Bath Spa station was built in 1840 for the Great Western Railway by Brunel and is a Grade II* listed building. It is in an asymmetrical Tudor style with curving gables on the north bank of the Avon where the line curves across from the southern bank to the station and then back again. Opened on 31 August 1840, the station was named Bath and was renamed Bath Spa in 1949 to distinguish it from station, which did not have its name altered from Bath until 1951. A convenient feature for passengers was ramps that led up to both platforms, giving the disabled and those with luggage easy access from the platforms to cars or taxis. In 2011 the northern ramp was removed in a redevelopment which provided lifts. A footbridge leads from the station across the Avon allowing direct access to the Widcombe area. It was originally tolled, and known locally as the Ha'penny Bridge; it was reconstructed in 1877. The station has wide spacing between the platforms because it was built with two broad gauge carriage sidings between the platform lines. The hammerbeam roof that covered the area between the platforms when the station was built was removed in 1897 when the station was remodelled with longer platforms. A three-track goods shed was built immediately west of the station, to the north of the main track. In 1877 a goods depot was built about 500 metres to the west at Westmoreland and the goods shed was demolished for the station remodelling in 1897.
Services
All Bath's rail services run through Bath Spa station; it is conveniently situated for transfer to bus services. The station has regular inter-city services to London Paddington via Swindon, Reading and and to Bristol Temple Meads. The station is served hourly by the Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour and and Bristol to and Weymouth regional trains. A limited service to London Waterloo via Salisbury and Basingstoke operated by South Western Railway, which operates three direct services per day Monday-Saturday and two on Sunday. An early morning Basingstoke to Bristol Temple Meads service calls at Bath Spa. A late-evening Bristol Temple Meads to Salisbury service is the last train of the day to Warminster railway station and Salisbury. Services are operated by British Rail Class 159 units, although British Rail Class 158 units have been used. Since the May 2010 timetable started, an early morning CrossCountry service to Glasgow Central via Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh starts at Bath. It departs at 06:09 on Mondays to Fridays, but does not run at weekends. It arrives in Glasgow at 14:12. There is no southbound return service. The steam-hauled Torbay Express calls at Bath on certain Sundays between July and September. It was first run in summer 2014 when engineering works between Bristol and Taunton closed the line and it was diverted via Bath and Westbury and proved so popular that since the 2015 season some of these services call at Bath each year.
Redevelopment
Since privatisation Great Western Railway has managed Bath Spa. In 2005 the company obtained listed building consent for alterations to the building, including the installation of lifts to the platforms. Ticket barriers have also been installed. Other developments started in 2011 to integrate the station with the new Bath bus station and SouthGateshopping centre, and redevelop some of the station car park and northern ramp into a restaurant complex at a cost of £12 million. There are plans to adapt some arches at the station to encourage retail use. Bath Spa won awards for Best Medium-Sized Station and Overall Best Station at the 2013 International Station Awards. The station was modified in April 2017 for the Great Western Main Line electrification project. Because of its listed status, the platform canopies could not be cut back to fit overhead electrification equipment on the alignment and so the platforms were widened so that future electrification masts could be installed between the tracks.. The work provided a larger circulation area and reduced the gap between train and platform.
