Burton-on-Trent railway station

Burton upon Trent
General information
Location	East Staffordshire
Managed by	East Midlands Trains
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	BUT

Burton-on-Trent railway station serves the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was known as simply Burton until 1903 when it became Burton-on-Trent, by which it has been known for many years, in spite of the town's charter of 1878 which was for "Burton upon Trent". The railway industry refers to the station as "Burton-on-Trent", by which it has been known for many years[1].

History

The original station was opened in 1839 by the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway on its original route from Derby to Hampton-in-Arden meeting the London and Birmingham Railway for London. It was completely rebuilt about 150 yards further south in1883 when the lines were quadrupled. It consisted of an island platform with bays at each end, with substantial brick buildings along its length. As now, this was reached by a flight of steps from road level, where there was a booking hall in "early English style, partly timbered" The station was rebuilt yet again in 1971.

As a centre for beer brewing, Burton generated a great deal of freight traffic. In fact Burton itself was criss-crossed by the lines of the brewery companies' private lines, with a plethora of level crossings. In 1870 a new locomotive shed was built to the south of the station. This consisted of a roundhouse built round a 42 foot turntable. In 1892 another roundhouse was added, with a 50 foot turntable. In 1923 these were replaced by 57 foot and 55 foot turntables respectively. Originally coded "2" by the Midland Railway, it became 17B in 1935. By 1948 it had 111 locomotives allocated to it, but with the arrival of diesel locomotives it became a sub-depot of Nottingham being renumbered 16F, and it closed in 1968.

Facilities

Access to the station is from the bridge on Borough Road that crosses the railway line. At road level, there is a small car park, a taxi rank/shop (cunningly converted from a former bike shed) and the entrance to the station, which contains the ticket office. In order to reach the two platforms (Platform One is for Derby, Nottingham, London and the North, Platform Two is for Tamworth, Birmingham and the South), one must descend a broad staircase, one of the few remaining parts of the old station, which was all but demolished in the early 1970s.

Only a single building now stands at platform level (indeed, Burton is an island station, where the tracks run around a single platform), and this forlorn shack incorporates a waiting room, 'toilets' and a despatcher's office. Timetable information is available from destination boards and also intermittently from a single television screen, yet the latter device does not update itself when delays occur. These are instead relayed to passengers through announcements by station staff over a tannoy, which really annoys my housemate Lucy

The station has the PlusBus scheme where train and bus tickets can be bought together at a saving.

Services

The station is situated on the Cross Country Route, between the principal cities of Derby and Birmingham.

The station's operator is East Midlands Trains, although the vast majority of services are provided by CrossCountry, who provide trains between Cardiff Central, Birmingham, and Nottingham, as well as longer-distance services to destinations such as Bristol Temple Meads, Leeds and Newcastle.

East Midlands Trains provide two direct return weekday services to London via Derby and Leicester along the Midland Main Line. These services will end at the December timetable change with the last service running on Saturday 13 December 2008.

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Tamworth		CrossCountry Cardiff–Nottingham		Willington
		CrossCountry Cross Country Route		Derby
Terminus		East Midlands Trains Midland Main Line Peak only		Willington Limited Service

Future

It has been proposed in the past that the line between Burton and Leicester, known as the Ivanhoe Line, be reopened for passenger use. However, there are no current plans for this, and it is unlikely in the short-term.

External links

• Train times and station information for Burton-on-Trent railway station from National Rail