Melksham | |
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Location | |
Place | Melksham |
Local authority | County of Wiltshire |
Coordinates | 51°22′47″N 2°08′41″W / 51.3798°N 2.1446°WCoordinates: 51°22′47″N 2°08′41″W / 51.3798°N 2.1446°W |
Grid reference | ST900645 |
Operations | |
Station code | MKM |
Managed by | Great Western Railway |
Number of platforms | 1 |
DfT category | F2 |
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries |
|
Annual rail passenger usage* | |
2011/12 | 11,330 |
2012/13 | 12,080 |
2013/14 | 23,930 |
2014/15 | 51,858 |
2015/16 | 60,676 |
History | |
Original company | Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway |
Pre-grouping | Great Western Railway |
Post-grouping | Great Western Railway |
05 September 1848 | Opened |
1966 | Closed |
1985 | Reopened |
National Rail – UK railway stations | |
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Melksham from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year. | |
Melksham railway station is a railway station opened in 1848, serving the town of Melksham in Wiltshire, England. It is on the branch line from Chippenham to Trowbridge that was originally part of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway, absorbed in 1850 by the Great Western Railway.
The station opened with the original section of the line between Thingley Junction and Westbury, on 5 September 1848.British Railways closed the station from 18 April 1966 but reopened it to passengers from May 13th 1985.
The station had a siding which gave access to the former Wiltshire United Dairies/United Dairies creamery, last owned by Co-operative Wholesale Society Dairies, allowing access for milk trains. After its closure the dairy was converted into an industrial estate. From the 1960s to the mid 1980s there was a rail-served Shell oil depot at Melksham run first by Jack Dean (oils) and later by Hartwells Oils. This received heating oil from a refinery at Llandarcy in west Wales but closed around 1983. During the 1970s, Foster Yeoman operated a roadstone terminal in the former goods yard which was rail-served from Merehead Quarry. The Wiltshire Farmers Ltd also had a private siding south of the station which was used until c.1989 for occasional deliveries of bagged fertiliser, but was removed in 1990.
As of June 2009[update], Melksham station was served by two trains each way per day (one train on Sundays) between Swindon and Westbury, operated by Great Western Railway, compared with five each way per day before the December 2006 timetable change.