moreton-in-Marsh.