Ledbury railway station

Ledbury National Rail
Location
Place Ledbury
Local authority Herefordshire
Coordinates 52°02′42″N 2°25′30″W / 52.045°N 2.425°W / 52.045; -2.425Coordinates: 52°02′42″N 2°25′30″W / 52.045°N 2.425°W / 52.045; -2.425
Grid reference SO709386
Operations
Station code LED
Managed by West Midlands Trains
Number of platforms 2
DfT category E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13 Decrease 0.186 million
2013/14 Increase 0.195 million
2014/15 Increase 0.204 million
2015/16 Increase 0.215 million
2016/17 Decrease 0.210 million
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Ledbury from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Ledbury railway station is a railway station on the outskirts of the town of Ledbury on the Worcester to Hereford line in the English Midlands. It has regular services to Birmingham plus several direct trains a day to London Paddington.

History

The station in 1958, with the branch to Gloucester leaving the main line on the left
Hereford to Paddington express in 1958

The line was originally built by the West Midland Railway who opened Ledbury station on 15 September 1861. A branch line from Ledbury to Gloucester, via Dymock and Newent opened in July 1885 for which a new signal box was opened at Ledbury replacing one or perhaps two earlier signal boxes and controlling a small engine shed on the north side of the station and a goods yard on the south.

The Newent branch was closed in 1959, and the goods yard and engine shed closed in 1965, leaving just the station itself. The modern station comprises two platforms with waiting shelters and car parking facilities, the station is unusual in having a privately run ticket office located in a wooden chalet by the entrance.

Today

The station is the only section of double track, where trains travelling in opposite directions can pass each other, between Shelwick Junction, near Hereford and the East portal of Colwall New Tunnel beneath the Malvern Hills at the former Malvern Wells station and near to Great Malvern.

The single-track Ledbury Tunnel, immediately to the east of the station, was notorious among steam locomotive crews for its bad atmosphere, the result of its unusually narrow bore combined with a steep gradient and a bend at the north end.

The station was featured in episode six of the second series of Great British Railway Journeys broadcast on 10 January 2011, in which Michael Portillo travels from Ledbury to Shrewsbury.

Services

Ledbury has a passenger service every day except Christmas Day and Boxing Day (25 and 26 December), Monday to Saturday this service comprises typically one train per hour in each direction between Birmingham New Street and Hereford, with extra trains in the morning and evening peaks on weekdays. Some early morning and late evening trains start/terminate at Worcester Shrub Hill instead of Birmingham New Street. This service is reduced to a 2-hourly service on Sundays. These trains are operated by West Midlands Trains, which took over from London Midland on 10 December 2017.[1]

There are also five trains each way, each weekday between Hereford and London Paddington that call at Ledbury. This is reduced to four trains each way on Saturdays and five northbound and four southbound trains per day on Sunday afternoons. All trains to London are operated by Great Western Railway.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Your questions on London Midland losing rail franchise, BBC News, 18th August 2017, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40886873
  2. ↑ Hereford-Paddington, GB NRT 2013-14, Table 126

Further reading

  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2004). Worcester to Hereford. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 69-79. ISBN 9781904474388. OCLC 862604858.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Hereford   West Midlands Railway
Birmingham-Hereford		   Colwall
  West Midlands Railway
Dorridge-Hereford		  
  Great Western Railway
Cotswold Line		  
  Historical railways  
Ashperton   Great Western Railway
Worcester and Hereford Railway		   Colwall
Disused railways
Ledbury Town Halt   Great Western Railway
Ledbury and Gloucester Railway		   Terminus
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