Our fifth station of the day brings us one station down from Alvechurch to the terminus of the Cross City line and the town in the heart of Worcestershire in Redditch
In July 1858 the Redditch Railway Act authorised a line to link Redditch with the Midland Railway's Birmingham and Gloucester line at Barnt Green. The Redditch Railway opened on 18th September 1859 but was operated from the start by the Midland Railway. In 1868 the Evesham and Redditch Railway built a line south from Redditch through Evesham to a junction at Ashchurch. There were intermediate stations between Redditch and Evesham at Studley and Astwood Bank, Coughton, Alcester, Wixford, Broom Junction, Salford Priors, and Harvington. British Railways closed the line south of Alcester on 29th September 1962 after suspending the passenger service between Redditch and Evesham due to poor track condition. Freight services continued between Redditch and Alcester until 1964 when BR closed the whole line south of Redditch. The remaining line from Redditch to Barnt Green was nearly closed under the Beeching Axe, which would have severed the town from the railway network entirely. But a strong campaign by local residents and local MPs managed to save it. However, by the late 1960s, services to Redditch had been cut to the bare minimum with just four daily trains to and from Birmingham. This persisted until 1980, when an hourly service was extended to Redditch on the newly upgraded Cross-City Line. This was upgraded to half-hourly in 1989. The station has been relocated three times, on 4th May 1868, 7th February 1972 and 5th October 1992. The movement of the station was to give way to redevelopment in the town centre and the building of a new bus station. The most recent rebuilding of the station in 1992 coincided with the electrification of the Cross-City Line. The first station was in Clive Road when the original Redditch Railway was opened in 1859. The station moved to the site that is now the bus station when the railway was extended to Evesham in 1868. Some of the former goods yard that was on Pound Meadow is now the car park to current station but most of the yard has been redeveloped into housing and a hotel. The single track from Barnt Green, restricted the number of trains that could run to Redditch to two per hour. In November 2013 a scheme was approved to construct a new passing loop at Alvechurch to allow the service to be increased to three trains per hour. The line between Barnt Green and Redditch was closed for eight weeks for the works to be carried out, and was reopened on 1st September 2014. The improved service began in December 2014.
Nowadays, in this video, we see a variety of London Midland stock heading for a variety of destinations including Lichfield Trent Valley, Lichfield City and Four Oaks
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