Atherstone railway station

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Atherstone
National Rail
Atherstone Station, Chris Allen, 6023712.jpg
Standing on the northbound platform looking south, towards London in 2018.
LocationAtherstone, Borough of North Warwickshire
England
Coordinates52°34′44″N 1°33′11″W / 52.579°N 1.553°W / 52.579; -1.553Coordinates: 52°34′44″N 1°33′11″W / 52.579°N 1.553°W / 52.579; -1.553
Grid referenceSP304979
Managed byLondon Northwestern Railway
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeATH
ClassificationDfT category F2
Passengers
2016/17Increase 143,476
2017/18Increase 148,934
2018/19Increase 171,606
2019/20Decrease 151,174
2020/21Decrease 29,300
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Atherstone is a railway station serving the town of Atherstone in Warwickshire, England. It is on the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line, exactly 102 miles (164 km) from London Euston station, as a placard on an adjacent building states. The station is conveniently near the A5 road.

History[]

Preserved 1847 station building, no longer in railway use as it is now in private ownership

The station was designed by John William Livock and opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1847.[1] It was absorbed by the London Midland and Scottish Railway in the Grouping of 1923. The station passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. When British Rail introduced sectorisation in the 1980s, the station was served by the Regional Railways Sector until the Privatisation of British Railways.

In 1860 there was a train crash at Atherstone that killed 10 people.

The Tudor style station building has been grade II listed since 1980.[2] All of the stations on the Trent Valley Line originally had similar station buildings in the same style, designed by John William Livock, however the one at Atherstone is the only remaining example on the line, of an original Livock designed building on a station which is still open, as all the others have since been demolished and replaced. Other examples still exist at the closed Bulkington and Colwich stations. The station building was restored in 1985.[3] It has not been used for railway purposes since 1972, when the station became unstaffed, and is now in private ownership.[4] It is currently used by a veterinary practice.[5]

Services[]

London Midland Class 350 at Atherstone with the 12:28 to London Euston.

West Midlands Trains operating under the London Northwestern Railway branding, provide an hourly service in each direction (including Sundays); southbound to London Euston via Nuneaton, Rugby and Milton Keynes Central, and northbound to Crewe via Stafford avoiding Stoke-on-Trent.

The hourly service was introduced by the previous operating company London Midland in December 2008.[6] The current hourly service is the best service Atherstone has ever received; historically the station received only an infrequent local stopping service, few of which went further north than Stafford or further south than either Rugby or Coventry; for example the May 2000 timetable shows just five daily services between Stafford and Coventry calling at the station.[4] Passenger use at the station has grown rapidly since the introduction of the new service.

From May 2014 Atherstone was part of the previous operator London Midland's "Project 110" scheme which saw the speed of the Class 350 trains on the Euston-Crewe service increase from 100 to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), and take the express train route via Weedon rather than travel via the Northampton loop line. As a result, Atherstone lost its direct link with Northampton but the journey time to/from London was cut by 30 minutes, with most trains now timetabled to take 82 minutes to reach the capital. However, a few trains do go via Northampton Monday - Sunday.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ "Atherstone station". Warwickshire Railways. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  2. ^ Historic England. "Former Railway Station Building at Atherstone Station (Grade II) (1034738)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  3. ^ "The Nuneaton and North Warwickshire Local and Family History Web Site". Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  4. ^ a b Mitchall, Vic &, Smith, Keith (2011). Rugby to Stafford: The Trent Valley Line. Middleton Press. ISBN 978-1-908174-07-9.
  5. ^ "Riversmeet Veterinary Centre". riversmeet.co.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  6. ^ "North Warwickshire INFRASTRUCTURE DELIVERY PLAN" (PDF). North Warwickshire Borough Council. October 2017. p. 11. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  7. ^ "London Midland reveals details of its "Project 110"". Rail.co.uk. 8 March 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
  • Station on navigable O.S. map

External links[]

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Nuneaton   London Northwestern Railway
London-Crewe 		  Tamworth
Nuneaton   London Northwestern Railway
Northampton-Crewe 		  Tamworth
    Polesworth
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