Station code ATH DfT category F2 Number of platforms 2 | Grid reference SP304979 2011/12 77,558 | |
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Similar Polesworth railway station, Hinckley railway station, Nuneaton railway station, Hartshill Hayes Country P, Tamworth railway station | ||
Atherstone railway station 26 10 2015
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.
Contents
Atherstone railway station 14 3 2016
History
The station was designed by John William Livock and opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1847. 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 station building has been Grade II listed since 1980. In the early 1980s there was a proposal to demolish it, but a local group The Railway and Steam Traction Society successfully opposed it. Eventually the building was fully restored by 1985, with Donald Willets using it as offices.
Services
London Midland 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 and Stoke-on-Trent.
This is a substantial increase in service from the 1980s and 1990s when just half a dozen local trains a day served the station, none of which went further north than Stafford or further south than Rugby. Passenger use at the station has grown rapidly since the introduction of the new service.
From December 2012 Atherstone was part of London Midland's "Project 110" scheme which saw the Euston-Crewe service 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 - Saturday and all go via Northampton on Sundays.