Redditch railway station serves the town of

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

, North

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, England. It is the southern terminus of the

Cross-City Line The Cross-City Line is a commuter rail line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs for from Redditch and Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, its two southern termini, to Lichfield, Staffordshire, its northern terminus, via Birmingham New ...

south of . The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...

. Redditch station sits at the end of a single track branch line from which forms part of the Cross-City Line. The line used to continue south to

Ashchurch Ashchurch is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ashchurch Rural, in the Tewkesbury district, in the county of Gloucestershire, England, east of the town of Tewkesbury, southwest of Evesham, north of Cheltenham, north-n ...

and also Evesham but this was closed in the 1960s.

History

In July 1858 the Redditch Railway Act authorised a line to link Redditch with the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

's Birmingham and Gloucester line at . The Redditch Railway opened on 18 September 1859 but was operated from the start by the Midland Railway. Redditch railway station

In 1868 the Evesham and Redditch Railway built a line south from Redditch through to a junction at . There were intermediate stations between Redditch and Evesham at Studley and Astwood Bank, Coughton, , , (for the

Stratford-upon-Avon and Midland Junction Railway Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

), Salford Priors, and Harvington. British Railways (BR) closed the line south of Alcester on 29 September 1962 after suspending the passenger service between Redditch and Evesham due to poor track condition. Freight services continued between Redditch and Alcester until 1964 when BR closed the whole line south of Redditch. The remaining line from Redditch to Barnt Green was nearly closed under the Beeching Axe, which would have severed the town from the railway network entirely. But a strong campaign by local residents and local MPs managed to save it. However, by the late 1960s, services to Redditch had been cut to the bare minimum with just four daily trains to and from Birmingham. This persisted until 1980, when an hourly service was extended to Redditch on the newly upgraded

. This was upgraded to half-hourly in 1989. The station has been relocated three times, on 4 May 1868, 7 February 1972 and 5 October 1992. The movement of the station was to give way to redevelopment in the town centre and the building of a new bus station. The most recent rebuilding of the station in 1992 coincided with the electrification of the Cross-City Line. The first station was in Clive Road when the original Redditch Railway was opened in 1859. The station moved to the site that is now the bus station when the railway was extended to Evesham in 1868. Some of the former goods yard that was on Pound Meadow is now the car park to current station but most of the yard has been redeveloped into housing and a hotel. The single track from Barnt Green restricted the number of trains that could run to Redditch to two per hour. In November 2013 a scheme was approved to construct a new

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

at to allow the service to be increased to three trains per hour. The line between Barnt Green and Redditch was closed for eight weeks for the works to be carried out, and was reopened on 1 September 2014. The improved service began in December 2014.

Stationmasters

*Isaac Brooks until 1864 *Thomas Diggles 1864 - 1873 *W. Clifford 1873 - 1875 *John Daniel Sibley 1875 - 1879 (afterwards a coal merchant) *Zephaniah Ping 1879 - 1885 (afterwards station master at Wisbech) *G. Smith 1885 - 1888 (incapacitated due to blindness) *William Horton 1888 - 1892 *William Mann 1892 - ca. 1914 *J.W. Griffin from 1920 (formerly station master at Rowsley) *Charles Ratcliffe 1931 - 1940 (formerly station master at Loughborough) *G. Richards from 1942 *W.R. Richards *Charles Blakeman ca. 1954 ca. 1956 *W.L. Mann from 1960 (formerly station master at Bridgnorth)

Facilities

The station is staffed and has a booking office as well as a ticket machine. Step-free access is available for wheelchair users. There is also a shop available for passengers selling newspapers, food and drinks. Train running information is offered via digital CIS displays, automated announcements, timetable poster boards and a customer help point.

Services

From December 2014, during Monday to Saturday daytimes, trains run every 20 minutes from Redditch with one service an hour to , one continuing to and one to , all running via

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

. On Sundays a half hourly service runs through to Lichfield Trent Valley.GB National Rail Timetable May 2017 Edition, Table 69 (Network Rail) Services are operated by

Class 323 The British Rail Class 323 are electric multiple unit (EMU) passenger trains built by Hunslet Transportation Projects and Holec. All 43 units were built from 1992 through to 1995, although mock-ups and prototypes were built and tested in 1990 ...

electric multiple units.

References

External links