Kidderminster railway station

Kidderminster railway station is the main station serving the large town of Kidderminster, Worcestershire. The station is operated by London Midland.

Facilities
There is a car park for 400 cars, administered by London Midland, in part of the old goods yard between the two railway stations. The Severn Valley Railway has its own car park on the town centre side of their station.

The station has a booking office, a kiosk, a BT Phone Box, a cash point and a ticket machine.

In 2009 a recently opened bridge (with lifts) has transformed access between the platforms. Before this work, it was via the road overbridge, visible in the background of the lower image right.

The signal box (a short distance to the south of the station) is still known as Kidderminster Junction. This controlled the junction to the Severn Valley Line until its closure in the 1970s. Its junction status has since been restored as it now controls the trailing connection between the down Network Rail line and the heritage Severn Valley Railway.

Hoobrook Viaduct
Further south still, the main line crosses over the impressive 20-arch Hoobrook Viaduct, 371 yards (339 metres) in length, 75 feet (23 metres) in height, comprising 7 million blue bricks and erected in 1884-5 at a cost of some £30,000. It replaced an earlier construction comprising 24 timber spans resting on sandstone columns, dating from the original creation of the line in 1851-2, whose partial collapse in 1883 brought about the building of the present viaduct alongside to the east. The sandstone abutments of the original structure can still be seen.

The Severn Valley Railway terminus
The Severn Valley Railway's southern terminus shares the same station approach road and is known as Kidderminster Town to distinguish it from the National Rail station. This also reflects the GWR tradition of suffixing the station name with "Town" if it was closer to the main body of the town served than that of its competitor(s), which Kidderminster Town achieves to the tune of less than around 60 yds.

History
Kidderminster station opened with the extension of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway from Worcester to Stourbridge on 1 May 1852 by the GWR. The station building, of a mock Tudor design, survived until 1968 when it was demolished owing to the effects of dry rot and replaced by British Rail with the small brick building that stands today.

Future
Plans are in hand to replace the small brick station building with something echoing that of the adjacent SVR building. As well as this, the plans envisage a large bus exchange, improved car parking and "drop off" areas. Future planned track alterations will see a facing cross-over installed along with appropriate signalling that will permit passenger carrying trains to pass from NR metals to those of the SVR. At present passengers have to disembark at the NR station and walk to the SVR station whilst their train is shunted across. Trains from the SVR carrying passengers can already pass onto NR metals unhindered.

A service to/from NR metals to Bewdley has also been proposed over the years. This is finally seeing some more local interest.

Service
Most trains using the station are operated by London Midland.

The standard off peak service is:


 * 4 tph to Birmingham Snow Hill, semi fast, of which 2 continue to Dorridge and 2 to Whitlocks End;
 * 2 tph to Worcester (either Foregate Street or Shrub Hill), of which some continue to Great Malvern.

The service between Kidderminster and Birmingham is heavily used, by both commuters and daytrippers to Birmingham. Service was increased from three to four trains per hour in 2006.

The other company which operates trains is Chiltern Railways. Their services are:


 * 5 morning trains to London Marylebone in the morning peak - the first arrives in London before 9 am, taking 2 hours 40 minutes;
 * 4 returning from London over the evening peak times.

These services also connect Kidderminster to Banbury, Bicester North and High Wycombe.


 * colspan=5|Interchange with Kidderminster Town on the Severn Valley Railway
 * colspan=5|Interchange with Kidderminster Town on the Severn Valley Railway