Droitwich Spa railway station


Droitwich Spa railway station serves the town of Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire, England. It is located just to the south-west of Droitwich Spa Junction of the Worcester to Leamington Spa Line and the Worcester to Birmingham New Street line. The station is managed by West Midlands Trains, who also operate all trains serving it.

History

Droitwich Spa railway station was opened in 1852 as part of the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway, which was soon to come under the auspices of the Great Western Railway. It was in 1899, when the station was rebuilt by John Corbett, that the 'Spa' suffix was added. The station was linked into the Midland Railway's main line between Birmingham New Street and Gloucester by means of a short branch line to Stoke Works Junction, south of Bromsgrove. This also allowed trains from the Worcester direction to run to New Street as well as the GWR station at Snow Hill. Originally built as a double line, it was singled in 1969 when Gloucester Power Signal Box took over control of the main line south of Barnt Green.

Services

The service pattern from the station has varied somewhat over the years, particularly after most services via Kidderminster were diverted to New St in 1967 as part of the plans to close Snow Hill. Today though, travellers from the station once again have a choice of stations in Birmingham following the reopening of Snow Hill in 1995 and there are regular services on both routes into the city.
Currently there is an hourly service between New St and Hereford via Bromsgrove that calls here, along with two trains per hour between Snow Hill and Worcester. The latter continue beyond Snow Hill eastbound to either Whitlocks End or Dorridge, whilst some trains run through to/from Great Malvern. There are also limited extensions to and. The frequency on this line drops to hourly in the evenings.

On Sundays, the Worcester - Snow Hill service runs every hour, continuing eastbound to Shirley and Stratford-upon-Avon, whilst there is only a limited service between New St and Worcester/Hereford. However, following the December timetable change on 9 December 2012, London Midland will increase the frequency of services to to hourly in the afternoon, and bi-hourly in the mornings.
As of January 2016 the typical weekday off-peak service from the station is:
Services on the Snow Hill Line are generally served by Class 172 DMUs and services on the Hereford Line are normally served by Class 170s but one diagram is run by a Class 150 DMU.