Bewdley | |
|---|---|
| Station on heritage railway | |
Sep2004.jpg) | |
| General information | |
| Location | Bewdley, Wyre Forest England |
| Grid reference | SO791753 |
| Managed by | Severn Valley Railway |
| Platforms | 3 |
52°22′31″N 2°18′22″W / 52.37528°N 2.30611°W
Bewdley railway station serves the town of Bewdley in Worcestershire, England. Until 2014, it was the administrative headquarters of the Severn Valley Railway, after which they were moved to Comberton Hill, Kidderminster. Bewdley is the principal intermediate station on the line.
Bewdley station originally opened in 1862 as one of the main intermediate stations on the 40+3⁄4-mile (65.6 km) line between Hartlebury and Shrewsbury. It was operated by the West Midland Railway, before that company was absorbed into the Great Western Railway (GWR).[1]
The Tenbury & Bewdley Railway opened in 1864, with its route through the Wyre Forest branching off the SVR 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Bewdley station, before crossing the River Severn over the now partially-dismantled Dowles Bridge. Thus, Bewdley became a junction station.
The GWR opened a "loop-line" to Kidderminster in 1878, which meant that Bewdley had a direct link with the town and became a double junction. As a legacy of its former junction status, Bewdley station is unique on the SVR in that it has two signal boxes, Bewdley North and Bewdley South.
Bewdley station was at its busiest at weekends and local holiday periods, but traffic declined with the increasing use of cars in the 1950s. As a consequence, rationalisation resulted in the end of through passenger traffic — firstly on the Wyre Forest line in 1962, followed by the Severn Valley line in 1963. Although thought by some to have been a result of the Beeching Axe, those closures pre-dated Beeching's report.
Until January 1970, British Rail continued to serve the last remaining stations of Stourport-on-Severn, Burlish Halt, Bewdley, Foley Park Halt and Kidderminster.
Bewdley was disused for only four years before preservationists from the new SVR Company bought the land, track and buildings in 1974, enabling the SVR to extend from Bridgnorth–Hampton Loade to Highley and eventually Bewdley that same year.
From 1980 onwards, occasional bank holiday services were operated to Bewdley, originally from Kidderminster and later from Birmingham New Street. The SVR's own services to Kidderminster could not commence until sugar beet traffic to Foley Park ceased in 1982, and its own station, Kidderminster Town, was opened, which occurred two years later.
During and after preservation:
Just to the East of the station lies the 480-yard (440 m)-long Bewdley Tunnel.
Due to heavy congestion in the Wyre Forest, there have been calls for Bewdley station to be returned to the National Rail network. The idea of Kidderminster to Bewdley trains has been discussed at meetings with Central Trains, its successors London Midland, West Midlands Trains[8] and Chiltern Railways. The obstacle was always the question of who would provide the infrastructure and staff. New services could run further than Kidderminster, to Birmingham, Dudley or London.[9] West Midlands Trains says it plans to operate extensions of services from Kidderminster to the station by December 2019.[10]
Bewdley Railway Station has been used as a location for a number of television and cinema productions. These include the 1992 film Howards End, the 2007 film Woes of the Departed, and, as "Musborough Junction" station, the opening scenes of the 1984 BBC Television adaptation of the John Masefield novel The Box of Delights (keen-eyed viewers will spot the Bewdley station sign reflected in a window).[11]
