Worcester Foregate Street railway station
Encyclopedia
Worcester Foregate Street railway station, opened by the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 in 1860, is situated in the centre of the city of Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

, in Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is physically the smaller of the two stations serving the city, but is more centrally located. The other station is Worcester Shrub Hill
Worcester Shrub Hill railway station
Worcester Shrub Hill railway station is one of two railway stations serving the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England. It is managed by London Midland, and it is also served by First Great Western....

 situated to the east.

The station layout is unusual in that travelling east the two platforms serve different routes, rather than different directions. Platform 1 can only be accessed by trains via Worcester Shrub Hill (including trains to and from London Paddington), while Platform 2 can only be accessed from the east by trains running directly to and from Droitwich Spa
Droitwich Spa railway station
Droitwich Spa railway station serves the town of Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire. 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...

, avoiding Shrub Hill.

The station itself is built on a viaduct, meaning that space for expansion is restricted. Despite its small size, the remains of two signal boxes can be seen, one spanning the tracks and the second now the station cafe.

History

The station opened on the 17th May 1860. It was originally part of the Hereford and Worcester Railway which was incorporated into the West Midland Railway, before being absorbed by the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

. On the 1st January 1948 the company became Government owned under British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

.

The station celebrated its 150th birthday on 23 May 2010 with the unveiling of a plaque and a special train that ran to Great Malvern railway station
Great Malvern railway station
Great Malvern railway station serves the line between Worcester and Hereford. It is situated close to the centre of Great Malvern, England. It is one of two stations serving the town of Malvern, the other being Malvern Link station...

 (which celebrated its 150th Anniversary on the same date).

The art gallery Movement opened on platform 2 on 2 October 2010.

Services

The station is served by two train operating companies: London Midland
London Midland
London Midland is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. Legally named London and Birmingham Railway Ltd, it is a subsidiary of Govia, and has operated the West Midlands franchise since 11 November 2007....

 (who manage the station) and First Great Western
First Great Western
First Great Western is the operating name of First Greater Western Ltd, a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that serves Greater London, the South East, South West and West Midlands regions of England, and South Wales....

. London Midland operate services to Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 via two different routes, either direct to Birmingham New Street
Birmingham New Street Station
Birmingham New Street is the main railway station serving Birmingham, England, located in the city centre. It is an important hub for the British railway system, being served by a number of important long-distance and cross-country lines, including the Birmingham loop of the West Coast Main Line,...

 (via Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove railway station
Bromsgrove railway station serves the town of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire. It is located at the foot of the two-mile Lickey Incline which ascends at a gradient of 1-in-37.7 towards Barnt Green on the line between Birmingham and Worcester. The station opened as part of the Birmingham and Gloucester...

), or via Kidderminster
Kidderminster railway station
Kidderminster railway station is the main station serving the large town of Kidderminster, Worcestershire. The station is operated by London Midland.-Facilities:...

 to Birmingham Snow Hill
Birmingham Snow Hill station
Birmingham Snow Hill is a railway station and tram stop in the centre of Birmingham, England, on the site of an earlier, much larger station built by the former Great Western Railway . It is the second most important railway station in the city, after Birmingham New Street station...

.
First Great Western operate a service to London Paddington
Paddington station
Paddington railway station, also known as London Paddington, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex.The site is a historic one, having served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current mainline station dates...

 via the Cotswold Line
Cotswold Line
The Cotswold Line is an railway line between and in England.-Route:The line comprises all or part of the following Network Rail routes:*GW 200 from Oxford*GW 310 from Wolvercot Junction*GW 300 from Norton Junction*GW 340 from Worcester Shrub Hill...

 and Oxford
Oxford railway station
Oxford railway station is a mainline railway station serving the city of Oxford, England. It is about west of the city centre, northwest of Frideswide Square and the eastern end of Botley Road, and on the line linking with . It is also on the line for trains between and Hereford via...

, a service to Bristol Temple Meads
Bristol Temple Meads railway station
Bristol Temple Meads railway station is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is an important transport hub for public transport in Bristol, with bus services to various parts of the city and surrounding districts, and a ferry service to the city centre in addition to the...

 via Gloucester
Gloucester railway station
Gloucester railway station serves the city of Gloucester in England. The station was originally built as the terminus of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway in 1840, but the arrival of the Bristol and Gloucester Railway and Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway in 1844, and then conversion...

, and a twice-daily service to Southampton Central
Southampton Central railway station
Southampton Central railway station is a main line railway station serving the city of Southampton in Hampshire, southern England. It is on the Wessex Main Line, the South Western Main Line and the West Coastway Line...

. Both companies have services which continue beyond Worcester to the two Malvern
Malvern, Worcestershire
Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...

 stations of Malvern Link
Malvern Link railway station
Malvern Link railway station serves Malvern Link in Worcestershire, England. It is one of two stations serving the town of Malvern, the other being Great Malvern station....

 and Great Malvern
Great Malvern railway station
Great Malvern railway station serves the line between Worcester and Hereford. It is situated close to the centre of Great Malvern, England. It is one of two stations serving the town of Malvern, the other being Malvern Link station...

, and on to Hereford
Hereford railway station
Hereford railway station serves the city of Hereford, England. Managed by Arriva Trains Wales, it lies on the Welsh Marches Line between Leominster and Abergavenny and is the western terminus of the Cotswold Line.The station has four platforms...

.

See also

  • Worcester (Norton) Parkway railway station
    Worcester (Norton) Parkway railway station
    Worcester Parkway is a proposed new railway station in Norton, Worcester, England. The project is currently enjoying renewed interest, and the business case and technical development work is currently being undertaken by and on behalf of Worcestershire County Council...

  • Worcester (North) Parkway railway station
    Worcester (North) Parkway railway station
    Fernhill Heath Railway Station is a prospective new parkway railway station in Fernhill Heath, Worcester, England. No business case has been developed for this scheme by any promoters at present, so the scheme is unlikely to be delivered in the short to medium term.It would be located on both the...

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