Blakedown railway station

Blakedown railway station serves the English village of Blakedown, Worcestershire. It was opened (as Churchill station) in 1852, later becoming known for a time as Churchill & Blakedown after the two villages became a single parish.

Blakedown
Location
PlaceBlakedown
Local authorityWyre Forest
Grid referenceSO880787
Operations
Station codeBKD
Managed byWest Midlands Trains
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 91,698
2015/16 97,028
2016/17 95,164
2017/18 111,770
2018/19 97,242
History
1852
?

?		Opened as Churchill
Renamed Churchill and Blakedown
Renamed to current name
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Blakedown from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The station is unstaffed, with only a basic shelter on each platform. There is a level crossing immediately to the west of the platforms, and in the absence of a footbridge or subway this is also the only method for passengers to cross the tracks.

The platforms were lengthened in the 1990s to allow longer trains to call (see image - the hollow space and the white fence mark the extension). This is because Blakedown is within the Birmingham commuter band and over the twenty years between 1998 - 2018 usage of the station has increased by 147%. Currently there is a proposal to develop a car park on an adjacent field site to cater for further anticipated growth.[1]

Since August 2012 the signalling system has been altered, with the former signal box having been closed and control of the nearby crossing and signals transferred to the West Midlands SCC at Saltley. The old signal box was then acquired by the Churchill and Blakedown Historical Society for their headquarters and was shifted across the road to a site adjoining the station in 2016.[2]

Services

One Chiltern Railways Kidderminster-London service per weekday calls at Blakedown, at 08:13, as of the 2017 timetable.

Since 2017, trains run every 30 minutes each way, with off-peak trains terminating at Kidderminster westbound, and eastbound services running alternately to Dorridge and Whitlocks End. Through services are available to both Worcester stations at peak periods. There is a two-hourly service from the station each way on Sundays, with through trains to and from Worcester.[3]

The shorter station and old signal box in 1983
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References
  1. Blakedown station car park options: report for Worcestershire County Council, 27 June 2019
  2. Kidderminster Shuttle, 24 October 2016
  3. Table 71 National Rail timetable, May 2016

Further reading
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2007). Worcester to Birmingham. Middleton Press. figs. 42-44. ISBN 9781904474975. OCLC 263292710.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Hagley   West Midlands Railway
Leamington-Worcester		   Kidderminster
Hagley   Chiltern Railways
London-Kidderminster		   Kidderminster


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