Ledbury railway station

Ledbury
Location
Place	Ledbury
Local authority	Herefordshire
Coordinates	52°02′42″N 2°25′30″W / 52.045°N 2.425°WCoordinates: 52°02′42″N 2°25′30″W / 52.045°N 2.425°W
Grid reference	SO709386
Operations
Station code	LED
Managed by	London Midland
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.130 million
2005/06	0.135 million
2006/07	0.147 million
2007/08	0.163 million
2008/09	0.182 million
2009/10	0.184 million
2010/11	0.189 million
2011/12	0.194 million
2012/13	0.186 million
2013/14	0.195 million
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Ledbury from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Ledbury railway station is a railway station on the outskirts of the town of Ledbury on the Worcester to Hereford line in the English Midlands. It has regular services to Birmingham plus several direct trains a day to London Paddington.

History

The station in 1958, with the branch to Gloucester leaving the main line on the left

Hereford to Paddington express in 1958

The line was originally built by the West Midland Railway who opened Ledbury station on 15 September 1861. A branch line from Ledbury to Gloucester, via Dymock and Newent opened in July 1885 for which a new signal box was opened at Ledbury replacing one or perhaps two earlier signal boxes and controlling a small engine shed on the north side of the station and a goods yard on the south.

The Newent branch was closed in 1959, and the goods yard and engine shed closed in 1965, leaving just the station itself. The modern station comprises two platforms with waiting shelters and car parking facilities, the station is unusual in having a privately run ticket office located in a wooden chalet by the entrance.

Today

The station is the only section of double track, where trains travelling in opposite directions can pass each other, between Shelwick Junction, near Hereford and the East portal of Colwall New Tunnel beneath the Malvern Hills at the former Malvern Wells station and near to Great Malvern.

The single-track Ledbury Tunnel, immediately to the east of the station, was notorious among steam locomotive crews for its bad atmosphere, the result of its unusually narrow bore combined with a steep gradient and a bend at the north end.

The station was featured in episode six of the second series of Great British Railway Journeys broadcast on 10 January 2011, in which Michael Portillo travels from Ledbury to Shrewsbury.

Services

Ledbury has a passenger service every day except Christmas Day & Boxing day (25 & 26 December), Monday to Saturday this service comprises typically one train per hour in each direction between Birmingham New Street and Hereford, with extra trains in the morning and evening peaks on weekdays. Some early morning and late evening trains start/terminate at Worcester Shrub Hill instead of Birmingham New Street. This service is reduced to a 2-hourly service on Sundays. These trains are operated by London Midland.^[1]

There are also five trains each way, each weekday between Hereford and London Paddington that call at Ledbury. This is reduced to four trains each way on Saturdays and five northbound and four southbound trains per day on Sunday afternoons. All trains to London are operated by First Great Western.^[2]

References

1. Birmingham-Hereford services, GB National Rail Timetable 71, December 2013 - May 2014
2. Hereford-Paddington, GB NRT 2013-14, Table 126

External links

• Train times and station information for Ledbury railway station from National Rail
• Ledbury Station - an independent ticketing and information service based at the station
• Cotswold Line Promotion Group