A number of schemes were put forward, including a possible branch from the London and Birmingham Railway at Tring.

[a] Nonetheless a railway to Witney itself was desirable, and after some false starts a public meeting was held on 23 December 1858 to propose a branch line from the OW&WR at Yarnton, where there was to be a new junction station.

Sir Charles Fox was appointed Engineer and in the 1859 session a bill was presented to Parliament to authorise the railway.

By the time of opening, the OW&WR had merged with another company and formed the West Midland Railway.

Tyler commented that This form of rail is not well adapted for obtaining a maximum of strength from the iron employed, but the roadway will I conceive be a safe one for the light traffic There is one disadvantage attending it, that it is not available for the application of points and crossings, and where these are employed, other forms of rails have to be intermingled with it.The line was ceremonially opened amid considerable festivity on 13 November 1861, and the public passenger service started the next day, 14 November 1861.

[2] The East Gloucestershire Railway was originally conceived as a through line from Faringdon to Cheltenham, with a branch to Witney.

The GWR appealed against the arrangement, and the powers were reduced to building a 14 miles (23 km) line from Witney to Fairford, with share capital of £300,000.

Limited to a local service only, and being worked by and dependent on the GWR, the question of its absorption by the larger company arose.

[8] The section between Yarnton and Witney only remained open to goods traffic until 2 November 1970, when BR closed it completely.

'[11] In January 2019, the Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying this line was listed as Priority 2 for reopening.