South Wigston railway station

This article is about the current railway station. For former Midland Counties Railway station, see Wigston South railway station.

South Wigston
South Wigston railway station in 2006.
Location
Place	South Wigston
Local authority	Oadby and Wigston
Coordinates	52.5824°N 1.1339°W / 52.5824; -1.1339
Operations
Station code	SWS
Managed by	East Midlands Trains (Only served by CrossCountry, which does not manage any stations)
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	41,921
2005/06 *	35,812
2006/07 *	37,576
2007/08 *	45,955
2008/09 *	42,698
2009/10 *	45,286
History
1986	Opened
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at South Wigston from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

South Wigston railway station is a railway station serving the suburb of South Wigston, Leicester, England. The station is on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line about 2 miles (3 km) south of Leicester. South Wigston station is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Trains (EMT) Train Operating Company (TOC). Not all trains operating between Birmingham and Leicester stop here.

The station is unstaffed so passengers buy tickets the full range of tickets for travel from the guard on the train at no extra cost. Facilities on the platforms are limited, consisting only of two "bus shelter" type canopies to protect passengers from the weather and a time-table and notice board.

History

Wigston had three railway stations: Wigston South on the Midland Counties Railway opened in 1840, Wigston Magna on the Midland Main Line opened in 1857 and Glen Parva on the South Leicestershire Railway opened in the 1860s. However, British Railways closed all three stations by 1968.

The present South Wigston station was opened on Saturday 10 May 1986 and is at a new site about 300 metres east of the site of the former Glen Parva station. The new station cost £135,000 to build and was funded by Leicestershire County Council.

There has been long tems talks of a car park for commuters on the adjacent wasteland within the Wigston railway triangle, but this has never been progressed and the land remains a haven for wildlife.

The station management and trains services were under the Central Trains franchise, but during the breakup of the Central Trains franchise in 2007, an anomaly occurred where the trains operating the Birmingham New Street - Stansted Airport route passed to Cross Country Trains, but the station management of the three stations at South Wigston, Narborough and Hinckley passed to East Midland Trains, but no East Midland Trains services stop at, or even pass these three stations.

South Wigston station's two platforms are staggered, one each side of a wide foot bridge over the railway. Network Rail plans to extend the "up" side platform by up to two metres by 2012 to cater for 4 car trains.

Services

There are regular services to Leicester and Birmingham New Street: usually one train in each direction every two hours Mon-Fri daytime, and hourly on Saturdays. A few trains on the service between New Street and Stansted Airport via Cambridge call at South Wigston, but most pass through at up to 50 miles per hour (80 km/h).^{[citation needed]}

References

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Narborough		CrossCountry Birmingham New Street — Leicester		Leicester

External links

• Train times and station information for South Wigston railway station from National Rail