The station was open from 1881 to 1972, and was sited in the Old Town area about one-and-a-half miles from the Great Western Railway's Swindon Junction.

Rushey Platt became a junction the following year with the opening of the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway as far as Cirencester Watermoor.

Services between the two Swindon stations ceased in 1885 because of the high charges the GWR imposed on M&SWJR trains.

Goods facilities were withdrawn in 1966, although freight trains conveying materials for the construction of the M4 motorway continued until 1972 when the track was abandoned.

[3] The M&SWJR office building remains on the site, but much of the rest has disappeared under a trading estate.