Railways of Oxford

This is a history of the railways of Oxford, looking at the operations and development of services, from the opening of the Oxford Railway by the Great Western on 12 June 1844 through to the present day. This volume covers the development of the railway locally, including the London and North Western ‘Buckinghamshire Railway’ from Bletchley, together with the five local branch lines.

The opening of the Great Western / Great Central joint line from Culworth Junction to Banbury Junction in August 1900 resulted in the growth of inter regional 'cross country' services passing through Oxford.

The advent of the Second World War saw the construction of a new junction at Oxford North giving for the first time a direct link from the Great Western to the London Midland & Scottish Railway branch to Bletchley and beyond.

The opening of these two new junctions saw a considerable increase in both passenger and freight traffic which resulted in Oxford becoming a major railway center. For many years one of the highlights was the arrival and departure of locomotives on a daily basis from all of the big four railway companies. Those days are long gone, but today Oxford is as busy as ever, with passenger services to London operated by Great Western Railway and Chiltern Trains, and by Cross Country Trains the South and the North of England.