Rugby railway station

Rugby railway station (formerly Rugby Midland) serves the town of Rugby in Warwickshire, England. It opened during the Victorian era, in 1885, replacing earlier stations situated a little further west. Since the closure of the station on the now-abandoned Great Central Railway route through the town, it is Rugby's only station.

Situated on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) connecting London to Birmingham and the North West, the present station, managed by Virgin Trains, is located roughly half a mile north of Rugby town centre. On the WCML as a whole, it is located 82 miles north of London Euston, and 319 mi south of Glasgow Central.

Current services
Main line train services into Rugby are operated by Virgin Trains. There are regular services to London, Birmingham and Crewe with limited direct services to/from North West, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and Holyhead, the latter destinations are in the morning and evening peaks. Local services from London / Northampton to Coventry and Birmingham / Crewe (via Trent Valley Line, Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent) are provided by London Midland. In December 2005 Silverlink and Central Trains (the previous franchise holders) jointly introduced an infrequent semi-fast Euston / Northampton to Crewe / Liverpool service via the Trent Valley Line as a precursor to the revamped hourly services introduced in December 2008. This service is now also operated by London Midland.

The station gets one Virgin West Coast train to/from London per hour, usually a Birmingham New Street service, with a few additional trains, mainly during the peaks.

Since the timetable change of December 2008, Rugby's status as an important node on the Intercity Main line network has ended. Although the station is operated by Virgin Trains, the main user of the station is London Midland, which has significantly more services stopping at Rugby than Virgin Trains, most of which pass through without stopping.

West Coast Main Line
Rugby station is located between two important junctions of the West Coast Main Line (WCML). To the east of the station, the original London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) line (opened 1838) which runs directly to London, is joined at a grade separated junction by the Northampton loop line (opened 1881) which runs to Northampton before rejoining the line to London.

To the west of the station the WCML diverges again between the original London and Birmingham line, now referred to as the Birmingham Loop, which runs westwards to Coventry and Birmingham, and the Trent Valley line (opened 1847) which diverges at a flyover junction northwestwards towards Stafford and the North West of England and Scotland.

Closed Lines
Until the 1960s Rugby station served several other railway lines, which were closed mostly as part of the Beeching Axe. At one time railway lines diverged from Rugby station in seven different directions. The closed lines were:
 * The Midland Counties Railway (later Midland Railway) line to Leicester and the East Midlands which opened in 1840. In the mid-19th century this was an important main line, as the junction at Rugby provided the Midland Railway with its only link to London. Nearly all rail traffic between London and the north passed through Rugby, making it one of the most important railway junctions in the country. Increasing congestion at Rugby meant that Midland Railway opened its own route from Leicester to London in the late 1860s. The Leicester to Rugby line lost its earlier importance, and became little more than a country branch line, it continued to operate as such for nearly a century until it was closed on 30 December 1961.
 * The Rugby and Stamford Railway which was a secondary cross-country line owned by the London and North Western Railway which ran from Rugby to Peterborough via Market Harborough. The line was opened on 29 April 1850. It originally ran to Stamford where it joined the Midland Railway's Syston and Peterborough Railway. But later on, in order to gain a more direct route, the LNWR gained permission to build a line from Seaton to the Northampton and Peterborough Railway near Wansford, part of which survives as the Nene Valley Railway. Traffic was never heavy, and Doctor Beeching viewed it as an unnecessary duplication of the Birmingham to Peterborough Line and it was closed on 6 June 1966.
 * The Rugby to Leamington Line which was a country branch line to Leamington Spa which was opened on 1 March 1851. Local passenger services were withdrawn in 1959, and the line closed as a through route in 1966.

First station (1838–40)
The first railway station to be built in Rugby was a wooden temporary structure located around half a mile to the west of the present station. It opened on 9 April 1838 when the London and Birmingham Railway was constructed. The original station was located on the western side of where the railway crossed Newbold Road (the Rugby to Leicester tollpike road now the A426) because at the time this was the only road north from Rugby.

Second station (1840–1885)
The first station lasted only a few years. When a junction was made with the Midland Counties Railway in 1840, a new station was built at the site of the junction, which opened on 4 July 1840; it was 905 m to the east of the original station, and 150 yd to the west of the present station. A new road, Railway Terrace had to be built to link it to the town centre, because at the time it was located in open countryside..

This second station was effectively managed by two companies – the London and North Western Railway and the Midland Railway – and for this reason grew up in a haphazard fashion. It was at first no more than a temporary wooden structure, but was gradually rebuilt into a more permanent structure over the following decade. This station consisted of platforms at each side of the track with one bay platform. The platforms were rather low and passengers complained of having to perform an "acrobatic feat" to board trains.

The station was at the centre of a busy junction and often saw chaotic scenes. It featured, only lightly disguised, in Charles Dickens's story Mugby Junction.

