Barrow-upon-Soar railway station

Barrow-upon-Soar railway station serves the large village of Barrow-upon-Soar in Leicestershire, England. The station is located on the Midland Main Line between Leicester and Loughborough, 108 miles 52 chains (174.9 km) north of London St Pancras.

Barrow-upon-Soar
Location
Place	Barrow-upon-Soar
Local authority	Borough of Charnwood
Grid reference	SK577172
Operations
Station code	BWS
Managed by	East Midlands Railway
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	93,010
2015/16	98,708
2016/17	87,792
2017/18	80,612
2018/19	91,964
History
1840	Opened
4 March 1968	Closed
27 May 1994	Reopened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Barrow-upon-Soar from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

History

The first station at Barrow was opened in 1840 by the Midland Counties Railway, which shortly joined the North Midland Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway to form the Midland Railway.[1]

It was originally known simply as Barrow, but became Barrow-upon-Soar in 1871. When Quorn and Woodhouse was opened by the rival Great Central Railway on the opposite (western) side of Quorn, it became Barrow-upon-Soar and Quorn in 1899. Neither station, in fact, was ideally located for Quorn being about equidistant from its centre.

Barrow was the only station on the line to retain much of its original MCR architecture. However it was completely demolished following its closure in 1968.[2]

A new station was opened a little to the southeast of the original site on 27 May 1994 as part of phase one of the Ivanhoe Line.

In August 2016, a road bridge by the station partially collapsed during maintenance work, severely disrupting train services.[3]

Services

• The station is served by Monday to Saturday (there is no Sunday service) by East Midlands Railway, who operate local services from Leicester to Nottingham and Lincoln via Loughborough and Newark.[4]
• The 15:51 northbound service continues from Lincoln to Sleaford.
• East Midlands Railway London services from Leeds, Sheffield and London run through at high speed, but do not stop. Interchange with Mainline services can be made at Leicester and Loughborough.

Services are formed using diesel multiple units of Classes 153, 156 or 158.

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Sileby		East Midlands Railway Ivanhoe Line		Loughborough

For journeys beginning at Barrow upon Soar, the full range of tickets for travel for any destination in the country are purchased from the guard on the train at no extra cost. It is a penalty fare station however, so a permit to travel must be bought from the machine installed at the entrance to the station before joining the train.

Gallery

• 
  Barrow upon Soar in 1962
• 
  Down iron ore train passing in 1950
• 
  Up coal train at Barrow-on-Soar Station in 1950
• 
  The station in 2018

References

1. Higginson, M. (1989). The Midland Counties Railway: A Pictorial Survey. Derby: Midland Railway Trust.
2. Radford, B. (1983). Midland Line Memories: a Pictorial History of the Midland Railway Main Line Between London (St Pancras) & Derby. London: Bloomsbury Books.
3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-36950451
4. Table 53 National Rail timetable, May 2016

External links

• Train times and station information for Barrow-upon-Soar railway station from National Rail