Could Polesworth Get a Proper Service?

[DynamicSpirit]

I was pondering about why Polesworth station has only a parliamentary service. Doing a bit of Googling, it seems it's because it lost its footbridge during the 2005-ish WCML modernisation, so there's no access to the Southbound platform.

As far as I can see on Google maps, the station is located on the edge of a reasonable sized community that has no other nearby stations - it's certainly not in the middle of nowhere, so it looks like, if the LNWR London-Crewe trains stopped there, giving it the same service as Atherstone, it ought to generate a reasonable number of passengers. Does anyone have any idea whether that would be worth doing, or if there have been any actual serious proposals to reopen Polesworth properly? Presumably it would just need a new footbridge to be provided and the platforms to be cleaned up etc.

 

[The Planner]

I was pondering about why Polesworth station has only a parliamentary service. Doing a bit of Googling, it seems it's because it lost its footbridge during the 2005-ish WCML modernisation, so there's no access to the Southbound platform.

As far as I can see on Google maps, the station is located on the edge of a reasonable sized community that has no other nearby stations - it's certainly not in the middle of nowhere, so it looks like, if the LNWR London-Crewe trains stopped there, giving it the same service as Atherstone, it ought to generate a reasonable number of passengers. Does anyone have any idea whether that would be worth doing, or if there have been any actual serious proposals to reopen Polesworth properly? Presumably it would just need a new footbridge to be provided and the platforms to be cleaned up etc.

It would need a proper car park, its on the edge of town an it doesn't have one to speak of unless you count a few bays on a cul-de-sac. You could add in a stop northbound with not a lot of hassle as the fast Glasgow still won't chase it down approaching Crewe. Southbound is trickier as it is chased by a Manchester at Rugby.

 

[A0]

It would need a proper car park, its on the edge of town an it doesn't have one to speak of unless you count a few bays on a cul-de-sac. You could add in a stop northbound with not a lot of hassle as the fast Glasgow still won't chase it down approaching Crewe. Southbound is trickier as it is chased by a Manchester at Rugby.

Is Polesworth really a town ? Sub 10k population - a village surely ?

That said if there was ever a proposal for building houses on the east side of the railway line then I think reopening the station might get wrapped up in that. I think if the station were to be reopened the road bridge just to the south of the station would also need to be rebuilt as its currently single lane with traffic lights and no pavement.

 

[The Planner]

Is Polesworth really a town ? Sub 10k population - a village surely ?

That said if there was ever a proposal for building houses on the east side of the railway line then I think reopening the station might get wrapped up in that. I think if the station were to be reopened the road bridge just to the south of the station would also need to be rebuilt as its currently single lane with traffic lights and no pavement.

Depends if you start considering Dordon which merges in. Polesworth would become a bit of a P&R and abstract some Tamworth traffic I suspect.

 

[Purple Train]

Wasn't giving Polesworth a proper service one of LNWR's new franchise claims?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

It would need a proper car park, its on the edge of town an it doesn't have one to speak of unless you count a few bays on a cul-de-sac. You could add in a stop northbound with not a lot of hassle as the fast Glasgow still won't chase it down approaching Crewe. Southbound is trickier as it is chased by a Manchester at Rugby.

I'd guess if you're considering those kinds of pathing issues, there's also a matter that the London-Crewe only has a very short time to wait at Crewe before returning, so you might not want to cut into that. Although having said that, on the (few) times I've been on it, it's usually ended up getting held just outside Crewe for several minutes anyway, which makes me think, maybe it'd make not much difference if it arrived a minute or two later. (Not sure why it often gets held as I don't think anything else uses its platform at Crewe and as far as I can see it doesn't need to cross any other lines to get to it)

Mind you the pathing issues you mention are presumably going to go away in a few years anyway: Once HS2 is built, nothing should be running non-stop to London through Rugby.

 

[zwk500]

Is Polesworth really a town ? Sub 10k population - a village surely ?

The distinction is normally that a town has some kind of secondary industry beyond just a couple of shops (I grew up in a settlement of c.5k that had a shopping parade with a few takeaways and an estate agent and was usually described as a village by residents but was frequently referred to as 'almost a small town'). From google maps I'd probably say Polesworth is in that 'almost a town' bracket

That said if there was ever a proposal for building houses on the east side of the railway line then I think reopening the station might get wrapped up in that. I think if the station were to be reopened the road bridge just to the south of the station would also need to be rebuilt as its currently single lane with traffic lights and no pavement.

This is the only way I can see a justification for the station being refurbed. Make the developers pay for a 2nd entrance and accessible footbridge as part of the permission.

 

[Russel]

Looking at BR Fares, there is return fares available to Polesworh, assuming I was able to buy one and tried to use the return potion which is clearly impossible, would the railwau have to provide some kind of transport, or refund?

 

[yorkie]

Looking at BR Fares, there is return fares available to Polesworh, assuming I was able to buy one and tried to use the return potion which is clearly impossible, would the railwau have to provide some kind of transport, or refund?

Where would you be looking to purchase such a ticket? You won't get an itinerary from it, so I guess you have in mind that you'd use a ticket machine that doesn't have a journey planning mode, and claim ignorance of the timetable? I'm not sure that such a tactic would work...

 

[Russel]

I'm not looking to do it, I mean in theory...

The tickets are available to buy and not everyone has the level of knowledge of timetables and services that we on here do, so it's not an impossiblility...

I've actually just checked the TVM outside my local station and I could buy one now!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Would a guard on a train really object to you doubling back via either Tamworth or Atherstone, depending where you're travelling from/to? (Obviously wouldn't work for the return portion of a day return because only one train a day means once you've arrived, it's impossible for you to return the same day)

 

[yorkie]

Would a guard on a train really object to you doubling back via either Tamworth or Atherstone, depending where you're travelling from/to? (Obviously wouldn't work for the return portion of a day return because only one train a day means once you've arrived, it's impossible for you to return the same day)

If there was a later service, then I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem (and indeed I would expect to see easements created for it; that said, if it undercut the fares to the change point, then it would likely be accompanied by a fare increase!), however it's a moot point, given no such service exists.

 

[brad465]

The best comparison to Polesworth must be Pilning, which also only has 1 platform after a footbridge removal, in this case due to the GW electrification. Pilning receives around twice the number of passengers (338) that Polesworth does, despite only having 2 services a week, fewer than the daily Polesworth service. If Pilning can't get a proper service off this then I doubt Polesworth will, even though the latter appears to be in a more built-up area.

 

[AlastairFraser]

It would need a proper car park, its on the edge of town an it doesn't have one to speak of unless you count a few bays on a cul-de-sac. You could add in a stop northbound with not a lot of hassle as the fast Glasgow still won't chase it down approaching Crewe. Southbound is trickier as it is chased by a Manchester at Rugby.

Anywhere that linespeeds could be raised to compensate, for a reasonable investment?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

The best comparison to Polesworth must be Pilning, which also only has 1 platform after a footbridge removal, in this case due to the GW electrification. Pilning receives around twice the number of passengers (338) that Polesworth does, despite only having 2 services a week, fewer than the daily Polesworth service. If Pilning can't get a proper service off this then I doubt Polesworth will, even though the latter appears to be in a more built-up area.

I suspect what matters in that comparison is not the number of services per week, but the fact that the service pattern at Pilning allows someone to visit the station/area for a few hours on a Saturday then travel on later the same day, which would be an attractive and realistic proposition for many rail enthusiasts - who I would imagine constitute almost all Pilning's users. Hence why Pilning gets more custom. In contrast Polesworth's one train a day at a very antisocial hour in the morning makes it much harder for anyone - even rail enthusiasts to use the station.

I would hazard a guess that if LNWR changed the Polesworth service to something similar to Pilning - 2 trains on either a Saturday only or a Sunday only, a couple of hours apart, then usage at Polesworth would jump up - even despite that that would represent a reduction in services per week.

 

[Kite159]

The best comparison to Polesworth must be Pilning, which also only has 1 platform after a footbridge removal, in this case due to the GW electrification. Pilning receives around twice the number of passengers (338) that Polesworth does, despite only having 2 services a week, fewer than the daily Polesworth service. If Pilning can't get a proper service off this then I doubt Polesworth will, even though the latter appears to be in a more built-up area.

And how many of those 338 passengers are genuine passengers from the village a mile away and not part of the Pilning User Group?

Even when Pilning had a reasonable service, hardly anybody used it. Hence why it got cut back.

In comparison Polesworth is within a sizeable village with a lot of houses within walking distance, it's like Ince & Elton, who will bother using the train if they can't get back home (other than using the bus)

 

[The Planner]

Anywhere that linespeeds could be raised to compensate, for a reasonable investment?

Define reasonable. I doubt the original sections of the slows will ever be raised above 75. Especially with HS2.

 

[Nottingham59]

"In 2022/2023, Polesworth had 188 entries and exits, making it the 2,563rd most used, out of 2,575 stations in Great Britain."

Just close it. And if the rules make it expensive to withdraw the current 1tpd parliamentary service, then change the rules. The country has more important things to spend money on than keeping unused railway stations open.

 

[The Planner]

"In 2022/2023, Polesworth had 188 entries and exits, making it the 2,563rd most used, out of 2,575 stations in Great Britain."

Just close it. And if the rules make it expensive to withdraw the current 1tpd parliamentary service, then change the rules. The country has more important things to spend money on than keeping unused railway stations open.

I doubt it costs a lot to maintain in the grand scheme of things. The cost to close it will probably keep it open for 25 years.

 

[Mgameing123]

If

"In 2022/2023, Polesworth had 188 entries and exits, making it the 2,563rd most used, out of 2,575 stations in Great Britain."

