Atherstone railway station

Atherstone Add→{{rail-interchange}}
General information
Location	Borough of North Warwickshire
Coordinates	52.579°N 1.553°W / 52.579; -1.553
Managed by	London Northwestern Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	ATH

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

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. It is no longer used for railway purposes, and is now used by a veterinary practice.

Services

London Midland 350128 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. It was 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 the previous operator 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 - Sunday.

References

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 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. OL 11956311M.
• 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

• Train times and station information for Atherstone railway station from National Rail
• Musson, Mike. "Atherstone Station". Warwickshire Railways.

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