Honeybourne is a stop on the Cotswold Line in Worcestershire. The station was once a busy junction with services between Cheltenham Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon as well as Worcester to London Paddington though was closed during the 1970s.
Information
Type:
National Rail
(Cotswold Line)
Station code:
HYB
Opened:
1853 (Closed 1969)
Re-opened:
1981
Platforms:
2
The station was opened in 1853 by the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway, within a few years becoming part of the Great Western Railway. A line South from Stratford-upon-Avon reached Honeybourne in 1859, the line being extended onto Cheltenham in 1908.
The station went into decline in the 1960s, the freight yard being closed in 1964 and the station closing entirely in 1969. The Stratford-Cheltenham line continued to be used for freight until 1976. The station was re-opened in 1981 after new housing was built nearby and a prison. Traditionally Honeybourne had generated very little traffic itself as the station was in a rural setting until later years, most passengers using the station as a junction.
The station had just a single platform in use until 2011 until the redoubling of the Cotswold Line between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh (the two stations either side of Honeybourne). Part of the line to Stratford is still in place as it is the rail access to Long Marston depot and storage area, there have been proposals to restore the line back to Stratford. There are also plans to extend the heritage Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway to Honeybourne.
The station has recently had it's platforms extended ready for the introduction of GWR Class 800 trains. GWR, who manage Honeybourne, operate all services to the station.
