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Stenlake Publishing - The Redditch & Evesham Line – The story of the line from Barnt Green through Redditch and Evesham to Ashchurch


The Redditch & Evesham Line – The story of the line from Barnt Green through Redditch and Evesham to Ashchurch



Author : Bob Yate
ISBN : 9780853617365
Cover : paperback
Price : £16.95

The line from Barnt Green via Redditch and Evesham to Ashchurch has been gifted several names over the years: the Redditch Line, the Redditch Branch, the Evesham Route, the Barnt Green to Aschurch Loop, and the Birmingham-Gloucester Loop. The latter was shortened with use to the ‘Gloucester Loop&rsquo.

The country through which the line ran was mostly rural, and the towns it served whilst important, were not large. So the number and complexity of proposed lines in this area is somewhat surprising – these are examined as part of the chronological survey of railway developments along each part of the line. As no railway exist in isolation, the events and services on the connecting lines as far as they affect this line, are also examined.

The line was built by three separate companies and opened in stages between 1859 an 1868. However, the Midland Railway had seen the potential and backed the nominally independent companies, and furthermore, each section of the line was operated by the Midland Railway. Although the line was never originally conceived as a strategic route, it was developed gradually from a desire to keep competitors at bay into a useful diversionary route.

The line proved prosperous as it served the developing manufacturing towns of Redditch and Alcester, and important fruit and vegetable growing area of the Vale of Evesham. Passenger traffic was normally fairly light, but the area served also brought a good deal of day trippers from the Birmingham area at the weekends and holidays. In modern times the passenger traffic from Redditch was at first roundly discouraged,until common sense prevailed and the now much shortened line was modernised. The growth of Redditch as a New Town created a level of passenger traffic never previously imagined, and the surviving line has a frequency of trains that is the envy of much larger towns. It now forms the southern end of the electrified ‘Cross City’ rail link from Lichfield through Birmingham. The corollary is that freight traffic on the branch is nowadays non-existent.

A5 format, 224 pages, 205 illustrations.

The Redditch & Evesham Line – The story of the line from Barnt Green through Redditch and Evesham to Ashchurch
£16.95