Polesworth railway station

Polesworth railway station serves the village of Polesworth in Warwickshire, England. It is situated on the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line.

Polesworth
Location
PlacePolesworth
Local authorityNorth Warwickshire
Grid referenceSK264032
Operations
Station codePSW
Managed byLondon Northwestern Railway
Number of platforms1
DfT categoryF2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 820
2015/16 908
2016/17 1,270
2017/18 262
2018/19 186
History
Key datesOpened 1846 (1846)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Polesworth from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Since 2005, only the northbound platform has been accessible to passengers due to the removal of the footbridge, and the station has been served only by a parliamentary train service of one northbound train a day. In 2018/19 it was the least used station in Warkwickshire and in the West Midlands and the ninth least used station in Great Britain.[1]

History

Polesworth station was opened with the line in 1847 by the London and North Western Railway.

On 21 July 1947, an express train derailed around one mile from the station, resulting in five deaths.[2] Another derailment of a passenger train occurred at the station on 19 November 1951, which overturned the locomotive and caused minor injuries to two people.[3]

Since the 1980s services to the station have gradually reduced. In the 1980s the station had six northbound and six southbound trains per day running mainly between Rugby and Stafford. A few trains terminated at Nuneaton and Lichfield Trent Valley.

With the re-opening of the Coventry to Nuneaton line in 1987, services terminated at Coventry instead of Rugby. Train services were operated using the Class 153 diesel multiple units, yet these trains suffered from a low top speed and relatively poor acceleration on what is a very busy route.

In 2005, Polesworth received no train services due to the modernisation of the West Coast Main Line. Scheduled trains were replaced by a bus service contracted to Central Trains. The footbridge to platform 2 was removed by contractors and has not been replaced due to the cost being unjustified. Thus, the station only receives a parliamentary service by London Northwestern Railway, a single service from Northampton to Crewe, calling at 06:50 Monday to Friday and at 07:22 Saturday.[4]

In 2005 the Strategic Rail Authority called for Polesworth station to be closed, in its "West Midlands Route Utilisation Strategy", noting that each train that calls there receives on average fewer than one passenger.[5]

Future proposals

In July 2019 Warwickshire County Council's Draft Rail Strategy for 2019-2034 proposed that a new station called Polesworth Parkway could be opened at a different location in proximity to the A5 road and M42 motorway, which if approved could go ahead between 2027 and 2033. No mention is made of what could happen to the existing station.[6]

References
  1. "Office of Rail and Road statistics".
  2. "Report on the Derailment which occurred on 21st July, 1947, near Polesworth on the London Midland and Scottish Railway". Railways Archive. MOT. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  3. "Report on the Derailment which occurred on 19th November 1951 at Polesworth in the London Midland Region British Railways". Railways Archive. MOT. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  4. "Your UK Train Journey Planner - National Rail Enquiries".
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 July 2007. Retrieved 29 December 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Warwickshire Rail Strategy 2019-2034" (PDF). Warwickshire County Council. p. 25. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Atherstone   London Northwestern Railway
Northampton to Crewe
Limited Service		   Tamworth

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