Hampton-in-Arden railway station serves the village of

Hampton-in-Arden Hampton in Arden is a village and civil parish located in the Forest of Arden in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, in the West Midlands of England. Hampton in Arden was part of Warwickshire until the 1974 boundary changes. It lies within ...

in the West Midlands of England. It is situated on the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

between

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...

and

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 ...

. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated 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 ...

History

The present station dates from 1884, when it was built by the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

(LNWR) although the line itself was laid and opened by the

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

, one of the constituent companies that merged in 1846 to form the L&NWR. It replaced an earlier station dating from the opening of the line in 1837 which was located approximately further north-west. In 1839, Hampton-in-Arden became a junction station at the southern end of the

Stonebridge Railway The Stonebridge Railway was a railway line between Whitacre Junction and Hampton-in-Arden in Warwickshire, England, passing through Stonebridge. It had an intermediate station at Coleshill, which was renamed Maxstoke in 1923. The railway ...

(part of the

Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway was a British railway company. From Birmingham it connected at Derby with the North Midland Railway and the Midland Counties Railway at what became known as the Tri Junct Station. It now forms part ...

(B&DJR), which was one of the constituent companies that merged in 1844 to form the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

). This line, which connected with the Birmingham-

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

line at Whitacre Heath, closed to passengers in 1917 and to all traffic in 1935, following a bridge at Packington failing its safety inspection. A small section of the line to Whitacre remained at the Hampton-in-Arden end for use as a storage siding until it was officially closed in 1952, with the track finally being lifted in early 1963. Prior to the opening of nearby Birmingham International station in 1976, express electric trains took just 90 minutes to run between Birmingham New Street and

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...

and called at Hampton-in-Arden, providing not only an extra commuter stop between Birmingham and Coventry but also served passengers using

Birmingham Airport Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Boroug ...

. The exceptionally long platforms at the current station are all that remains to show that these express services once stopped there. The original B&DJR station house and separate ticket and parcels building still stand in Old Station Road and are used as offices. They are separately

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

s, protecting them from unauthorised alteration or demolition. Together, they comprise a rare surviving example of architecture from the beginning of the railway age, and one of two remaining intermediate station buildings in Britain from the early days of railways, the other being the original Watford station in Hertfordshire. After the station's closure, much of the site was reclaimed for use as a sawmill, owned by Messrs Blackwell & Co.

Facilities

The station has a ticket office located by the station entrance on High Street which is open Monday-Friday 07:00-10:00 and Saturday 09:00-14:00. When the ticket office is open tickets must be purchased before boarding the train. Outside of these times there is a ticket machine outside the ticket office which accepts card payments only - cash and voucher payments can be made to the senior conductor on the train. Step free access is only available on the bound platform. The nearest station with full step free access is .

Services

Hampton-in-Arden is served by two trains per hour each way, to northbound and to via southbound. Some services to/from are split at with one service running between and and another between and . The evening service towards is reduced to one train per hour. On Sundays there is an hourly service each way between and via . There are some longer gaps of over 2 hours in services towards . GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 68 All services are operated by

. Most services are operated under the

London Northwestern Railway 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 ...

brand but some services (mainly early morning and late night services which start/terminate at ) operate under the West Midlands Railway brand.

References

External links

Rail Around Birmingham and the West Midlands: Hampton-in-Arden station
at WarwickshireRailways.com {{coord, 52.429, N, 1.700, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Solihull Former London and Birmingham Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains