Cradley Heath railway station

Cradley Heath railway station serves the town of Cradley Heath in the West Midlands of England. It is located on the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line. The station is managed by West Midlands Railway, who provide the majority of train services; there are also occasional services provided by Chiltern Railways.

Cradley Heath
Location
PlaceCradley Heath
Local authoritySandwell
Grid referenceSO939857
Operations
Station codeCRA
Managed byWest Midlands Trains
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryE
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.741 million
2015/16 0.773 million
2016/17 0.788 million
2017/18 0.846 million
2018/19 0.881 million
History
Key datesOpened 1863 (1863)
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Cradley Heath from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Cradley Heath is the nearest station to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Brierley Hill, and connecting bus services are provided. As a consequence, it is the station with the most Plusbus ticket sales (tickets for both rail travel and the connecting bus journey). Cradley Heath bus station is situated right in front of the railway station, thus effectively forming a Cradley Heath Interchange.

History

The station was opened in 1863 by the Stourbridge Railway, on their line from Stourbridge Junction to Old Hill. This was later taken over by the Great Western Railway, who incorporated it into their line to Birmingham. Historically, the station was known as Cradley, and later as Cradley Heath and Cradley.

The present station buildings date from the mid-1980s when the station was rebuilt entirely on the west side of the level crossing. Previously there had been a staggered platform arrangement on either side of the crossing.

Incidents

Following an incident on 7 October 1954, lamp-man Anthony Rivers was awarded the George Medal and the Order of Industrial Heroism. Rivers had gone to assist a woman whose foot was caught in a level crossing between the station's platforms. As a train bore down on them, he realised he could not free her, so held her away from the tracks and the train severed her foot. In doing so, he suffered a fractured pelvis and a broken forearm.[1][2][3]

Services

During Monday to Saturday daytimes, there are six trains per hour in each direction, operated by West Midlands Railway, between Birmingham Snow Hill and Stourbridge Junction. Many of these continue beyond Stourbridge to Kidderminster, Worcester Foregate Street or Great Malvern, and beyond Birmingham to Whitlocks End, Stratford-upon-Avon, Dorridge or Leamington Spa. During evenings and on Sundays, there are typically two trains per hour.[4]

There are also occasional trains during peak periods to and from London Marylebone, provided by Chiltern Railways. Regular direct services to and from Birmingham New Street (the terminus for all eastbound trains between 1967 and the reopening of the line to Snow Hill in 1995) ceased in May 2004 and passengers wishing to travel there must now change at Galton Bridge.[5]

Bus interchange

Alongside the railway station there is a bus station with five bus stands, which opened during the 1980s. The bus station was extensively rebuilt from 2014 to 2015, and reopened in July 2015 as Cradley Heath Interchange. The bus station is owned and operated by Transport for West Midlands which charges operators for their usage.

References
  1. "Rescue Dive at Station" (PDF). Birmingham Post. 8 October 1954. The porter, Tony Rivers, of 132, Park Road, Netherton, Dudley, was taken unconscious to Dudley Guest Hospital with head and leg injuries.
  2. "Lot 217, 20 October 1993". Dix Noonan Webb. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  3. "No. 40480". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 May 1955. p. 2874.
  4. Table 71 National Rail timetable, May 2016
  5. PSUL Summer 2004 - West Midlands Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Passenger Train Services over Unusual Lines; Retrieved 6 June 2016

Further reading
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2007). Worcester to Birmingham. Middleton Press. figs. 71-76. ISBN 9781904474975. OCLC 263292710.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Old Hill   West Midlands Railway
Leamington-Worcester		   Lye
Old Hill   Chiltern Railways
London-Kidderminster		   Lye

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