Whitlocks End railway station is a railway station on the

North Warwickshire Line The North Warwickshire Line (also known as the Shakespeare Line) is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. It runs from Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, now the southern terminus of the line, a ...

located next to, and named after the hamlet of

Whitlock's End Dickens Heath is a large modern village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of West Midlands incorporating the much older hamlet of Whitlocks End. It was previously part of the civil parish of Hoc ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

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 ...

. It lies a short distance from several villages: Tidbury Green the new village of

Dickens Heath Dickens Heath is a large modern village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of West Midlands incorporating the much older hamlet of Whitlocks End. It was previously part of the civil parish of Hoc ...

in the West Midlands, and Major's Green, and Hollywood in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

. 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 ...

. The station serves as the terminus for many local services on the Snow Hill Lines from either , or . Of the three hourly services, two terminate/start here, and one continues to .

History

The station was opened 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 6 June 1936 to cater for the increased housing developments in the area, and was originally called ''Whitlocks End Halt'', the suffix was dropped on 6 May 1968. The original 1936 station had short and low platforms, this led to it being completely rebuilt in 1999 at a cost of £800,000. The station formerly had only one train per hour in either direction, this was changed from 1 October 2010, when services which had previously terminated at were extended to terminate at Whitlocks End, with the opening of a new turnback facility at the station. This was done in order to alleviate traffic congestion at Shirley station, by encouraging commuters to drive to Whitlocks End, which is the next station along the line. This in turn led to the station car park being extended in September 2011 to accommodate increased demand. The 275-space free station car park is managed by

Transport for West Midlands Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) is the public body responsible for co-ordinating transport services in the West Midlands metropolitan county in England. It is an executive body of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), with bus franch ...

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

have recently completed a £60,000 improvement scheme that included the doubling of bicycle storage capacity from 12 to 24.

Services

During Monday to Saturday daytimes: * 3 trains per hour northbound to Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill continuing to Stourbridge Junction, with some trains continuing onward to

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...

and

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

. * 1 train per hour southbound to

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 ...

(two services also terminate here from the Birmingham direction). On Sundays, there is an hourly service to via Snow Hill and to Stratford-upon-Avon.

References

External links

Entry for this station on Warwickshire railwaysEntry for this station on Rail around Birmingham & West Midlands
{{coord, 52.392, N, 1.852, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Solihull DfT Category F2 stations Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1936 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains