Atherstone railway station

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.

Atherstone
Standing on the northbound platform looking south, towards London in 2009.
Location
PlaceAtherstone
Local authorityBorough of North Warwickshire
Coordinates52.579°N 1.553°W / 52.579; -1.553
Grid referenceSP304979
Operations
Station codeATH
Managed byLondon Northwestern Railway
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 120,764
2015/16 141,494
2016/17 143,476
2017/18 148,934
2018/19 171,606
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Atherstone from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

History
Preserved 1847 station building

The station was designed by John William Livock and opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1847.[1] 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.[2] It is no longer used for railway purposes, and is now used by a veterinary practice.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5]

References
  1. "Atherstone station". Warwickshire Railways. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  2. Historic England. "Former Railway Station Building at Atherstone Station  (Grade II) (1034738)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  3. "Riversmeet Veterinary Centre". riversmeet.co.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  4. "North Warwickshire INFRASTRUCTURE DELIVERY PLAN" (PDF). North Warwickshire Borough Council. October 2017. p. 11. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  5. "London Midland reveals details of its "Project 110"". Rail.co.uk. 8 March 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  • Butt, R. V. J. (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.
  • 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
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Nuneaton   London Northwestern Railway
London-Crewe		   Tamworth
Nuneaton   London Northwestern Railway
Northampton-Crewe		   Tamworth
    Polesworth
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