Ludlow railway station

Ludlow
Location
Place	Ludlow
Local authority	Shropshire Council
Grid reference	SO513750
Operations
Station code	LUD
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	0.288 million
2011/12	0.293 million
2012/13	0.298 million
2013/14	0.287 million
2014/15	0.308 million
History
Key dates	Opened 1852
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Ludlow from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Ludlow railway station serves the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. It lies on the Welsh Marches Line between Shrewsbury (which is 27 miles 42 chains (44.3 km) to the north^[1]) and Hereford. The station is on Station Drive, ¹⁄₂ mile (0.80 km) to the northeast of Ludlow town centre.

History

The station opened on 21 April 1852, as the southern terminus of the first section of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway. Trains travelling to or from the south of the station pass through the short Ludlow Tunnel (192 yards (176 m) long), which passes under Gravel Hill and has its tunnel entrance immediately south of the platforms. A quarter of a mile to the north of the station was Clee Hill Junction, where from 1864 to 1962 a branch line ran to the quarries in the nearby Clee Hills to the east of Ludlow.

The engine shed closed in 1951 and the goods yard on 6 May 1968. In the late 1960s, the Victorian buildings at the station were demolished and the last signal boxes closed.

Accidents and incidents

• At 3.15 am on 6 September 1956, a northbound parcels train overran signals and ran into the rear of a Penzance to Manchester express passenger train^[2] carrying 150 passengers but caused no deaths and only one serious shock casualty. The passenger train had halted because a lorry that had crashed into a level crossing at Onibury station had blocked the track.^[3]

Passenger services

Passenger services are currently provided by Arriva Trains Wales. The station is served by one to two trains per hour in each direction Mondays to Saturdays, and around fifteen trains each way on Sundays. There are direct trains to Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Newport, Cardiff Central, Milford Haven, Chester and Holyhead. The only passenger services running on the line that do not call at Ludlow are the two North-South Wales express services that run Monday to Friday in each direction.^[4]

Ludlow is the fourth busiest station by passenger numbers in Shropshire (second in the Shropshire Council area) after Shrewsbury, Telford Central and Wellington.

Facilities and access

Looking south towards Ludlow Tunnel, with the ticket office on the right.

There are two platforms — platform 1 is the northbound platform (for Shrewsbury) and platform 2 is the southbound platform (for Hereford). Whilst there is level access to the ticket office and platform 1, the footbridge can only be reached by steps from that platform, and level access to platform 2 is via a ramp down from Quarry Gardens; a long path provides a level access route that runs over the tunnel entrance between the platforms.

Facilities include a staffed ticket office (where railway-related books and light refreshments are available to buy), car parking, weatherproof platform shelters, and an accessible adapted toilet. The station is served by Ludlow's two frequent 'town' bus services, the 701 and 722.

The goods shed (on the former goods yard that closed in 1968) adjacent to the railway line to the north of Station Drive is now home to the Ludlow Brewery. It has been renovated and is open to the public, with information on local railway history.^[5]

See also

• Railways of Shropshire

References

1. Yonge, John; Padgett, David (August 2010) [1989]. Bridge, Mike, ed. Railway Track Diagrams 3: Western (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. map 27A. ISBN 978-0-9549866-6-7.
2. Hall, Stanley (1990). The Railway Detectives. London: Ian Allan. p. 119. ISBN 0 7110 1929 0.
3. "'Miracle' of disaster where nobody died". Shropshire Star. 21 May 2016. p. 20.'Nostalgia' special report by Toby Neal.
4. GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 131
5. WhatPub.com (CAMRA) Railway Shed, Ludlow

External links

• Train times and station information for Ludlow railway station from National Rail
• South Shropshire Access Group — information about disabled access in Ludlow (PDF link)

Coordinates: 52°22′16″N 2°42′58″W / 52.371°N 2.716°W