Oakengates railway station

Oakengates railway station serves the town of Oakengates, part of the new town of Telford, England. It lies on the former Great Western Railway's London Paddington to Birkenhead via Birmingham Snow Hill line and has two platforms.

Oakengates
Location
PlaceOakengates
Local authorityTelford and Wrekin
Grid referenceSJ696107
Operations
Station codeOKN
Managed byWest Midlands Trains
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 54,410
2015/16 55,830
2016/17 59,006
2017/18 67,246
2018/19 73,438
History
Key datesOpened 1849 (1849)
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Oakengates from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Around one in three passenger trains running along the line call at the station, the others pass straight through. Passenger numbers using the station have increased dramatically in the last 10 years.

Rail services are primarily provided by West Midlands Trains seven days a week with Transport for Wales providing a service on late evenings through the week, and a limited service on Sundays. Avanti West Coast do not currently call at Oakengates station.

Between Oakengates and Telford Central is the Oakengates Tunnel.

Oakengates Tunnel

This tunnel was a major problem in the construction of the railway. It delayed the project by 3 years, between 1846 and 1849. Details of the difficulties include unseasonable weather contained in a report of 21 August 1848 from Robert Stephenson, Consulting Engineer, and William Baker, the Shropshire Union Railway Engineer. It was originally built for broad gauge railways.

This tunnel is the only tunnel on the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line and the longest of the three railway tunnels presently in use in Shropshire. It stretches for 471 yards.

The tunnel passed under the summit level of the Shropshire Canal and was the scene of a disaster in 1855, when a breach from the canal into the tunnel occurred. The entire summit level emptied into the tunnel, causing flooding in the town, although there were no reports of any personal injury.[1]

An accident occurred at the station on 11 September 1877 when a Great Western train, the 7:40 am from Shrewsbury, arrived at Oakengates station on time at 8:09 am. Its locomotive, no. 153, then exploded due to a boiler failure. The explosion killed the driver, Anthony Robson Potter, and injured several others.

Services

There is a basic hourly off-peak service in each direction (Monday-Sunday), westbound to Shrewsbury and eastbound to Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street run by West Midlands Railway. Additional trains call at peak periods.[2][3][4]

References
  1. Oakengates History: Shropshire Canal
  2. "'Major' rail changes in timetable overhaul". BBC News. 19 May 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  3. O'Brien, Lisa (13 March 2019). "New timetable includes later rail services between Shropshire and West Midlands". The Shropshire Star. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  4. GB eNRT May 2019 Edition, Table 74 (Network Rail)

Further reading
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2014). Stafford to Wellington. Middleton Press. figs. 70-73. ISBN 9781908174598. OCLC 913791564.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2009). Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury. Middleton Press. figs. 87-90. ISBN 9781906008444. OCLC 286385795.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Telford Central   Transport for Wales
Birmingham - Chester		   Wellington
Telford Central   West Midlands Railway
Wolverhampton/Birmingham-Shrewsbury
Mondays-Saturdays only		   Wellington
Telford Central   West Midlands Railway
Birmingham New Street - Shrewsbury		   Wellington


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