Water Orton railway station


Water Orton railway station serves Water Orton in Warwickshire, near Birmingham, England. It is owned by Network Rail, and managed by West Midlands Trains. However, no West Midlands Trains stop there; it is only served by CrossCountry services.

History

It was first opened in 1842 by the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway on its line into Birmingham Lawley Street from.
However the Midland Railway built a cutoff line from slightly further west to a junction at in 1909 and the station was resited. Although the distance saved was only a mile-and-a-quarter, the junctions at Water Orton and Kingsbury could be taken at a much higher speed than the original one at Whitacre. The line from Whitacre to Kingsbury is used by only a few trains a week, such as the 20:30 Crosscountry service from Birmingham towards Derby, though it passes fast through Water Orton.
A freak tornado in Birmingham in 1996 damaged the wooden staircase. Rather than remove and replace the stairs, the damaged staircase was repaired in situ resulting in a zig-zag appearance. Local residents approved of this and it was left as it is found today.

Services

Platform 1 is used for trains to Leicester and Birmingham.
Platform 2 is used for trains to Derby, of which only one calls.
Services are mainly two hourly to Birmingham New Street and Leicester, with additional services in the peak.
There is one train a day Monday-Friday to Derby via Tamworth; one also calls in the opposite direction.
There is no Sunday service.