Oxford & Rugby Railway

Oxford and Rugby Railway
Overview
Type	Rural
System	Great Western Railway
Status	Historical
Locale	South East England West Midlands
Termini	Oxford Rugby
Operation
Opened	2 September 1850 (Oxford to Banbury) 1 October 1852 (to Fenny Compton)
Owner	Great Western Railway
Operator(s)	Great Western Railway
Technical
Line length	50.5 miles (81.3 km)
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	Broad gauge and Mixed gauge

The Oxford and Rugby Railway was a railway between Oxford and Fenny Compton that was projected to reach Rugby but failed to do so.

On 4 August 1845 Parliament passed an Act for the Great Western Railway to build the Oxford and Rugby Railway from Oxford via Banbury, Fenny Compton, and Southam to Rugby. The proposed route was to be roughly parallel with the Oxford Canal and 50 miles (80 km) long. At Rugby it was intended to link with the Midland Counties Railway.

However, by 1849 GWR considered that gauge interchange issues at Rugby would create problems. On 2 September 1850 the 24 miles (39 km) single track broad gauge section opened from Oxford to Banbury. This section was improved to be a double track mixed-gauge track on 1 October 1852. Due to the gauge problems, the section between the junction with the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway at Fenny Compton (opened on 1 October 1852) and Rugby was abandoned and never completed. Evidence of where the line would have branched off can still be seen to this day on the east side of the present section between Banbury and Leamington Spa, roughly 2.5 miles north of Fenny Compton station site.

British Railways closed Fenny Compton station on 2 November 1964 in the Beeching cuts. Today the Cherwell Valley Line runs between Didcot Parkway and Banbury via Oxford.

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