When meadows and the recently disused racecourse at Grimsbury were sold to the Great Western Railway (GWR) in about 1850, the owner also sold the other part of his land, north of the Middleton road to the Banbury Freehold Land Society; this was financially backed by Cobb's Bank, on which to build middle-class houses, but development was slow at the time and some plots were never built upon.

The inclusion of terminating bays and goods loops reflected Banbury's increasing strategic position in the national network.

Banbury Bridge Street station occupied one of the most strategic and important locations in the entire rail network in Britain.

For example: Most cross-country services in Britain passed through Banbury, which helped the growth of the town and its cattle market.

[citation needed] The current station is on the site of the Great Western Railway line that opened to Banbury in 1850.

[15] Two new lower-quadrant semaphore signals were installed in late 2010, to allow passenger trains in platforms 1 and 2 to depart in the up direction.

[22][23] Over 100,000 tons of earth and rock subsided on the western side of the line during ongoing work to stabilise the cutting, which had been a known problem area for some years (and had suffered a similar but smaller collapse in February 2014).

Remedial work was carried out to remove more than 350,000 tons of material, reprofile the cutting walls and improve drainage.

Network Rail reopened the line on 13 March 2015, three weeks earlier than originally estimated.

Tours of the North box were run between 10 August and 2 October with commemorative tickets issued.