In January 1965, the last train stopped at Corsham station on its journey from Swindon to Bristol: residents have been campaigning to get it re-opened ever since.

Chief among the campaigners has been the town’s Civic Society. Its present chairman Anne Lock joined the battle in1986.

She said when co-ordinating the original Corsham Travel Survey, many residents and families spoke of their shock at the station’s closure and adjustments they had to make, like taking driving lessons and buying a car.

She added: “Former town councillor Peter Davis recalled that earlier in the19 60s, passengers from Corsham had been petitioning for the provision of an extra carriage as the trains were so crowded.

“And Ian Nalder, secretary of the Rail Users Consultative Committee, informed me that Corsham was the one station for which that passenger body insisted on an inquiry into the closure, as it was seen to be so destructive to the lives of those in the town.” The Beeching axe which closed Corsham also fell on Hullavington, Wootton Bassett, the branch railway line between Calne and Chippenham and Wilton North station for goods traffic in 1965.

Over the last half century a succession of local MPs, including Chippenham’s current Liberal Democrat MP Duncan Hames, have pledged their support for the campaign.

Mr Hames has said he would be making the case to Ministers in Parliament to to re-open a platform in Corsham, so the Bristol to Oxford service could call there, as well as Chippenham.

In October campaigners also met officials at the Department for Transport in a meeting arranged by Devizes’ Conservative MP Claire Perry, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport.