Alrewas to get new Station?

[melmerby]

Hi all

There was an article on BBC Midlands Today this week gone about a proposal to provide a station to replace the one long gone from Alrewas, by the Level Crossing.

It has gone to the Rail Minister, who is not against the plan.

 

The idea is to provide a rail service for the National Memeorial Arboretum, close by. Currently everone has to arrive by road.

It was stated that there would likely also be a shuttle bus for those who need assistance.

 

I wonder what sort of service they are proposing?

It's about 4 miles from Lichfield Trent Valley HL station, but that only has electric trains on the Birmingham Cross City line.

Wichnor Junction on the Birmingam-Derby line is another 1.2 miles

 

Would a station on the Birmingham Derby line be a better bet? It's only about a mile from the main gate, along Barley Green Road to where the A513 crosses the main line.

There is plenty of room there for a station, which could be off the XC services.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

[SM42]

Electrifying that 4 miles or so from Lichfield  could be an option. 

 

Change ends via the single line or if resignalling at same time  install bi di routes.

 

The other traffic over the route at present is quite light. 

 

The big issue really is how much revenue earning traffic would all this, or indeed any investment in a new station see . 

 

Seems to be a nice idea but I can't see a financial return.

 

Again using XC  services on the Derby main line I can't see being a starter  either with the  hit of stopping services on the route and potential traffic. 

 

Even a Parkway style station I can't see being viable, with the other options nearby, although it could pick up some traffic to Derby or Burton

 

A bus from  Lichfield to the arboretum would be a better solution, but again would the numbers stack up?

 

Now perhaps reopen from Lichfield to Walsall ( unlikely) at the same time and link Derby to Walsall  then you may have a viable service with commuter traffic as an alternative to the A5 and A38

 

Andy

 

 

[laurenceb]

WM PTE planned to extend the Trent valley service through to Burton, whether or not this is still the case I know not. There have been several attempts to run a bus service totheArboretum, all have failed.

[Ian Hargrave]

Another factor in consideration is the current heavy flow of traffic on the A38 which provides its own not infrequent hazards. It runs parallel to the Lichfield-Alrewas line .Alrewas has grown in size over the years and provides considerable commuter traffic in both directions of the A38. It would make sense to extend the electrification of the Cross City line if an agreement to provide a service as far as a new station were  to be reached. Thus far but no further should be viable. At present the line is lightly used.and it is geographically close to the village 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Ian Hargrave
spelling

[SM42]

Whilst there may be a burgeoning market in Alrewas, extending the Cross City service without a link through to Derby I don't think would be preferable to expanding capacity at Lichfield Trent Valley

Connections to central Birmingham could be adequately served with only a short drive to a station and there would still be no provision for northbound commuters.

 

Ultimately I would like to see Stourbridge Walsall Lichfield and beyond reopened to heavy rail and provide a commuter route across the West and North of the West Midlands conurbation. 

 

The Midland Metro extension to Dudley is I think a poor substitute for heavy rail and as far as I see it trams should replace buses in city centres rather than link centres. I am minded of European hub and spoke metros in this respect. Trams in  the centre. Buses feeding into the trams on the outskirts

 

However we are where we are and I doubt the people of Stourbridge Dudley Aldridge Lichfield Alrewas and Burton will have a rail alternative for their commute in my lifetime.

 

Andy 

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by SM42

[melmerby]

Another plan in the TfWM ideas box is to connect the GWR Snow Hill line and Midland Camp Hill line with a chord at Bordesley to allow trains to/from Moor Street (which will gain 2 more terminal platforms), access to the Derby line for extra services to Tamworth HL, which is within the TfWM re-mit, this could provide a service to the NMA, rather than XC services, if extended a few miles.

This service would AFAIK include re-opening  of some long closed stations on the route and maybe provide new ones.

[SM42]

5 hours ago, melmerby said:

Another plan in the TfWM ideas box is to connect the GWR Snow Hill line and Midland Camp Hill line with a chord at Bordesley to allow trains to/from Moor Street (which will gain 2 more terminal platforms), access to the Derby line for extra services to Tamworth HL, which is within the TfWM re-mit, this could provide a service to the NMA, rather than XC services, if extended a few miles.

This service would AFAIK include re-opening  of some long closed stations on the route and maybe provide new ones.

