Lapworth railway station

Lapworth railway station serves the village of Kingswood, Warwickshire, near the village of Lapworth from which it takes its name. It has two platforms connected by a footbridge. Most trains are those provided by Chiltern on its London Marylebone/Leamington Spa/Birmingham Snow Hill/Kidderminster route, but these are augmented by a few West Midlands Trains services.

Lapworth
Lapworth station platforms.
Location	Lapworth, District of Warwick England
Coordinates	52.3420°N 1.7257°W
Grid reference	SP187716
Managed by	Chiltern Railways
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	LPW
Classification	DfT category F1
History
Original company	Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway
Key dates
1854	Opened as Kingswood
1 May 1902	Renamed Lapworth
Passengers
2015/16	35,586
2016/17	46,224
2017/18	52,580
2018/19	72,774
2019/20	84,716
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

The station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1854.[1] It was known as Kingswood until 1 May 1902 when the name was changed to Lapworth[2] to avoid confusion with the station of the same name in Surrey. From 1894, Lapworth was the starting point of a short lived branch line to Henley-in-Arden. The branch was closed as an economy measure during the First World War in 1915, and never reopened.[3]

A footbridge spans the remaining two tracks, and continues to the west of the northbound platform spanning where quadruple tracks once existed. For a brief period prior to the lifting of the quadruple tracks there was a DMU service along what had been the GWR's Paddington - Birkenhead main line. It plied between Wellington (Shropshire) and Lapworth stopping at all the intermediate stations and linking them with Wolverhampton Low Level and Birmingham Snow Hill.

The station is unstaffed; ticketing is restricted to a 'Permit-to-Travel' machine located at the main entrance to the station (off Station Lane) at the north end of the London-bound (southbound) platform. The station can also be accessed via a footpath from Mill Lane.

Accidents and incidents

• On 30 November 1948, locomotive 4150 was running round its train when it was in collision with a passenger train hauled by 5022 Wigmore Castle, which had overrun signals.[4] Eight passengers were injured.[5]

Services

The station has a basic two-hourly service in each direction in the current timetable, provided by the Chiltern Railways Leamington Spa to Birmingham Moor Street service. In peak hours this is augmented by some additional West Midlands Trains services to/from Leamington, giving through links to Stourbridge Junction and Kidderminster, and during weekdays two trains a day go to Stratford-upon-Avon. On Sundays a two-hourly service operates, but with through services to and from London Marylebone.[6]

References

1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 135. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. Butt 1995, pp. 135, 138
3. "Henley-in-Arden - Original Station". Warwickshire Railways. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
4. "Light at the end of the tunnel for Severn 'Prairie'". Steam Railway. Peterborough: Bauer Consumer Media Ltd (455): 40–42. 17 June 2016. ISSN 0143-7232.
5. "Four killed and 50 injured in train crash". The Times (51243). London. 1 December 1948. col A-B, p. 4.
6. GB National Rail Timetable 2016, Table 71

External links

• Train times and station information for Lapworth railway station from National Rail
• Historical photographs of Lapworth station at warwickshirerailways.com
• Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Lapworth station