Lydney railway station is a

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 prep ...

serving the town of

Lydney Lydney is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is on the west bank of the River Severn in the Forest of Dean District, and is 16 miles (25 km) southwest of Gloucester. The town has been bypassed by the A48 road since 199 ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

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 is located on the Gloucester-Newport line. The station is located a mile south of Lydney, and was originally called Lydney Junction, which is now the name of the nearby station on the preserved

Dean Forest Railway The Dean Forest Railway is a long heritage railway that runs between Lydney and Parkend in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. The route was part of the former Severn and Wye Railway which ran from Lydney to Cinderford. The society that ope ...

History

Bilson, Cinderford, Coleford, Lydbrook & Lydney RJD 86

Lydney Junction was the name of two separate but adjacent stations on two different railway lines. The Great Western Railway station, which is the one that remains open as Lydney railway station, opened in 1851 on the Gloucester to Chepstow section of the

South Wales Railway The South Wales Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd De Cymru) was a main line railway which opened in stages from 1850, connecting the Great Western Railway from Gloucester to South Wales. It was constructed on the broad gauge. An original aspiration was to ...

. To the west of this station, the freight-only line of the Severn and Wye Mineral Railway crossed the GWR line on its north–south route taking coal and iron from the Forest of Dean to the docks at Lydney. In 1875, the Severn and Wye started passenger services and built a new terminus station at Lydney Junction for passenger trains to and from Drybrook, near

Cinderford Cinderford is a town and civil parish on the eastern fringe of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. The population was 8,777 at the 2021 Census. The town came into existence in the 19th century, following the rapid expansion of Cinde ...

. Four years later, this first station was superseded by a new one as the Severn and Wye joined with 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 ...

in building the

Severn Bridge Railway The Severn Bridge Railway was a railway company which constructed a railway from Lydney to Sharpness in Gloucestershire, England. It was intended chiefly to give access for minerals in the Forest of Dean to Sharpness Docks, and the company buil ...

, which linked Lydney across the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

with the Midland's Sharpness Branch Line, enabling access for the Forest of Dean minerals to the new and more extensive docks at Sharpness. The new Lydney Junction (Severn and Wye) station was linked by a long footbridge to the GWR's station. There were also extensive freight yards in the north-east quadrant between the two lines, and these provided the only rail link between the Severn and Wye and the Great Western lines. The two stations worked closely together, particularly after 1894, when the Severn and Wye Railway was bought by the Great Western and the Midland. Finally, in 1955, under British Railways, the two stations were formally merged into one. Lydney Junction (Severn and Wye) was used as a through-station for passenger services to and from Berkeley Road railway station and over the

Severn Railway Bridge The Severn Railway Bridge (historically called the Severn Bridge) was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Co ...

. These services either terminated at

Lydney Town railway station Lydney Town railway station is a railway station on the Dean Forest Railway in Lydney in Gloucestershire. History The station which is situated in the centre of Lydney opened with rather basic facilities on 23 September 1875, these facilities ...

, which was in the centre of Lydney, or continued on northwards into the Forest of Dean to terminate at Lydbrook Junction on the Ross to Monmouth line. These services ceased abruptly in October 1960 when the Severn Railway Bridge was damaged beyond economic repair in a shipping accident. Passenger services were officially withdrawn from this Lydney Junction in November 1964 and it remained closed until reopening by the Dean Forest Railway in 1995. The other Lydney Junction, then renamed Lydney, lost its freight services in 1968 and its staffing in 1969, and the Great Western buildings on the platforms were demolished, though the signalbox remained until December 2012.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed, but a self-service ticket machine is provided (this can also be used for collecting advance purchase tickets). Train running information is provided by customer help points, digital CIS displays and timetable posters on each platform (along with waiting shelters). Step-free access is offered to both sides via the level crossing.

Services

The majority of passenger services at Lydney are provided by

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consi ...

, with an hourly -- service in each direction (although there are a couple of gaps during the middle of the day). On Sundays, there is a two-hourly service each way. CrossCountry also serve the station as part of their Cardiff Central to via

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

route. Monday to Saturday, there are six trains per day in each direction. There is no Sunday service on this route. There is no footbridge at the station, and therefore no means of crossing the line to get to the opposing platform once the level crossing gates close in advance of a train arriving.

Incidents

An incident occurred at the station's

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term a ...

on 23 March 2011 when a fault with the automatic barriers caused a northbound CrossCountry service to pass over the crossing at while the gates were raised (although the traffic lights were red).

References

External links

{{Transport in Gloucestershire Railway stations in Gloucestershire DfT Category F1 stations Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1851 Railway stations served by CrossCountry Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail Lydney 1851 establishments in England