Spring Road (SRI)

An updated version of this station profile can now be found on our dedicated railway station website

Spring Road is a stop on the Shakespeare Line (also known as the North Warwickshire Line) in Birmingham between Tyseley and Hall Green. 

WMR 172 344 heads off Southwards

Information
Type:	National Rail (Shakespeare Line)
Station code:	SRI
Opened:	1908
Platforms:	2

The station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1908 as Spring Road Platform [1]. A large factory owned by Lucas was built next to the station which helped with station usage. The station had a staffed ticket office and shelter though these have now gone. Nowadays the station is a standard unstaffed one with bus shelters and public information facilities. Access to the platforms is via ramps from Spring Road which passes over the railway on a bridge. At the South end of the station is a multi-storey carpark (unconnected to the railway) which the trains pass underneath.

The station is managed by West Midlands Railway. There are up to three trains an hour in each direction.

Station entrance

Platform view

Station sign

View from the road bridge

View down the platform

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham (Moor Street) (Middleton Press, 2006) Fig. 88

Warwick Parkway (WRP)

An updated version of this station profile can now be found on our dedicated railway station website

Warwick Parkway is a park and ride station between Hatton and Warwick near to the village of Budbrooke.

Information
Type:	Independently owned (Chiltern Main Line)
Station code:	WRP
Opened:	2000
Platforms:	2

Unlike most stations on the network Warwick Parkway is not owned by Network Rail. It is owned by Chiltern Railways who opened it in 2000. The station was opened with seven hundred and thirty seven car park spaces but has been expanded since opening to now have near a thousand spaces.

The station has opened due to the problem with providing more car parking at the tightly constrained Warwick and Leamington Spa stations. The station is well situated for motorway (M40) access [1].

The station was upgraded in 2012 (when more car parking spaces were added) and has also had a refurbishment in 2019. It is mainly served by Chiltern Railways on services between Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone though there are also some peak time West Midlands Railway services too.

Chiltern 168 326 arrives with a Birmingham bound service

Platform shelter

Look down the platforms

...and the other direction

There are lifts for step-free access between platform and ground level

A Chiltern service prepares to depart

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Banbury to Birmingham (Middleton Press, 2004) Fig. 48

Kilburn Park (ZKP)

An updated version of this station profile can now be found on our dedicated railway station website

Information
Type:	Transport for London (Bakerloo Line)
Station code:	ZKP
Opened:	1915
Platforms:	2

Kilburn Park is in between Queen's Park and Maida Vale. Like a number of stations on this stretch of the Bakerloo Line it was opened in 1915 as part of the line's extension from Paddington to Queen's Park [1].

After opening for 10 days Kilburn Park (originally it was to have been called just Kilburn) was the Northern terminus of the line as Queen's Park's opening was delayed meaning that passengers could only go as far as Kilburn Park and trains had to continue empty up to Queen's Park.

As with other stations on the line it was designed by Stanley Heaps to a modified Leslie Green design and the exterior of the building has glazed terracotta. The station is Grade II listed. Kilburn Park was one of the first stations designed for escalators instead of lifts.

A Bakerloo Line 72ts train arrives

Station entrance

Original signage 

Platform view

[1] Mike Horne, The Bakerloo Line (Capital Transport, 2001) p. 29

Worcester Shrub Hill (WOS)

An updated version of this station profile can now be found on our dedicated railway station website

Worcester Shrub Hill is one of Worcester's two railway stations though is not in the city centre like Worcester Foregate Street.

Information
Type:	National Rail (Cotswold & Snow Hill Lines)
Station code:	WOS
Opened:	1850
Platforms:	2

Shrub Hill is a much larger station than Foregate Street. It was opened in 1850 and was a joint project of the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton and Midland Railways. The current station building dates from 1865.

The station has two platforms connected by a footbridge though people who can't use the stairs have to cross the track (under supervision). The former platform three was a bay platform that is no longer in use but used to host services to Cheltenham Spa. Shrub Hill is adjacent to Worcester TMD with a number of stabling sidings behind the station. The station is host to a number of fine semaphore signals.

As well as West Midlands Trains services to/from Birmingham and Malvern the station has regular GWR services to London Paddington, Hereford and other destinations like Evesham and Westbury.

GWR 800 009 at Worcester Shrub Hill

GWR HST led by 43 189

Fine semaphores

View down the line, signalbox on the right

View from the footbridge, both platforms occupied

GWR 166 206 prepares to depart

Sandwell and Dudley (SAD)

An updated version of this station profile can now be found on our dedicated railway station website

Sandwell & Dudley is a stop on the West Coast Main Line in the West Midlands between Smethwick Galton Bridge and Dudley Port. 

A LNWR train prepares to depart

Information
Type:	National Rail (West Coast Main Line)
Station code:	SAD
Opened:	1852
Platforms:	2

The station was opened as Oldbury and Bromford Lane by the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Stour Valley Railway (later the London North Western Railway) in 1852. The station later becoming just Oldbury. The station was rebuilt and enlarged for intercity traffic (long enough for thirteen coach trains [1]) in 1983 and renamed Sandwell and Dudley (though the name Oldbury International was considered and even used on some early announcements after reopening [2]). The station was rebuilt in the plain brickwalls and mono-pitch roof style common to British Rail in the 1980s, sometimes called neovernacular [3].

The station platforms are accessible via a subway and ground level booking office. The station is managed by West Midlands Railway. Most services are provided by West Midland Railway and London Northwestern Railway, there is an hourly service by Avanti West Coast as well.

Avanti West Coast Pendolino passes through

Waiting room

LNWR 350 405 arrives

Steps down to the booking hall and exits

A Cross Country service passes through

[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Birmingham to Wolverhampton via Tipton (Middleton Press, 2008) Fig. 67

[2] Ibid. Fig. 69

[3] David Lawrence, British Rail Architecture 1948-97 (Crecy, 2018) p. 155