The University was initially hostile to the railways. Christ Church opposed a scheme to build the first station on their land near Magdalen Bridge, and the Duke of Wellington – Chancellor of the University – was an inveterate opponent. For a number of years, the nearest station was at Steventon, 10 miles south of the city. It was served by eight coaches daily, which took one and a half hours, and cost three shillings.

When the line eventually opened, on June 12th 1844, the station was at Grandpont, just south of Folly Bridge. The usual excuse for the late return of undergraduates at the beginning of term had always been the state of the roads. Now it became the state of the railways – a hazard whose existence some of the older dons refused to acknowledge.

The original Oxford-London line was built on a wide gauge, backed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. When the narrow gauge faction eventually won the argument, the line had to be taken up and relaid at its present width of 4'8.5".

In 1852, a new Great Western Railway station was built on the present site, opposite the London Midland Railway terminus of 1851. This LMR staion used the techniquie of prefabricated ironwork pioneered at the Great Exhibition of the same year, and was closed in 1951. Oxford's present station was built in 1972; plans to redevelop the site as a more fitting entrance to the city are to be welcomed.

Our map shows the railway network at its height. Until 1968 it was possible to take the Brain Train to Cambridge. The service to Woodstock stopped in 1954 – a man of 86 who had helped to build the line was a passenger on the last train.