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Aston railway station

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Aston
General information
LocationBirmingham
Managed byLondon Midland
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeAST
Fare zone2

Aston railway station serves the districts of Aston and Nechells in Birmingham, England. The pedestrian entrance is on Lichfield Road.

Passenger services are operated by London Midland using either Class 323 electrical multiple units on the Cross-City Line and the Walsall Line (the latter being part of the former Grand Junction Railway, opened in 1837), and Class 170 diesel multiple units on the Chase Line to Rugeley.

The station is situated above the Lichfield Road (A5127), as the railway line here is on an embankment.

History

Aston was opened by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in 1854.[1] It became a junction in 1862 when a line was opened to Sutton Coldfield by the LNWR.[2][3] In 1880 the LNWR opened a line from Aston to Stechford on the Birmingham to Coventry line, and, in the same year, a line for freight traffic from Aston to Windsor Street goods depot.[4]The latter line closed in 1980.[5].The LNWR's Aston locomotive depot ("Aston Shed") was opened in 1883 in the area between the Aston to Birmingham and the Aston to Stechford lines and with an entrance on Long Acre, Nechells. It was closed in 1965, by then under British Railways ownership.[6]

The station became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923. It then passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

When Sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Regional Railways on behalf of the West Midlands PTE, for whom British Rail had been running the trains since the PTE's inception.

Electrification and Resignalling

Apart from the Sutton Coldfield branch, all of the routes passing through Aston were electrified in 1966 as part of the London Midland Region's electrification programme.[7] The actual energization of the line from Coventry to Walsall through Aston took place on 15 August 1966.[8]

At the same time, Aston's two manual signal boxes, Aston No. 1 and No. 2,[9] were closed and control transferred to the power signal box at Birmingham New Street.[10]

Electrification of the line to Sutton to Lichfield was completed in 1993 as part of the modernisation of the Cross-City Line.[11]

Services

Early Days

In January 1858 there were eight trains from Aston (originating in Birmingham) to Wolverhampton via Bescot Junction and Willenhall, the first at 08:21 and the last at 21:11 on weekdays. In the opposite direction, on weekdays, nine trains from Wolverhampton arrived at Aston between 08:51 and 22:25. The Sunday service consisted of six trains in each direction. The timetable shows one "government" or Parliamentary train in each direction, running every day. Most trains provided through carriages to Derby via Walsall and Lichfield, dividing at Bescot.[12]

The Twentieth Century

The London Midland Region timetable dated 10 September 1951 shows an irregular interval service of approximately hourly trains to and from Walsall and a similar service to Lichfield City via Sutton, with some trains running only as far as Four Oaks (tables 68 and 69). In the Summer 1963 timetable, by which time diesel multiple units were operating on both routes,[13] there was a regular-interval service pattern throughout the day: on weekdays every hour to Walsall and Rugeley Town, and every 30 minutes to Sutton and Lichfield, with occasional trains still running only to Four Oaks.

The above pattern applied also to trains to and from Birmingham New Street, where all trains from Aston to Walsall and Four Oaks or Lichfield originated.

The Present

Aston receives regular services on both the Cross-City Line, from Lichfield Trent Valley to Redditch and the Walsall Line, from Wolverhampton to Walsall via Birmingham New Street. In the evenings, services for the Chase Line call Aston.

Six services operate on the Cross-City Line in each direction every hour which call Aston. Services to Birmingham New Street terminate at either Longbridge or Redditch, with four services an hour to the former and two to the latter. Northwards, there are three destinations on the Cross-City Line served by trains from Aston. Two of the six services run the full length of the line to terminate at Lichfield Trent Valley, two go to Lichfield City and the other two only venture as far as Four Oaks.

The Walsall line is served by fewer trains: there are two in each direction every hour, both of which call all stations between Wolverhampton and Walsall via Birmingham New Street.

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
London Midland
London Midland

Nearby

The station serves:

References

  • Butt, R. V. J. (October 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. OL 11956311M.
  • Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
  • Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
  • Osborne's Railway Time Table and Literary Companion, January 1858. Birmingham, E.C. Osborne.

Notes

  1. ^ M.E. Quick, Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain - A Chronology. Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2009, p.65.
  2. ^ R.Lea, Steaming up to Sutton. Sutton Coldfield: Westwood Press, 1984
  3. ^ Railways of the West Midlands - A Chronology 1808-1954 London: Stephenson Locomotive Society , 1954, p.28.
  4. ^ Railways of the West Midlands - A Chronology 1808-1954. London: Stephenson Locomotive Society , 1954, pp.40-41.
  5. ^ Cobb, M.H. The railways of Great Britain - A Historical Atlas, Vol.1. Shepperton: Ian Allan, 2003.
  6. ^ http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/aston_shed.htm
  7. ^ Nock, O.S. Britain's New Railway. London: Ian Allan, 1966.
  8. ^ Gillham, J.C. The Age of the Electric Train - Electric trains in Britain since 1883. Shepperton: Ian Allan, 1988, p.169.
  9. ^ British Railways Layout Plans of the 1950s, vol. 11 - LNW Lines in the West Midlands. Signalling Record Society, 1998, p.30..
  10. ^ Modern Railways, October 1966.
  11. ^ Boynton, J. Rails Across the City: the story of the Birmingham cross-city line. Kidderminster: Mid-England, 1993
  12. ^ Osborne's Railway Time Table and Literary Companion, January 1858, p.13.
  13. ^ Bassett, J. Cross-City Connections. Studley: Brewin, 1990
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