Editing Wallingford, Oxfordshire (section)

==Transport==
===River===
The [[River Thames]] has been a transport route for centuries, and Wallingford's growth as a town relied partly on it. Coal was supplied from [[North East England]] by [[Coastal trading vessel|coaster]] to [[London]] and then by [[barge]] upriver to Wallingford. This supply could be unreliable in seasons when river currents were too strong or water levels were too low. In 1789 the [[Oxford Canal]] reached [[Oxford]] from [[Warwickshire]], and the Duke's Cut at [[Wolvercote]] gave it a connection to the Thames.<ref>Compton, 1976, page 52</ref> This allowed coal from the [[English Midlands|Midlands]] to reach Wallingford by a shorter and more reliable route than by sea and river from the northeast. In 1799 the Oxford Canal consolidated its commercial position by buying an 80-year lease on a wharf on the Thames just above [[Wallingford Bridge]].<ref>Compton, 1976, pp. 65–66</ref>

[[Chalmore Lock]], a summer or low-water [[lock (water navigation)|lock]] and [[weir]], was built at Chalmore Hole, Wallingford in 1838, However, much of the time the fall was only 18&nbsp;inches, and the lock was open at both ends. It fell into disrepair, and the lock was removed in 1883. The missing lock is the subject of confusion in [[Jerome K. Jerome]]'s  "[[Three Men in a Boat]]".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jerome |first1=Jerome K |title=Three men in a boat |date=1889 |publisher=Folio Society |location=London |pages=92–94 |edition=1964}}</ref> A ferry had operated at the site from 1787 to transport horses across the river where the towpath changed banks. As the removal of the lock and weir meant that this was the longest clear stretch of the upper river, it was an ideal site for rowing, so the [[Oxford University Boat Club]] which had long trained here built a boathouse at Chalmore in 2006. In addition to the old [[Wallingford Bridge]], a new bridge was built at [[Winterbrook Bridge|Winterbrook]] in 1993 to carry the [[A4130 road|A4130 bypass]] around Wallingford.

===Rail===
The closest regular railway station to Wallingford is [[Cholsey railway station|Cholsey]], about three miles away. The [[Cholsey and Wallingford Railway]] is a [[heritage railway]] which runs along the old branch line between Cholsey and Wallingford.

The main line of the [[Great Western Railway]] passes to the south of Wallingford. A station called [[Moulsford railway station|Wallingford Road]] opened with the line in 1840, but it was some {{convert|3|miles|km}} away from the town itself, in open countryside between the villages of [[Cholsey]] and [[Moulsford]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=MacDermot |first1=E. T. |title=History of the Great Western Railway: Volume 1 |date=1927 |publisher=Great Western Railway |page=102}}</ref>

On 2 July 1866 the [[Wallingford railway branch line|Wallingford and Watlington Railway]] (W&WR) was opened between Wallingford Road station (which was renamed Moulsford station at the same time) and a new [[Wallingford railway station (England)|Wallingford station]], on the western side of the town. The plan had been to continue the branch line to [[Watlington, Oxfordshire|Watlington]], but in May 1866, the [[Overend, Gurney & Co]] bank had crashed, causing one of the severest financial crises of the 19th century. The [[bank rate]] was raised to ten percent, which made it impossible for the W&WR to raise the capital for its planned continuation. The company sold the line to the [[Great Western Railway]] in 1872, and it became known as the ''Wallingford Bunk''. The junction station for the branch line was moved from Moulsford to a new station at Cholsey in 1892. [[British Rail]]ways closed the branch line to passengers in 1959 and to goods traffic in 1965, but the track between Hithercroft Road and Cholsey continued in use to serve the now demolished [[malting]]s until 1981 when BR removed the junction at Cholsey. The branch line was then preserved as the [[Cholsey and Wallingford Railway]], which opened a new Wallingford station in 1985 for its tourist services, a short distance south of the original Wallingford station, which had been redeveloped.<ref name="cwrhis">{{cite web | url = http://www.cholsey-wallingford-railway.com/ | title = History | publisher = Cholsey and Wallingford Railway | access-date =8 April 2007 }}</ref>

===Bus===
All bus services for the town are operated by ''[[Thames Travel]].'' The 33 operates every hour from [[Henley-on-Thames]] to [[Abingdon, Oxfordshire|Abingdon]] via [[Nuffield, Oxfordshire|Nuffield]], [[Nettlebed]], Wallingford, [[Didcot]], [[Sutton Courtenay]] and [[Culham]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://passenger-line-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/oxfordbus/THTR/33-timetable-20240901-57adfd24.pdf|title=33 |publisher=Thames Travel |date=1 September 2024 |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref> The X40 operates every 30 minutes between [[Oxford]] and [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]] via Wallingford and [[Woodcote]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://passenger-line-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/oxfordbus/THTR/X40-timetable-20240414-44ad4fa7.pdf|title=X40 |publisher=Thames Travel |date=14 April 2024 |access-date=3 September 2024}}</ref>