Highbridge and Burnham railway station

Highbridge & Burnham
Location
Place	Highbridge
Local authority	Sedgemoor, Somerset
Coordinates	51°13′06″N 2°58′19″W / 51.2184°N 2.9719°WCoordinates: 51°13′06″N 2°58′19″W / 51.2184°N 2.9719°W
Grid reference	ST322470
Operations
Station code	HIG
Managed by	Great Western Railway
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2002/03	91,010
2004/05	0.107 million
2005/06	0.117 million
2006/07	0.120 million
2007/08	0.144 million
2008/09	0.145 million
2009/10	0.148 million
2010/11	0.157 million
2011/12	0.167 million
2012/13	0.160 million
2013/14	0.169 million
2014/15	0.190 million
History
Original company	Bristol and Exeter Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
1841	Main line opened
1854	Branch opened
1962	Renamed 'Highbridge & Burnham-on-Sea'
1966	Branch closed
1974	Renamed 'Highbridge'
1991	Renamed 'Higbridge & Burnham'
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Highbridge & Burnham from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Highbridge and Burnham railway station is situated on the Bristol to Taunton Line in the town of Highbridge in Somerset, England and also serves neighbouring Burnham-on-Sea. It is unstaffed but managed by Great Western Railway who operate all the regular services.

Until 1966 the station also had platforms on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway line which crossed the main line on the level at the north end of the station.

History

Somerset & Dorset platform in 1962

The station was opened as 'Highbridge' on 14 June 1841 when the Bristol and Exeter Railway opened its broad gauge line as far as Bridgwater. A road crossed the line at the north end of the platforms, and a goods shed was provided beyond this on the west side of the line. This company was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 January 1876.

On 28 August 1854 the Somerset Central Railway was opened from Highbridge to Glastonbury. This later became the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, but it was worked by the Bristol and Exeter company and was also broad gauge for the first few years and a connection was provided between the two railways in the goods yard. A separate set of platforms were provided on this line which eventually had two terminus platforms and two platforms on a through line that led on to an extension to Burnham-on-Sea. To reach this the line crossed the Bristol & Exeter main line on the level just north of the road bridge. The Somerset & Dorset goods traffic was mainly handled at Highbridge Wharf which was on the Burnham-on-Sea branch.

Highbridge was not only an important station on the Somerset & Dorset: it was also the site of the company's locomotive works, which closed in 1930, and a small engine shed that remained open until the line and station finally shut in 1966.

Following the nationalisation of the railways, the Somerset & Dorset line platforms were shown in timetables from 26 September 1949 as 'Highbridge East', and the Bristol & Exeter line platforms were known as 'Highbridge West' from 5 May 1950. Regular through trains to Burnham ceased on 29 October 1951, though the line remained open for occasional summer special trains until 8 September 1962. Following this closure the station became 'Highbridge and Burnham-on-Sea' on 30 June 1962.

The remaining Somerset & Dorset line passenger services to Evercreech Junction were withdrawn on 7 March 1966 which left just the main line platforms, as had been the case before 1854. Milk trains continued to run on the Somerset & Dorset line as far as Bason Bridge and a new connection from the southbound main line was installed 4 April 1971 but the trains were withdrawn and the line closed on 2 October 1972; goods traffic at Highbridge itself had ceased on 2 November 1964.

On 6 May 1974 the 'and Burnham-on-Sea' was dropped and the station reverted to its original name of 'Highbridge', but became 'Highbridge and Burnham' on 17 May 1991.

The 1950s concrete footbridge which had connected the Bristol to Exeter platforms with the Somerset and Dorset platforms was truncated when the S&D closed in 1966. It was replaced by a steel bridge in 2013 after being declared unsafe.^[1]

Description

Looking southwards

Highbridge railway station
Legend To Bristol Site of goods depot To Burnham-on-Sea Highbridge To Evercreech Junction To Taunton

The original buildings have all been demolished. No trace of the engine shed or works remains. A couple of old wagon wheels sit on a short length of track on a plinth as a reminder of Highbridge's railway past. The last remaining piece of historic infrastructure was the 1950s replacement footbridge, which had been truncated following the closure of the Somerset & Dorset platforms, giving it a splayed-out access route from the eastern platform No.1. It remained in place until 1 December 2013, when due to concrete cancer it was replaced by a new metal structure by Network Rail contractors.^[2]

The main entrance to the station is on the town (western) side of the line and this gives access to Bristol-bound platform. The Taunton-bound platform can be reached by the footbridge, or through the housing estate that occupies the site of the former Somerset & Dorset platforms. Both main line platforms extend south across the tidal River Brue and are sited slightly below sea level.^[3]

A loop on the west side of the line south of the station can be used by goods trains in either direction, southbound trains crossing over to run wrong line through the northbound platform to do so. This crossing also allows terminating passenger trains from the north to reverse here if required.

Services

A Class 158 calls at the southbound platform.

The station and all train services are operated by Great Western Railway. The basic weekday service pattern comprises one train in each direction each hour, most of which operate to and from Cardiff Central and Taunton, but with fewer services on Sundays.^[4]

Local transport

The main station is located to the eastern side of Highbridge town centre, a short .25 miles (0.40 km) flat walk past The Co-operative Food supermarket to the A38 road. A further 2 miles (3.2 km)^[5] walk or cycle westwards along the flat path way of the former S&D route takes the traveller into Burnham-on-Sea.

Notes

1. Johnston, Howard (25 December 2013). "Regional News". RAIL (Haymarket Media) (738): 24.
2. Highbridge's railway station footbridge is dismantled Burnham-on-Sea.com; Retrieved 9 October 2015
3. Body, p91
4. "Table 134: Gloucester - Taunton" (PDF). Electronic National Rail Timetable. Network Rail. Retrieved 2016-03-23.
5. http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/rail.shtml

References

• Body, G (1983). PSL Field Guides - Railways of the Western Region. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 0-85059-546-0.
• Cooke, RA (1979). Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR, Section 16: West Somerset. Harwell: RA Cooke.
• Daniels, Gerald David; Dench, Leslie Alan (May 1973) [1964]. Passengers No More (2nd ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 61. ISBN 0-7110-0438-2. OCLC 2554248. 1513 CEC 573.
• Oakley, Mike (2006). Somerset Railway Stations. Bristol: Redcliffe Press. ISBN 1-904537-54-5.

External links

• Station on navigable O.S. map