Stratford And Its Two Stations
I couldn’t resist looking at the map of Stratford upon Avon and its two stations.
Stratford And Its Stations
Parkway is in the top left and the town centre station is marked by the arrow. The centre of the town is in the bottom right.
All this map does is ask a lot of questions!
I think some will be solved, when the main station is complete and hopefully is getting more trains from London and Birmingham.
But this will need some more Class 172 trains to be rustled up for Chiltern Trains and London Midland.
So the question gets more complex!
Return From Stratford Parkway Station
Because I thought time was short, I decided to take a taxi to Stratford upon Avon Parkway station to come home.
But somewhere I’d got the time wrong and had to wait an hour for my train, in a cold, unwelcoming station without a toilet. And then when I did get on the train, the main toilet was broken!
It is certainly a station that was built down to a cost, that would be unlikely to win any architectural awards.
There should be a rethink about how this station operates.
Stratford Upon Avon Station Is Getting A Facelift
Stratford upon Avon station was very much in a state of flux as I passed through.
But as it is a busy station with lots of tourists, I would suspect that Network Rail have got their priorities right.
If you look at the services to Stratford, they are a bit thin, as giving the importance of the town and the nearby parkway station, you might think that more services could be supported.
Perhaps the station improvements are part of a plan to increase the number of trains.
Wikipedia talks about possible future development, which would link the line to the Cotswold Line, thus giving Stratford direct links to lots of other places.
Solihull Station
To get to Stratford, I changed at Solihull station.
The pictures show what an excellent job has been done in creating a modern station, with nice details and what looked like a proper buffet.
The Bicester Chord Takes Shape
I took the Chiltern Line to Stratford upon Avon today and I was able to get these pictures of the building of the Bicester chord.
This will allow Chiltern Trains to start services between Oxford and Marylebone sometime in 2015.
The Bicester Chord is the first idea of several to come to fruition and transform railways in the area between Oxford, Banbury and Milton Keynes.
The East West Rail Link will be built and electrified, to link Oxford, Bicester, Milton Keynes, Bedford, Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich.
The Cowley Branch at Oxford will be opened to passenger traffic.
Marylebone to Birmingham will drop to ninety minutes.
Chiltern Trains will probably want to expand. This is probably just as well, as if HS2 is to be built and Euston rebuilt, someone will have to get the passengers between London and Birmingham.
The Anonymous Widower 