 The OW&W amalgamated with other railways on 1 July 1860 to form the West Midland Railway; this in turn amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 August 1863.In the meantime, a second branch line from Chipping Norton Junction, the Bourton-on-the-Water railway, had opened on 1 March 1862; that railway was absorbed by the GWR on 1 February 1874.On 1 June 1881 the first section of the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway was opened; this connected the branch to the Cheltenham & Great Western Union line at Lansdown Junction, Cheltenham; and on 6 April 1887 a second section was opened, connecting the Chipping Norton branch to the Oxford and Rugby Railway at .