The present station (1885–)
The second station lasted until the 1880s, when a new line from Rugby to Northampton (the Northampton loop) was built, the old station was deemed by the LNWR to be no-longer satisfactory, and in 1882, £70,000 was allocated to replace it with the current station which opened on 5 July 1885. Another £30,000 was allocated to build a hotel, although this was never built. The Midland Railway retained the part of the older station which it had managed, however. One platform of the old station, separate from the new station, continued to be used by local trains on the Midland Railway's branch to Leicester until March 8, 1930. No trace of this now remains, however, as it was demolished in the 1960s to make way for the postal sorting office.

When constructed the station consisted of one large island platform with bay platforms at each end for terminating local services. In the 2000s the station was extensively reconstructed (see below). The original Victorian island platform and building has been retained but the bay platforms at the western end were removed. However a new platform has been added on the south side, normally used for northbound services. In addition to these, a new island platform numbered 5 and 6 is located on the north side of the station, normally used for southbound services. The main island platforms are accessed from a tunnel at road level and a ramp leading to the platforms.

When constructed the station had a large steel and glass roof which consisted of two spans of 117 ft (35.6 m) which covered the station platforms and the tracks on each side. Originally the sides of the station had glass side screens but these were later removed. The roof lasted more than 100 years until the structure became unstable and was replaced in the early 2000s with a modern 'gull wing' roof over the platforms. The station had one of the longest platforms of any British railway station, at 1381 ft, but the two main island platforms were both shortened as part of the 2007–08 station upgrade. The platform was long enough to allow two trains to call at it at the same time time. This unusual feature was enabled by 'scissor junctions' halfway along the platforms. The scissor junctions were X-shaped junctions which allowed one train to pass another one already in the platform, and call into the same platform ahead of it, and allowed the train to the rear to pull out of the station, effectively doubling the capacity of the platform. The scissor junctions remained in use until the railway was electrified in the 1960s.

In 1899 a second station, Rugby Central, was opened in Rugby. To distinguish it from the other station, the present station became known as Rugby Midland. Rugby Central closed in 1969, and Rugby Midland reverted to being called just Rugby in 1970.

The station came under the management of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) (1885–1923), and then the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) (1923–1948), and then the nationalised British Railways (1948–1997). It is now owned by Network Rail.

2006/2008 upgrade


As a part of the West Coast Main Line modernisation programme, major track restructuring work was carried out to allow higher speed running through Rugby; three new platforms were added, along with a new ticket office and entrance. Work began in September 2006 and was completed late in 2008.

It was at one time thought that remodelling of the track layout would entail complete demolition of the present station, but the final plans involved retention of the existing island platform and buildings. The track upgrades allow non-stopping trains to run through Rugby Junction at 125 mph, thus eliminating another bottleneck from the WCML.

The platform on the south side of the station opened for use on 29 May 2007 and as a result all of the platforms were renumbered. This platform became Platform 1, the former Platform 1 became Platform 2 and 2 became 4. The additional platforms on the north side of the station are numbered Platforms 5 and 6 and they opened on 27 August 2008. Platform 8 became Platform 3. The platforms originally numbered 3, 6 and 7 were removed.

Another distinctive feature of the local railway landscape also vanished at this time – the 'bird cage' bridge. This being a 'heavy' girder bridge of two substantial spans over the West Coast Main Line to the east (up side) of the station. This was the means by which the Great Central Railway crossed the London & North Western Railway competing line.

Signalling
Rugby once had the largest concentration of mechanical signalling in the world and was home to one of the most impressive signal gantries in Britain. Situated to the south of the station and erected in 1895, it spanned three tracks and carried forty-four semaphore arms. Every arm was duplicated due to sighting difficulties that resulted from the Great Central Railway's 'Birdcage' bridge crossing the WCML behind the gantry's location. The gantry acquired the nickname of "the Rugby Bedstead" on account of its appearance.

In 1939, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway resignalled the Rugby area with colour light signals, although the mechanical signal boxes were retained. The famous signal gantry became redundant, following which it was divided up into smaller pieces to form a number of smaller structures for re-use elsewhere.

SGE was awarded a contract to resignal the Rugby area in preparation for electrification. Rugby Power Signal Box (PSB) opened in 1964. It is located east of the station, on the south (Down) side of the railway. The whole station area, together with part of the WCML stretching as far south as Castlethorpe, was controlled from this new box. It was equipped with an 'NX' (entrance-exit) panel. In 1991, Rugby PSB took over control of the Northampton area using Solid State Interlocking (SSI). Since the gradual commissioning of Rugby SCC, the PSB at Rugby only retains the Northampton Loop Line (south of Hillmorton Junction to Hunsbury Hill Tunnel via Long Buckby and Northampton station).

Rugby Signalling Control Centre (SCC), located north-west of the station, opened in 2004. Initially, its area of control was limited to a portion of the WCML between Kings Langley and Linslade Tunnel. The current area of control, as of 2009, is Kings Langley, Hertfordshire to Armitage in Staffordshire. Area of control also includes small portions of branch lines around Nuneaton; these include the Coventry-Nuneaton (from Three Spires to Nuneaton) and part of the Arley/Hinckley lines (Arley Tunnel to Padge Hall). At present Rugby SCC does not control Bletchley station, control of which is retained by Bletchley PSB.