Atherstone is a railway station serving the town of Atherstone in Warwickshire, England. It is on the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line, exactly 102 miles (164 km) from London Euston station.

Atherstone
Standing on the northbound platform looking south, towards London in 2018.
General information
Location	Atherstone, Borough of North Warwickshire England
Coordinates	52.579°N 1.553°W / 52.579; -1.553
Grid reference	SP304979
Managed by	London Northwestern Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	ATH
Classification	DfT category F2
Passengers
2016/17	143,476
2017/18	148,934
2018/19	171,606
2019/20	151,174
2020/21	29,300
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

The station was designed by John William Livock and opened by the London and North Western Railway in 1847.[1] It was absorbed by the London Midland and Scottish Railway in the Grouping of 1923. The station passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. When British Rail introduced sectorisation in the 1980s, the station was served by the Regional Railways Sector until the Privatisation of British Railways.

In 1860 there was a train crash at Atherstone that killed 10 people.

The Tudor style station building has been grade II listed since 1980.[2] All of the stations on the Trent Valley Line originally had similar station buildings in the same style, designed by John William Livock, however the one at Atherstone is the only remaining example on the line, of an original Livock designed building on a station which is still open, as all the others have since been demolished and replaced. Other examples still exist at the closed Bulkington and Colwich stations. The station building was restored in 1985.[3] It has not been used for railway purposes since 1972, when the station became unstaffed, and is now in private ownership.[4] It is currently used by a veterinary practice.[5]

Services

West Midlands Trains operating under the London Northwestern Railway branding, provide an hourly service in each direction (including Sundays); southbound to London Euston via Nuneaton, Rugby and Milton Keynes Central, and northbound to Crewe via Stafford avoiding Stoke-on-Trent.

The hourly service was introduced by the previous operating company London Midland in December 2008.[6] The current hourly service is the best service Atherstone has ever received; historically the station received only an infrequent local stopping service, few of which went further north than Stafford or further south than either Rugby or Coventry; for example the May 2000 timetable shows just five daily services between Stafford and Coventry calling at the station.[4] Passenger use at the station has grown rapidly since the introduction of the new service.

From May 2014 Atherstone was part of the previous operator London Midland's "Project 110" scheme which saw the speed of the Class 350 trains on the Euston-Crewe service increase from 100 to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), and take the express train route via Weedon rather than travel via the Northampton loop line. As a result, Atherstone lost its direct link with Northampton but the journey time to/from London was cut by 30 minutes, with most trains now timetabled to take 82 minutes to reach the capital. However, a few trains do go via Northampton Monday - Sunday.[7]

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.
• Station on navigable O.S. map

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Atherstone railway station.

• Train times and station information for Atherstone railway station from National Rail
• Musson, Mike. "Atherstone Station". Warwickshire Railways.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Nuneaton		London Northwestern Railway London-Crewe		Tamworth
Nuneaton		London Northwestern Railway Northampton-Crewe		Tamworth
				Polesworth