THE NEW station at Worcestershire Parkway is expected to open during the final quarter of this year, Worcestershire County Council has confirmed.
Construction of the station, located at the intersection of the North Cotswold and Birmingham to Bristol lines, is set to be completed during the summer. Formal inspection and testing will then be required alongside staff training, before completion of certification and handover to Great Western Railway, which will operate and manage the station.
Buckingham Group is the contractor for the scheme, and at the time of contract award opening was planned for winter 2018/19. The council reports the main station building is nearing completion while work has started on installing the three 265-metre-long platforms, two for the Birmingham to Bristol line and one for the Cotswold line. Each platform is being built in sections onsite, away from the track and then manoeuvred into place. A pedestrian bridge linking the platforms is in place, the new highway roundabout has been installed and work is underway on the 500-space car park and access road.
The station will be served by CrossCountry’s Cardiff to Nottingham services and GWR’s North Cotswold line services. The council is targeting an improvement in frequency on the GWR route to two trains per hour, made up of an hourly service between Great Malvern, Worcester and London Paddington and an hourly service between Kidderminster, Worcester and Paddington. The council is also keen for other CrossCountry services on the Birmingham to Bristol axis to call at the station
