Hereford railway station

{{Infobox station

| name = Hereford

| symbol_location = gb

| symbol = rail

| image = 2018 at Hereford station - exterior.JPG

| borough = Hereford, Herefordshire

| country = England

| coordinates = {{coord|52|03|41|N|2|42|30|W|type:railwaystation_region:GB_scale:10000|display=inline,title}}

| grid_name = Grid reference

| grid_position = {{gbmapscaled|SO515405|25|SO515405}}

| manager = Transport for Wales

| platforms = 4

| code = HFD

| classification = DfT category C1

| original = Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway

| pregroup = Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway

| postgroup = Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway

| years = {{start date|1853|12|06|df=y}}

| events = Opened as Hereford Barr's Court

| years1 = 1893

| events1 = Renamed Hereford

| mpassengers =

{{Rail pass box |pass_year=2019/20 |passengers={{decrease}} 1.194 million |interchange={{pad|1em}}{{decrease}} 51,354}}

{{Rail pass box |pass_year=2020/21 |passengers={{decrease}} 0.500 million |interchange={{pad|1em}}{{decrease}} 7,585}}

{{Rail pass box |pass_year=2021/22 |passengers={{increase}} 1.003 million |interchange={{pad|1em}}{{increase}} 31,474}}

{{Rail pass box |pass_year=2022/23 |passengers={{increase}} 1.117 million |interchange={{pad|1em}}{{increase}} 38,364}}

{{Rail pass box |pass_year=2023/24 |passengers={{increase}} 1.161 million |interchange={{pad|1em}}{{increase}} 43,926}}

| footnotes = Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

}}

Hereford railway station serves the city of Hereford, in Herefordshire, England. Managed by Transport for Wales, it lies on the Welsh Marches Line, between Leominster and Abergavenny; it is also the western terminus of the Cotswold Line, for services to {{rws|Birmingham New Street}}. The station has four platforms for passenger trains and two additional relief lines for goods services.

History

File:Hereford Station, with 2-6-0 on pilot duty geograph-2523386-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

There were originally two stations in Hereford: Barton and Barrs Court.

{{rws|Hereford Barton}} lay to the west of the city{{refn|group=nb|Co-ordinates for the former site of Barton station are: {{coord|52.0563|-2.7245|type:railwaystation_region:GB}}}} and had been built by the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway (NA&HR). However, Barton was small and in a cramped location; it was not big enough nor could it be enlarged for the greater traffic that would entail from the arrival of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway from the north.

The resolution was an agreement to create a new joint railway station to the north-east of the city, called Hereford Barrs Court. This would be a joint standard gauge/broad gauge station, sponsored jointly by the standard-gauge Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway (S&HR) and the GWR-sponsored Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway (HR&GR). When the Midland Railway sponsored Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway entered the town, they were given access rights, as was the later Worcester and Hereford Railway,{{cite web |url=http://www.archenfield.com/history_railways.htm |title=Hereford and the railways |publisher=Archenfield.com |access-date=8 January 2010}} which joined the S&HR's route to the north of the city at Shelwick Junction.

In the civil engineering preparation for this, and as the only company planning to enter the town from the north, the S&HR built a brick works north of Dinmore Hill in 1849, which was fed by clay from the earthworks of digging a tunnel south underneath it. In 1852, {{frac|2|1|2}} years later and having used {{frac|3|1|4}} million bricks the tunnel was completed, freight traffic started in July 1852 to provide cash flow. However, construction continued, with the massive earthworks for a cutting to enter Barrs Court started in August 1852.

The plan was to jointly open both stations between all four railways on 6 December 1853, with what was planned to be a Railway Fete. However, the first S&HR passenger service arrived at Barrs Court on Saturday 28 October, which carried the chairman Mr Ormsby-Gore and engineer Thomas Brassey. As the negotiations and financing of the joint station had taken so long, they arrived at an incomplete facility.{{cite book |title=Cavalcade of a century, 1832-1932, 100 years of the Hereford Times |publisher=Hereford Record Office - BH74}} Whilst completion of the station would follow shortly after, significant rebuilding would occur later in the nineteenth century, when the current Victorian Gothic buildings, designed by R.E. Johnson,{{cite web |last1=Marks |first1=R. |last2=Farnworth |first2=R. |url=http://therailwaystationgallery.fotopic.net/c359066.html |work=The Railway Station Gallery |title=Hereford Barrs Court |date=27 January 2007 |access-date=27 January 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070518161252/http://therailwaystationgallery.fotopic.net/c359066.html |archive-date=18 May 2007 |df=dmy-all}} would be constructed.{{cite news |newspaper=Hereford Times |date=6 March 2006| url=http://archive.thisisherefordshire.co.uk/2006/3/6/74095.html |title=Full steam ahead at railway station |access-date=27 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928011209/http://archive.thisisherefordshire.co.uk/2006/3/6/74095.html| archive-date=28 September 2007 |url-status=dead}} The station opened on 6 December 1853 and the name was simplified to Hereford in 1893, on the closure of Barton station to passengers.{{cite book |last=Butt |first=R.V.J. |title=The Directory of Railway Stations |year=1995 |publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd |location=Yeovil |isbn=1-85260-508-1 |id=R508 |page=118 }}

