Alrewas railway station

Alrewas railway station was a station on the South Staffordshire Railway, which operated in the West Midlands county of Staffordshire, in England. The station was located next to a level crossing, although the road, now the A513, currently crosses over the still extant line on a bridge in Alrewas.

Alrewas
The station's location (1993)
LocationAlrewas, Lichfield
England
Coordinates52.7304°N 1.7394°W / 52.7304; -1.7394
Grid referenceSK176147
Platforms2
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companySouth Staffordshire Railway
Pre-groupingLondon and North Western Railway
Post-groupingLondon Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
9 April 1849Opened
18 January 1965Closed

History

The station was opened by the South Staffordshire Railway, then joined the London and North Western Railway, and was absorbed by the London Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The station passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

The station was then closed by the British Railways Board under the Beeching cuts in January 1965.

The site today

The line through the station, which runs from Lichfield on the high-level line and is connected to the Southbound WCML by a single track chord, runs via the station site to Wychnor Junction, near Burton upon Trent. Primarily a freight route, the line is also used by Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry to move trains from Birmingham New Street to Central Rivers TMD and by a very limited number of timetabled long-distance passenger trains.[1] The route is additionally sometimes used as a means of diverting trains when engineering takes place between Birmingham New Street and Tamworth.

The station retains its signal box, which supervises the adjacent level crossing and the partly single track section to Wychnor Junction. It also acts as a signalling 'fringe' box to the East Midlands Rail Operating Centre at Derby.

Reopening proposals

In August 2017, calls to reopen the station following the West Midlands Franchise award as part of the new franchise West Midlands Trains has committed to looking at opening new stations. Calls to reopen the station have been mentioned.[2] In a document by Transport for West Midlands it was proposed that the station could potentially reopen to passengers in the future.[3] In October 2018, as part of a 30 year strategy of Transport in the West Midlands it was proposed by 2034 that Alrewas could reopen to passengers as part of plans to extend the Cross-City line services from Lichfield Trent Valley to Burton-on-Trent twice an hour.[4] As well as the reintroducing services to Walsall on the mothballed South Staffordshire Line.[5]

Calls to reopen the station were renewed in 2020 with access to the nearby National Memorial Arboretum, which opened after the original station was closed.[6] There are also plans for homebuilding on the present site of a quarry which could see the station reopened.[7]

Preceding station Historical railways Following station
Barton and Walton
Line open, station closed		   London and North Western Railway
South Staffordshire Line		   Lichfield Trent Valley
Line and station open

References
  • 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.
  • Station on navigable O.S. map

Notes
  1. "Passenger Train Services over Unusual Lines 2019" Maund, R; Retrieved 12 May 2019
  2. Calls for a new train station to be built in Alrewas as West Midlands Trains take over Pridding, B; Staffordshire Live news article 16 August 2017
  3. "MOVEMENT FOR GROWTH:2026 Delivery Plan for Transport"Transport for the West Midlands" website press release, p.8
  4. "A New Era for West Midlands Rail Travel. West Midlands Rail Executive. A 30-year Rail Investment Strategy 2018-2047 Consultation Draft, October 2018; West Midlands Rail Executive website article, p.33
  5. https://www.wmca.org.uk/media/1371/2016-06-01-mfg-summary-document_wmca.pdf
  6. Ross (27 October 2020). "Talks take place over plans to reopen railway line between Lichfield and the National Memorial Arboretum". Lichfield Live. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  7. Ross (23 September 2020). "Agreement reached in latest stage of plan to build new 1,500 home community in Alrewas". Lichfield Live. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
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