Ludlow railway station
Ludlow railway station serves the market town of Ludlow, in Shropshire, England. It lies on the Welsh Marches Line between to the north and Hereford. It is the fourth busiest station by passenger numbers in Shropshire after Shrewsbury, and. The station is located on Station Drive, to the north-east of the town centre.
History
The station opened on 21 April 1852, as the southern terminus of the first section of the Hereford Railway. Trains travelling to or from the south of the station pass through the short Ludlow Tunnel, which passes under Gravel Hill and has its tunnel entrance immediately south of the platforms. A quarter of a mile to the north of the station was Clee Hill Junction, where a branch line ran to the quarries in the nearby Clee Hills, to the east of Ludlow, from 1864 to 1962.The engine shed closed in 1951 and the goods yard on 6 May 1968. In the late 1960s, the Victorian buildings at the station were demolished and the last signal boxes closed.
Stationmasters
- Hugh Morgans from 1852
- Charles Allen ca. 1854 - ca. 1860
- Richard Edwards ca. 1864 - ca. 1871
- Martin Charles Tidmarsh ca. 1877 - 1882
- Henry Hughes ca. 1884 - ca. 1898
- Arthur Frederick Stringer ca. 1903 - ca. 1921
- Edward Harrington 1924 - 1932
- Henry Edward Jones 1932 - 1942
- Arthur Parry from 1942
- Wilfred Henry P Glaswardine 1949 - 1952
- Henry N. Duce ca. 1956
Accidents and incidents
- At 3.15 am on 6 September 1956, a northbound parcels train, hauled by GWR 4300 Class 2-6-0 No. 9306, overran signals and ran into the rear of an express passenger train from to Manchester London Road carrying 150 passengers, but caused no deaths and only one serious shock casualty. The passenger train had halted because a lorry that had crashed into a level crossing at Onibury station had blocked the track.
Facilities
There are two platforms — platform 1 is the northbound platform and platform 2 is the southbound platform. There is level access to the ticket office and platform 1, the footbridge can now be reached by a recently installed lift from that platform. Level access to platform 2 is via a ramp down from Quarry Gardens, which also provides a ramp to the platform from the footbridge. A long path also provides a level access route that runs over the tunnel entrance between the platforms.Facilities include a staffed ticket office, car parking, small weatherproof platform shelters, and an accessible adapted toilet.
The station is served by Ludlow's two frequent town bus services, the 701 and 722.
The goods shed adjacent to the railway line to the north of Station Drive is now home to the Ludlow Brewery. It has been renovated and is open to the public, with information on local railway history.
Services
Passenger services are currently provided by Transport For Wales. The standard off-peak weekday service in trains per hour is:- 1tph to, via Shrewsbury, and
- 1tph to, via Hereford and ; alternate services are extended to,, or
- 1tp2h to, via Shrewsbury and Chester
- 1tp2h to Cardiff Central, via Hereford and Newport.