Just close it. And if the rules make it expensive to withdraw the current 1tpd parliamentary service, then change the rules. The country has more important things to spend money on than keeping unused railway stations open.

Or how about actually give a town of 10k a proper rail service. They don't even need to reinstate the footbridge. In theory just building a second entrance from the road bridge would do.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Aug 2024 ==

It would need a proper car park, its on the edge of town an it doesn't have one to speak of unless you count a few bays on a cul-de-sac. You could add in a stop northbound with not a lot of hassle as the fast Glasgow still won't chase it down approaching Crewe. Southbound is trickier as it is chased by a Manchester at Rugby.

Not really. Good bike storage and maybe a local minibus service could do fine.

 

[SynthD]

In theory just building a second entrance from the road bridge would do.

It’s a very narrow bridge, proposing this might trigger calls for a bridge of modern standards. It could be pedestrianised as the next bridge isn’t far away.

 

[Manutd1999]

I think there would be a case post HS2 for the Trent Valley stopper to run half-hourly, in which case it would be reasonable for 1ph to call at an renovated Polesworth.

 

[WesternBiker]

In comparison Polesworth is within a sizeable village with a lot of houses within walking distance, it's like Ince & Elton, who will bother using the train if they can't get back home (other than using the bus)

Quite.

It does seem odd when some quite large sums are spent on giving smaller communities stations (Bow Street at £8m springs to mind), there are no funds to provide access to the up platform at Polesworth, with a population of over 9,000, many of whom are located conveniently close to the station.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It does seem odd when some quite large sums are spent on giving smaller communities stations (Bow Street at £8m springs to mind), there are no funds to provide access to the up platform at Polesworth, with a population of over 9,000, many of whom are located conveniently close to the station.

Indeed. Perhaps it's time to move Polesworth from the West Midlands to Mid Wales?

 

[Dr Hoo]

Bow Street functions largely as a ‘park and ride’ railhead and drive-in usage seems quite high.

We keep hearing that there is no significant parking possible at Polesworth.

 

[JonathanH]

I think there would be a case post HS2 for the Trent Valley stopper to run half-hourly, in which case it would be reasonable for 1ph to call at an renovated Polesworth.

Would there be track capacity though north of Handsacre? Not convinced there is an easy way to terminate at Tamworth.

Therefore, the more likely approach would seem to be to put more Rugby / Nuneaton / Tamworth stops in the residual WCML express service, and keep the 1tph all stations service through the Trent Valley including time for the Polesworth call.

Having said that, if Rugby, Nuneaton, Tamworth, Lichfield and Stafford have 125mph services to London, what is the best way to serve Atherstone, Polesworth and Rugeley? A 4-car Northampton to Stafford shuttle returns things to the bad days of the 153 Trent Valley shuttle, but giving the larger places fast trains to London means that the current 'stopper' no longer needs to go to London.

 

[Manutd1999]

By "post HS2" I actually meant "post HS2 and some scheme to resolve the capacity constraint through Handscare", whether that's Phase 2a or some alternative.

 

[JonathanH]

By "post HS2" I actually meant "post HS2 and some scheme to resolve the capacity constraint through Handscare", whether that's Phase 2a or some alternative.

Yes, but that isn't happening any time soon, and even if it ever does happen, Nuneaton, Tamworth and Lichfield would be calls in something like a London, Watford, Milton Keynes, Rugby, Nuneaton, Tamworth, Lichfield, Stoke, Macclesfield, Stockport, Manchester train that casts Atherstone, Polesworth and Rugeley adrift.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Having said that, if Rugby, Nuneaton, Tamworth, Lichfield and Stafford have 125mph services to London, what is the best way to serve Atherstone, Polesworth and Rugeley? A 4-car Northampton to Stafford shuttle returns things to the bad days of the 153 Trent Valley shuttle, but giving the larger places fast trains to London means that the current 'stopper' no longer needs to go to London.

Seems to me that upping the LNWR London-Crewe service to half-hourly, with an additional stop at Polesworth (and perhaps, Watford Junction) would be a perfect way to take advantage of the additional WCML capacity that is freed up by HS2. I'm not sure that having some of the current Avanti services slowed down through the Trent Valley changes that logic.

(I believe LNWR have aspirations to extend the London-Crewe service to Manchester, so by the time of HS2 the context might well be a London-Manchester stopper, but I don't think that changes the reasoning).

 

[JonathanH]

Seems to me that upping the LNWR London-Crewe service to half-hourly, with an additional stop at Polesworth (and perhaps, Watford Junction) would be a perfect way to take advantage of the additional WCML capacity that is freed up by HS2. I'm not sure that having some of the current Avanti services slowed down through the Trent Valley changes that logic.

I'm not sure that thinking in terms of 'LNwR' and 'Avanti' services is the right point though. They would effectively blend into one after HS2 as more stops are added to the residual WCML services.

It stands to reason that all services through the Trent Valley should call at the principal stations. If that happens, a 2tph LNwR-style Crewe stopper service isn't needed.