Bordesley railway station is a small

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

serving the area of Bordesley in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

located between Birmingham Moor Street and

Small Heath Small Heath is an area in south-east Birmingham, West Midlands, England situated on and around the Coventry Road about from the city centre. History Small Heath, which has been settled and used since Roman times, sits on top of a small hill. ...

stations. The current minimal level of service at the station is provided by

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...

services between Birmingham Snow Hill and

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

. The station is the least used in the

West Midlands county West Midlands is a metropolitan county in the West Midlands Region, England, with a 2021 population of 2,919,600, making it the second most populous county in England after Greater London. It was created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1 ...

with only 10,038 passengers using it annually. The single island platform is above street level, as the railway line here is on a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

. The only public access is from Coventry Road, directly underneath the railway bridge.

History

Bordesley station was opened in 1855 by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

on their main line from London (Paddington) to Birkenhead (Woodside). It was originally a two platform station, but was rebuilt as a four platform station with two

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

s when the line was upgraded to four tracks during 1915. The station once had extensive

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

sidings adjacent to and on

Duddeston Viaduct The Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway was an English railway line promoted by the Great Western Railway to gain a route from its southern base towards the industrial centres of the West Midlands, and in due course the north-west. It overto ...

. This viaduct was intended to link the line from Bordesley to the Derby Line but was left incomplete when it was realised that trains would be unable to serve Birmingham Curzon Street railway station, where rail services then terminated. Bordesley Station 1856225 bb134ad0

The station still carries the painted lettering "BR(W) Bordesley Cattle Station", and "Bordesley Cattle Station GWR" from the time when, as part of the Great Western Railway and later

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

's (Western) region, it was used to bring

from the countryside to the Bull Ring markets. The station was downgraded in the 1960s to minimal facilities and services, and one island platform was taken out of use.

Services

Since May 2007, the station has been served by a single weekly

parliamentary train A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act req ...

in one direction only. Currently this is the 13:40 train from to which calls at Bordesley at 13:56 on Saturdays only. The station primarily serves as a match day stop for nearby St Andrew's stadium of

Birmingham City Football Club Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

, and additional services stop there when there are home fixtures.

References

External links

History of the station with old photosDescriptive tour with modern photos
{{West Midlands railway stations, open Railway stations in Birmingham, West Midlands DfT Category F2 stations Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1855 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1915 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1915 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains