Place Ledbury Station code LED DfT category E Number of platforms 2 | Grid reference SO709386 Managed by London Midland 2011/12 0.194 million | |
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Address The Homend, Ledbury HR8 1BT, UK Similar Herefordshire Beacon, Great Malvern railway st, Colwall railway station, Worcestershire Beacon, Malvern Link railway st | ||
Ledbury railway station august 2010
Ledbury railway station is a railway station on the outskirts of the town of Ledbury on the Worcester to Hereford line in the English Midlands. It has regular services to Birmingham plus several direct trains a day to London Paddington.
Contents
History
The line was originally built by the West Midland Railway who opened Ledbury station on 15 September 1861. A branch line from Ledbury to Gloucester, via Dymock and Newent opened in July 1885 for which a new signal box was opened at Ledbury replacing one or perhaps two earlier signal boxes and controlling a small engine shed on the north side of the station and a goods yard on the south.
The Newent branch was closed in 1959, and the goods yard and engine shed closed in 1965, leaving just the station itself. The modern station comprises two platforms with waiting shelters and car parking facilities, the station is unusual in having a privately run ticket office located in a wooden chalet by the entrance.
Today
The station is the only section of double track, where trains travelling in opposite directions can pass each other, between Shelwick Junction, near Hereford and the East portal of Colwall New Tunnel beneath the Malvern Hills at the former Malvern Wells station and near to Great Malvern.
The single-track Ledbury Tunnel, immediately to the east of the station, was notorious among steam locomotive crews for its bad atmosphere, the result of its unusually narrow bore combined with a steep gradient and a bend at the north end.
The station was featured in episode six of the second series of Great British Railway Journeys broadcast on 10 January 2011, in which Michael Portillo travels from Ledbury to Shrewsbury.
Services
Ledbury has a passenger service every day except Christmas Day & Boxing day (25 & 26 December), Monday to Saturday this service comprises typically one train per hour in each direction between Birmingham New Street and Hereford, with extra trains in the morning and evening peaks on weekdays. Some early morning and late evening trains start/terminate at Worcester Shrub Hill instead of Birmingham New Street. This service is reduced to a 2-hourly service on Sundays. These trains are operated by London Midland.
There are also five trains each way, each weekday between Hereford and London Paddington that call at Ledbury. This is reduced to four trains each way on Saturdays and five northbound and four southbound trains per day on Sunday afternoons. All trains to London are operated by First Great Western.