Lydney railway station

Lydney
Location
Place	Lydney
Local authority	Forest of Dean
Grid reference	SO633020
Operations
Station code	LYD
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	71,378
2005/06	77,006
2006/07	84,353
2007/08	98,367
2008/09	0.168 million
2009/10	0.136 million
2010/11	0.150 million
2011/12	0.157 million
2012/13	0.159 million
2013/14	0.172 million
2014/15	0.192 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1851
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Lydney from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Lydney railway station is a railway station serving the town of Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the Gloucester-Newport line. The station is located a mile south of Lydney, and was originally called Lydney Junction, which is now the name of the nearby station on the preserved Dean Forest Railway.

History

A 1911 Railway Clearing House map of railways in the vicinity of Lydney

Railway lines in Lydney
For canal icons used below, please refer to waterways legend instead.
Legend
Dean Forest Railway Severn and Wye Railway Mineral Loop Princess Royal Colliery Tufts Junction Tinworks Tufts Bridge Norchard High Level Norchard Low Level Engine Shed Middle Forge Junction Lydney Town St Mary's Halt Lydney Junction Severn Bridge Tunnel Severn Bridge Lydney Gloucester to Newport Line Lydney Harbour Branch Pidcock's Canal Severn Railway Bridge (Dismantled 1970) Forges Lydney Canal Lower Docks Upper Docks River Severn Swing bridge over Gloucester & Sharpness Canal Locks onto River Severn River Severn Severn Bridge Railway

Lydney Junction was the name of two separate but adjacent stations on two different railway lines. The Great Western Railway station, which is the one that remains open as Lydney railway station, opened in 1851 on the Gloucester to Chepstow section of the South Wales Railway. To the west of this station, the freight-only line of the Severn and Wye Mineral Railway crossed the GWR line on its north-south route taking coal and iron from the Forest of Dean to the docks at Lydney.

In 1875, the Severn and Wye started passenger services and built a new terminus station at Lydney Junction for passenger trains to and from Drybrook, near Cinderford. Four years later, this first station was superseded by a new one as the Severn and Wye joined with the Midland Railway in building the Severn Bridge Railway, which linked Lydney across the river Severn with the Midland's Sharpness Branch Line, enabling access for the Forest of Dean minerals to the new and more extensive docks at Sharpness.

The new Lydney Junction (Severn and Wye) station was linked by a long footbridge to the GWR's station. There were also extensive freight yards in the north-east quadrant between the two lines, and these provided the only rail link between the Severn and Wye and the Great Western lines. The two stations worked closely together, particularly after 1894, when the Severn and Wye Railway was bought by the Great Western and the Midland. Finally, in 1955, under British Railways, the two stations were formally merged into one.^[1]

Lydney Junction (Severn and Wye) was used as a through-station for passenger services to and from Berkeley Road railway station and over the Severn Railway Bridge. These services either terminated at Lydney Town railway station, which was in the centre of Lydney, or continued on northwards into the Forest of Dean to terminate at Lydbrook Junction on the Ross to Monmouth line. These services ceased abruptly in October 1960 when the Severn Railway Bridge was damaged beyond economic repair in a shipping accident. Passenger services were officially withdrawn from this Lydney Junction in November 1964 and it remained closed until reopening by the Dean Forest Railway in 1995.

The other Lydney Junction, then renamed Lydney, lost its freight services in 1968 and its staffing in 1969, and the Great Western buildings on the platforms were demolished, though the signalbox remained until December 2012.

Services

Arriva Trains Wales provide an hourly service each way between Cheltenham Spa and Maesteg via Cardiff Central. In 2010, Arriva Trains Wales Class 150 Sprinter DMU 150245 calls with a service for Maesteg.

The majority of passenger services at Lydney are provided by Arriva Trains Wales, with an hourly Maesteg-Cardiff Central-Cheltenham Spa service in each direction (although there are a couple of gaps during the middle of the day). On Sundays, there is a two-hourly service each way.^[2]

CrossCountry also serve the station as part of their Cardiff Central to Nottingham route. Monday to Saturday, there are six trains per day in each direction. There is no Sunday service.

There is no footbridge at the station, and therefore no means of crossing the line to get to the opposing platform once the level crossing gates close in advance of a train arriving.

Incidents

An incident occurred at the station's level crossing on 23 March 2011 when a fault with the automatic barriers caused a northbound CrossCountry service to pass over the crossing at 60 mph (97 km/h) while the gates were raised (although the traffic lights were red).^[3]

References

1. Mike Oakley (2003). Gloucestershire Railway Stations. Wimborne: Dovecote Press. pp. 91–93. ISBN 1-904349-24-2.
2. Table 57 National Rail timetable, May 2016
3. "Investigation into an incident at Lydney level crossing, 23 March 2011". Rail Accident Investigation Branch. Retrieved 2011-05-08.

External links

• Train times and station information for Lydney railway station from National Rail

Coordinates: 51°42′54″N 2°31′52″W / 51.715°N 2.531°W