Bruton railway station serves a largely rural area of the county of Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

 in England. The station is situated in the small town of Bruton

Bruton

Bruton is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the River Brue seven miles south-east of Shepton Mallet, just south of Snakelake Hill and Coombe Hill, ten miles north-west of Gillingham and twelve miles south-west of Frome in the South Somerset district. The town has a...

.

The station is on the Bristol to Weymouth line

Heart of Wessex Line

The Heart of Wessex Line, also known as the Bristol to Weymouth line, is a United Kingdom railway line that runs from Bristol to Westbury to Weymouth...

 some 32.75 miles (53 km) south of Bath Spa

Bath Spa railway station

Bath Spa railway station is the principal railway station in the city of Bath, in South West England.-Architecture:Bath Spa station was built in 1840 for the Great Western Railway by Brunel and is a grade II* listed building...

. Trains on the Reading to Taunton line

Reading to Taunton line

The Reading to Taunton line also known as the Berks and Hants is a major branch of the Great Western Main Line that diverges at Reading, running to Cogload Junction near Taunton, where it joins the Bristol to Exeter line....

 pass through the station but do not normally stop. Both services and the station is operated by First Great Western

First Great Western

First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....

.

History

The station was opened by the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 on 1 September 1856 on its Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth

Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway

The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway was a broad gauge railway that linked the Great Western Railway at Chippenham in 'Wilts' with Weymouth in Dorset, England. Branches ran to Devizes, Bradford-on-Avon and Salisbury in Wiltshire, and to Radstock in Somerset. The majority of the line survives...

 main line. At that time this was just a single track but a loop was provided at Bruton to allow trains to pass. Stone buildings were erected on both platforms, and a footbridge linked the platforms from 1895. A signal box

Signal box

On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...

 was provided from 1877 at the west end of the station.

The goods yard, which was on the north side of the line opposite the signal box, was closed on 5 April 1965 and the station was downgraded to an unstaffed halt from 6 October 1969.

Description

The station has two platforms with a modern glass-and-metal waiting shelter on each. A footbridge enables passengers to cross the line. There is no wheelchair access to the far platform (for trains arriving from Bristol and going to Weymouth).

The cutting

Bruton Railway Cutting

Bruton Railway Cutting is a 1.7 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Bruton in Somerset, notified in 1971.The geology exposed in the area near Bruton station is from the Bathonian epoch of the Middle Jurassic...

 in which the railway is built is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 as one of the best places in England to demonstrate the stratigraphic distinction of ammonite

Ammonite

Ammonite, as a zoological or paleontological term, refers to any member of the Ammonoidea an extinct subclass within the Molluscan class Cephalopoda which are more closely related to living coleoids Ammonite, as a zoological or paleontological term, refers to any member of the Ammonoidea an extinct...

s in the subcontractus zone and the morrisi zone.

Services

There is generally a two-hourly service (eight per day in total) northbound to , Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads & and southbound to Weymouth

Weymouth railway station

Weymouth railway station is a railway station serving the town of Weymouth, Dorset, England. The station is the terminus of both the South Western Main Line from London Waterloo and the Heart of Wessex Line from and .-History:...

. On Sundays there are three trains in each direction throughout the year, increasing to five during the summer.