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Cradley Heath railway station serves the town of Cradley Heath in the West Midlands of England. It is on the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster line. The station is managed by West Midlands Railway, who provide the majority of train services; there are also occasional services provided by Chiltern Railways.
Cradley Heath  | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||
| General information | |||||
| Location | Cradley Heath, Sandwell England | ||||
| Grid reference | SO939857 | ||||
| Managed by | West Midlands Trains | ||||
| Platforms | 2 | ||||
| Other information | |||||
| Station code | CRA | ||||
| Classification | DfT category E | ||||
| History | |||||
| Opened | 1863 | ||||
| Passengers | |||||
| 2019/20 |  0.872 million | ||||
| 2020/21 | 0.178 million | ||||
| 2021/22 |  0.468 million | ||||
| 2022/23 | 0.539 million | ||||
| 2023/24 | 0.627 million | ||||
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Cradley Heath bus station is right in front of the railway station; together they form Cradley Heath Interchange.
History
editThe station was opened in 1863 by the Stourbridge Railway, on their line from Stourbridge Junction to Old Hill. This was later taken over by the Great Western Railway, who incorporated it into their line to Birmingham. Historically, the station was known as Cradley, and later as Cradley Heath and Cradley.
The present station buildings date from the mid-1980s when the station was rebuilt entirely on the west side of the level crossing. Previously there had been a staggered platform arrangement on either side of the crossing.
Incidents
editFollowing an incident on 7 October 1954, lamp-man Anthony Rivers was awarded the George Medal and the Order of Industrial Heroism. Rivers had gone to assist a woman whose foot was caught in a level crossing between the station's platforms. As a train bore down on them, he realised he could not free her, so held her away from the tracks and the train severed her foot. In doing so, he suffered a fractured pelvis and a broken forearm.[1][2][3]
Services
editThe Monday to Saturday off-peak service sees trains approximately every 15 minutes in each direction, operated by West Midlands Trains.[4][5]
Eastbound:
- 4 trains per hour (tph) to Birmingham Snow Hill and Birmingham Moor Street
- 2tph to Whitlocks End via Smethwick Galton Bridge and Shirley
- of which one continues to Stratford-upon-Avon via the North Warwickshire Line
- 2tph to Whitlocks End via Smethwick Galton Bridge and Shirley
- 2tph to Dorridge via Smethwick Galton Bridge and Solihull
- of which one continues to Stratford-upon-Avon via Lapworth
- Two evening weekday West Midlands Railway services to Leamington Spa.
- of which one continues to Stratford-upon-Avon via Lapworth
- 2tph to Dorridge via Smethwick Galton Bridge and Solihull
Westbound:
- 4 trains per hour to Kidderminster via Stourbridge Junction:
- of which two continue to Worcester Foregate Street via Droitwich Spa
- Some services reverse or terminate at Worcester Shrub Hill.
Chiltern Railways also serve the station with one train to Stourbridge Junction at weekday nighttime only, from London Marylebone. A morning service to Marylebone runs on Sunday mornings only.[6]
Regular direct services to and from Birmingham New Street (the terminus for all eastbound trains between 1967 and the reopening of the line to Snow Hill in 1995) ceased in May 2004 and passengers wishing to travel there must now change at Galton Bridge.[7]
| Preceding station |  National Rail
|
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Midlands Railway | ||||
| West Midlands Railway | ||||
| Chiltern Railways | ||||
Bus interchange
editAlongside the railway station there is a bus station with five bus stands, which opened during the 1980s. The bus station was extensively rebuilt from 2014 to 2015,[8] and reopened in July 2015 as Cradley Heath Interchange. The bus station is owned and operated by Transport for West Midlands[9] which charges operators for their usage. Services are operated by National Express West Midlands and Diamond Bus. The former Midland Red bus depot stands across the road from the interchange and is now Hawks Cycles.[10]
References
edit- ^ "Rescue Dive at Station" (PDF). Birmingham Post. 8 October 1954.
The porter, Tony Rivers, of 132, Park Road, Netherton, Dudley, was taken unconscious to Dudley Guest Hospital with head and leg injuries.
[permanent dead link] - ^ "Lot 217, 20 October 1993". Dix Noonan Webb. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
- ^ "No. 40480". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 May 1955. p. 2874.
- ^ "Train timetables and schedules | Cradley Heath". West Midlands Railway.
- ^ "Train times | Snow Hill Lines - Worcester to Birmingham Snow Hill, Solihull and Stratford upon Avon | Timetable from 10 December 2023". West Midlands Railway.
- ^ "Timetable | 22 May 2023 - 8 December 2023: London to High Wycombe, Bicester, Oxford, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon and Birmingham". Chiltern Railways.
- ^ PSUL Summer 2004 - West Midlands Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Passenger Train Services over Unusual Lines; Retrieved 6 June 2016
- ^ "£1.9m Cradley Heath interchange facelift on track". Halesowen News. 24 September 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
- ^ "Bus stations and travel hubs". www.tfwm.org.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
- ^ "Midland Red depot information". midlandred.net. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
Further reading
edit- Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2007). Worcester to Birmingham. Middleton Press. figs. 71-76. ISBN 9781904474975. OCLC 263292710.
External links
edit
- Train times and station information for Cradley Heath railway station from National Rail
- Photographs of the bus station