 

The cheaper option  for this would be a reverse at Tyseley.

 

A lot less infrastructure work

 

Andy

 

 

[Hobby]

That chord is another which I can't see happening, when XC run their full service which no doubt will return at some point, there are two fast trains and two stoppers each way BHM to DBY, plus the LEI trains also have two an hour as far as Water Orton and the slow lines between Water Orton and Saltley are heavily used by freight. I'm not saying it's not possible to fit more in but adding at least one extra an hour from Moor St to TAM gives the potential for even more to go wrong than there already is! There's nowhere to terminate trains at TAM HL either.

 

I believe that are doing something to the rather daft junction layout at Water Orton soon, though I'm not sure what (anyone know?). But before they even consider adding any more trains on the section up to TAM they MUST sort out Kingsbury Junction!

 

Extending the wires to Alrewas seems like an expensive option for potentially very little use and i suspect extending them to DBY (as someone else suggested) is a non starter in the present climate where money could be much better spent. Surely a shuttle from Lichfield TV is a better option, run by an electric bus?

 

On the subject of capacity I'm interested how they are going to sort it at Burton when the Leicester trains go there, a new platform perhaps or put a bay in the middle of what used to be the forest on the existing platform? (I did wonder why the wood was cleared!!)

[41516]

2 hours ago, Hobby said:

On the subject of capacity I'm interested how they are going to sort it at Burton when the Leicester trains go there, a new platform perhaps or put a bay in the middle of what used to be the forest on the existing platform?

 

That's pretty much where the old bay for the south end of the station was.  Both end bays were removed and filled in to extend the platforms as everything at either end was heavily rationalised. 

 

I'd assume now you'd have services terminating at Derby, rather than the huge expensive of completely renewing the track layout,

 

Image crop added from a scanned slide to illustrate  - Original photograher unknown.

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by 41516
spelling

[melmerby]

On 19/01/2022 at 19:17, SM42 said:

 

The cheaper option  for this would be a reverse at Tyseley.

 

A lot less infrastructure work

 

Andy

 

 

And a lot more operating inconvenience, with a time penalty.

 

There is also another plan, more advanced, to provide a chord on the other arm of the Camp Hill route so the, to be re-opened, stations along it could access Moor St, rather than New St.

[SM42]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

And a lot more operating inconvenience, with a time penalty.

 

There is also another plan, more advanced, to provide a chord on the other arm of the Camp Hill route so the, to be re-opened, stations along it could access Moor St, rather than New St.

 

The time penalty ( 5 minutes or so  )  could be added into the timetable. The trick is to fit it around the other services. 

 

For the Camp Hill it would be a good option to  route Hereford - New St that way to serve  the  new stations. Only problem then is the routing through Proof House. 

 

Routing into Moor St would beg the question where is the other end of the service.

Redditch is a waste of wires, Bromsgrove likewise ( unless the route is electrified at the same time and while they are it the fast lines from King's Norton to Longbridge)

 

Worcester? May as well go to Hereford and start at New St using existing services

 

Having said that a chord would open up some interesting possibilities for longer distant services. 

 

Andy

[Northmoor]

As a teenager, on wet weekends I would (as well as reading piles of Railway Modellers) plan BR's rolling electrification programme.  Interesting to see how the Trans-Pennine route is now being wired using the "small increments" I considered would be effective when I was 12.....

 

One of my ideas was to extend the planned Cross-City electrification to Lichfield TV, onwards to Burton and Derby (with a new station at Alrewas).  Then continuing to Sheffield and Doncaster, it would allow electric CC services to reach Birmingham from the North, although obviously I had no idea how they would be pathed amongst the EMUs.  I think my idea was that it would allow them to go over to electric power early, whilst the normal route via Tamworth was wired, also having the wires already North of Derby reduced the cost of completing the MML.  These "infills" were I think being considered at one time; wasn't there a BR proposal to electrify Grantham-Nottingham and Retford-Sheffield, to allow these cities to be served from Kings Cross via the ECML and presumably, further downgrade services on the MML.

 

Back to reality; Alrewas is obviously a potential source of traffic and turn-round for the Cross-City service but I agree with others that the real benefit is if this takes place at Derby, perhaps extending every other Lichfield TV service to there?  It would be a handy way to serve stops like Willington and providing a rail equivalent to the A38.