Blakedown railway station serves the prosperous commuter village of Blakedown in Worcestershire, which lies between Hagley and Kidderminster. It is served mostly by London Midland trains to Worcester, Kidderminster and Birmingham, although a few Chiltern Railways trains also stop here. Services are not as frequent as at most other stations on this line, and at some times of the day more than an hour can pass between trains, so I would recommend a careful study of the timetable before setting out.

This is a very basic station, which has almost no facilities provided. There is no ticket office, and neither is there a ticket machine, so you will have to pay for your journey once on board the train. There are no toilets either, and nowhere to get a bite to eat unless you walk several hundred yards into the village itself. Each of the two platforms has an extremely basic “bus shelter” type construction in which to wait if it is raining, but they can still be very cold in wintry or windy weather.

Just to the side of the station is a level crossing, and the road that crosses the tracks here is the only way to get from one platform to the other, since there is no bridge or subway. This means that you should always allow a few extra minutes for getting to the station, since if you are trapped on the wrong side when the level crossing barriers come down, you will have no chance of catching your train! There is a signal box next to the level crossing, but this is due to be closed soon when the signalling equipment is upgraded.

I can’t see any reason to use Blakedown station unless you are actually travelling to or from the village itself. It is much too small to risk changing trains here, and the only information you will find is in the form of basic timetable posters. It would be much better to travel to Kidderminster, a few miles further along the line, which has many more facilities.

Rating: 5