In 1866, a line connecting the NA&HR's route to the south of the city, branching off from the line to Barton at Redhill and joining with the HR&GR's route into Barrs Court station from the south, rendered Barton station obsolete, as through north–south services could now utilise the larger and better equipped Barrs Court station. However, Barton clung onto passenger services until January 1893,{{cite web|url=http://htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/613.aspx |title=Herefordshire through time |date=16 May 2016 |access-date=16 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603135446/http://htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/613.aspx |archive-date=3 June 2016 |df=dmy-all }} the last services to use it being Midland Railway trains to {{rws|Hay-on-Wye}} and {{rws|Brecon Free Street}}. It would remain open as a goods-only station until 1979; the route through it from north to south was used as a goods-only line to avoid Barrs Court, also remained until approximately this time.{{Disputed inline|Probably incorrect facts|date=January 2021|for=Its signalboxes had all closed in 1966}}

The former branches to Brecon via Hay-on-Wye and Gloucester both closed to passenger traffic in the early 1960s; Brecon services were withdrawn from 31 December 1962,[http://pastscape.org/hob.aspx?hob_id=105981&sort=2&type=&rational=a&class1=None&period=None&county=None&district=None&parish=None&place=credenhill&recordsperpage=10&source=text&rtype=&rnumber= "Hereford, Hay-on-Wye and Brecon Railway"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202001027/http://pastscape.org/hob.aspx?hob_id=105981&sort=2&type=&rational=a&class1=None&period=None&county=None&district=None&parish=None&place=credenhill&recordsperpage=10&source=text&rtype=&rnumber= |date=2 February 2017 }}Pastscape; Retrieved 25 August 2016 whilst the Gloucester via {{rws|Ross-on-Wye}} line fell victim to the Beeching Axe on 2 November 1964.[http://www.ross-on-wye.com/index.php?page=ross_530The_Railway&pg=1 "Ross-on-Wye- The Railway, The Decline"]Ross-on-Wye.com; retrieved 25 August 2016

The station was designated a Grade II listed building in 1973.{{cite web |url= https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1196776 |title=Barr's Court railway station |work=Historic England |publisher=Historic England }}

Facilities

File:2018 at Hereford station - ticket hall.JPG

The station is manned seven days a week, with a ticket office, café, waiting rooms and self-service ticket machines available. There is a 146-space car park and 50 spaces for bicycles.{{Cite web |title=Hereford (HFD) station information |url=https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/HFD/details.html |access-date=26 April 2025 |website=National Rail Enquiries}}

It was accorded Secure Station status in 2004{{cite news|newspaper=Hereford Times |date=29 January 2004 |url=http://archive.thisisherefordshire.co.uk/2004/1/29/24350.html |title=Award for rail station |access-date=27 January 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928011225/http://archive.thisisherefordshire.co.uk/2004/1/29/24350.html |archive-date=28 September 2007 |df=dmy-all }} and automated ticket barriers have been in operation since 28 February 2006.

Services

Hereford is served by three train operating companies:

Great Western Railway operates 4 tpd (trains per day) to {{stn|London Paddington}}, via {{rws|Worcester Foregate Street}}{{Cite web |work=Great Western Railway |title=Train Times |date=15 December 2024 |access-date=26 April 2025 |url=https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/train-times}}
Transport for Wales operates 1 tph (trains per hour) between {{stn|Manchester Piccadilly}} and {{rws|Cardiff Central}}, of which 1 tp2h runs further to {{rws|Carmarthen}}. In addition, 1 tp2h runs between Cardiff Central and {{rws|Holyhead}}{{Cite web |title=Timetables |work=Transport for Wales |date=15 December 2024 |access-date=26 April 2025 |url=https://tfw.wales/service-status/timetables}}
West Midlands Trains runs 1 tph to {{rws|Birmingham New Street}}.{{Cite web |work=West Midlands Railway |title=Train timetables and schedules |date=15 December 2024 |access-date=26 April 2025 |url=https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/travel-information/journey-planning/timetables}}

On Sundays, the service to Birmingham New Street is reduced to 1 tp2h, the service to London Paddington is reduced to 3 tpd and the service to Holyhead is reduced to 2 tpd.

{{s-rail-national|next=Leominster |previous=Abergavenny |toc=Transport for Wales |route=Welsh Marches line}}

{{s-rail-national|next=Ludlow |previous=Abergavenny |toc=Transport for Wales |route=Premier Service}}

{{rail line three routes|next=Ledbury

|route1=West Midlands Railway
Hereford to Birmingham |col1={{WMT colour}}

|route2=West Midlands Railway
Hereford to Dorridge |col2={{WMT colour}}

|route3=Great Western Railway
Cotswold Line |col3={{FGW colour}} }}

{{rail line|previous=Holme Lacy |route=Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway
British Railways |col={{BR(W) colour}} }}

Notes

References

=Citations=

=Bibliography=

{{cite book|title=Worcester to Hereford|first1=Vic|last1=Mitchell|first2=Keith|last2=Smith|at=figs. 112-120|publisher=Middleton Press|location=West Sussex|year=2004|isbn=9781904474388|oclc=862604858}}