Wolverhampton railway station
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Wolverhampton railway station in Wolverhampton, West Midlands is on the West Coast Main Line. It is served by Central Trains, Virgin Trains and Arriva Trains Wales.
History
The first station on this site was opened in 1852 by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). The only visible remnant of the original station is the Queen's Building, the gateway to Railway Drive which was the approach road to the station, which nowadays is a cafeteria serving Wolverhampton bus station. Three years later the Great Western Railway (GWR) opened a second station, located behind the older station on lower ground, which became known as the Low Level station, the other becoming known as High Level.At nationalisation in 1948, High Level was run by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), while Low Level was still run by the Great Western Railway. By the 1960s, services had been rationalised, and the only services left running from Low Level were local services to Birmingham Snow Hill. Low Level station eventually closed to passengers in 1972 and was used as a parcels depot until 1981. Most of the GWR route between Birmingham and Wolverhampton is now used by the Midland Metro tramway, which opened in 1999.
The present Wolverhampton station dates from 1965, when the High Level station was completely rebuilt as part of the modernisation programme which saw the West Coast Main Line electrified. It consisted of three through platforms (the present platforms 1, 2 and 3). In the 1980s, a parcels siding was converted into a south-facing bay platform (the present platform 5), and a new north-facing bay was constructed (the present platform 6).
More recently (in 2004), a new through platform (platform 4) was constructed on the site of infrequently-used sidings. This has greatly enhanced the capacity of the station. A new footbridge was also constructed, to allow access to the new platform but also to improve access to the existing ones. This is to form the first part of a proposed, more comprehensive rebuilding project, but this is still on the drawing-board.
Current operations
Virgin Trains operates the station. It runs services via Birmingham New Street to London Euston as part of its West Coast franchise. It also operates services to a wider variety of destinations as part of its Cross Country franchise: to Manchester Piccadilly, Preston, Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley and Aberdeen to the north, Bristol Temple Meads, Exeter St Davids and Plymouth to the south-west and Oxford, Reading, Southampton Central and Bournemouth to the south to name but a few. The station is attached to the West Coast franchise, so may well remain managed by Virgin Trains even if Virgin fails to win the new Cross Country franchise in 2007.Central Trains is the other major operator. It operates local services to Birmingham New Street and to Walsall (on behalf of Centro), and between Birmingham New Street and Shrewsbury. It also operates longer-distance services between Birmingham and Liverpool Lime Street, some of which run through to Northampton in peak periods, and one of which runs north to Preston (via Warrington Bank Quay) instead of Liverpool. Another service which operates is an hourly service between Wolverhampton and Walsall.
Arriva Trains Wales operates an hourly service between Birmingham New Street and Shrewsbury, with alternate trains continuing to either Aberystwyth (via the Cambrian Line) or Chester. There are also direct services to the Cambrian Coast Line to Pwllheli.
A new train company called the Wrexham, Shropshire and Marylebone Railway has suggested that Wolverhampton will be one of the stations to be served by their proposed Wrexham General-London Marylebone service.
Platforms
Wolverhampton station has six platforms: platforms 1 to 4 are through platforms, while platforms 5 and 6 are bay platforms at the south and north ends respectively. Platform 1 is for northbound services only, platform 2 is reversible (i.e. can be ued by both northbound and southbound services), while platforms 3 and 4 are for southbound services. Platform 5 is used by the local services to Birmingham New Street. Platform 6 was designed for local services on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line, however it is rarely used, as the majority of services on that route travel through to Birmingham. A few services however continue to Walsall. Virgin Trains services from London Euston arrive at platform 1, then travel empty to Oxley maintenance depot, from where they return to Wolverhampton and depart from platform 4.External links
- *[Train times] and [station information] for from National Rail
- [Street map] and [aerial photo] of from Multimap.com
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 0.5em auto; text-align: center;" |- ! Preceding station ! colspan="3" | National Rail ! Following station
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