Railways of Shropshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shropshire has a fairly large railway network, with 19 'national rail' stations, as well as the famous heritage Severn Valley Railway running along its eastern border with Worcestershire and the smaller Telford Steam Railway.
The majority of the county's public rail services are run by Arriva Trains Wales (Arriva also run most of the bus services in the area too), the rest are run by Central Trains. There are currently no direct services to London, though the Wrexham Shropshire and Marylebone Railway company has recently been set up and they plan to provide such services from 2007.
Shrewsbury station is at the centre of this network and has 5 platforms, a cafe, ticket offices and a British Transport Police office. The Shrewsbury-Wolverhampton Line is the busiest line in Shropshire, serving the county town, the new town of Telford and then onto the cities of Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
Craven Arms station is where the junction between the Welsh Marches Line and the Heart of Wales Line is, although services on the Heart of Wales Line begin at Shrewsbury.
There are many closed lines in Shropshire, including the Minsterley branch line, the Bishop's Castle Railway, the Stafford to Newport line and the Snailbeach light railway. Many were closed in the 1960s, although the county did not fare too badly under Dr Beeching's massive nationwide railway cuts. However, some previously major railway centres such as Oswestry and Market Drayton, now have no public railways.
There are no electrified railways in the county (unless you count the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway), despite the surrounding railway nodes of Crewe, Chester and Wolverhampton all being electrified. This has meant that since the mid-1990s there has been a reluctance to establish a London link by the cross-country railway companies, notably Virgin. They did however run some direct London trains in 2000.
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[edit] Heritage Railways
There are, as well as the established Severn Valley Railway, two other heritage railways in the county - the Telford Steam Railway in Horsehay, Telford (which is being extended) and sections of the Cambrian Railway (see: Cambrian Railway Trust and Cambrian Railway Society), which are being restored in the Oswestry area.
[edit] Tunnels
Shropshire's current railway network has three tunnels in use - Oakengates Tunnel and the short Ludlow Tunnel on the national network along with the very short Knowlesands Tunnel on the 16 mile Severn Valley Railway. There is also a further tunnel on the short heritage railway that is the Telford Steam Railway which will bring the total in use to four when they complete their northern extension to Lawley.
[edit] Stations A to Z
Here are listed in alphabetical order the 19 'national rail' stations in the county.
Albrighton railway station - Albrighton
Broome railway station - Broome
Bucknell railway station - Bucknell
Church Stretton railway station - Church Stretton
Cosford railway station - Cosford - Alight here for RAF Cosford
Craven Arms railway station - Craven Arms - Change here for the Heart of Wales Line
Gobowen railway station - Gobowen (for Oswestry) - Bus service to Oswestry
Hopton Heath railway station - Hopton Heath1
Knighton railway station - Knighton2
Ludlow railway station - Ludlow
Oakengates railway station - Oakengates
Prees railway station - Prees - Request stop
Shifnal railway station - Shifnal
Shrewsbury railway station - Shrewsbury
Telford Central railway station - Telford Central
Wellington (Shropshire) railway station - Wellington
Wem railway station - Wem
Whitchurch (Shropshire) railway station - Whitchurch
Yorton railway station - Yorton - Request stop
1 Sometimes written as "Hoptonheath".
2 Although the town of Knighton is in Wales, the railway station is in Shropshire, England.
