The station opened on 3 April 1876[1] as the temporary southern terminus of the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, while the difficult construction of the junction with the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway was completed at Kings Norton. Stirchley Street opened as a single platform with later added run around loop. In an initial land rental agreement with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, the station sits above Bournville Lane, as the tracks are on an embankment, shared with the canal.
Bournville station in 1962. Pre-electrification.
With the opening of the Cadbury Bournville Factory in 1879, in 1880 the station was renamed Stirchley Street and Bournville. After an improved through connection was developed to the Birmingham and Gloucester at Kings Norton in 1885, the railway track to Birmingham was doubled along its lines entire length as the line was extended into Birmingham New Street. This necessitated the construction of a southbound platform between the line and the canal, resulting even today in a narrow platform. In 1904, the station was finally renamed Bournville.[2]
The station has never had any goods facilities, but north of its location were the exchange sidings with the 6 miles (9.7 km) of the Bournville Works Railway, while south of it there was a Midland Railway developed roundhouseengine shed, which opened in 1895 and closed in 1961. The station area has changed considerably since the Midland Railway days and lost virtually all its original features as the station was completely rebuilt by British Rail in 1978 to the designs of the architect John Broome[3] along with the others on this line when the Cross-City route was commissioned. Prior to the rebuild, the station had only received a limited service (mainly at peak hours) for much of the 1960s and 1970s. The line was electrified in 1993.
The Cadbury chocolate factory is still adjacent to the station, reflected in the fact that Bournville station is partly painted in Cadbury purple, and station signs include the famous Cadbury logo, a reflection of the station providing ideal access for Cadbury World.
In 2011, the station featured in episode 2 of Julia Bradbury's television series Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury.
Disabled access
Both platforms have step-free access (by means of a ramp) from the Mary Vale Road entrance. The main station entrance, via the ticket office on Bournville Lane, only provides access to the platforms via steep steps. There is a ticket machine on platform 1 (for trains towards Birmingham New Street) for the benefit of passengers who enter the station via the step-free entrance.
Services
There are four trains an hour that serve Bournville in each direction on Mondays to Saturdays. Two of the northbound services terminate at Four Oaks whilst two continue onto Lichfield Trent Valley with two southbound services serving Redditch and the other two serving Bromsgrove.
On Sundays there are 3 trains an hour, with two terminating northbound at Lichfield Trent Valley and southbound at Redditch and one northbound at Birmingham New Street and one southbound at Bromsgrove.[10][11]
References
^"Local and District News". Worcester Journal. British Newspaper Archive. 8 April 1876. Retrieved 23 July 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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