Oakham railway station serves the town of Oakham in Rutland, England. The station is situated almost halfway between Leicester - 27 miles (43 km) to the west - and Peterborough - 25 miles (40 km) eastward on the (as built) Syston and Peterborough Railway, the line is now part of the much bigger Birmingham to Peterborough Line.
Oakham is Rutland's only surviving passenger railway station. The line from Oakham to Kettering via Corby (which branches off just east of Oakham) until recently rarely saw use by passenger trains, being used almost exclusively by freight trains. Since the opening of Corby station it sees daily use with trains from London St Pancras, as well as the occasional use as a diversionary route for passenger trains normally using the Midland Main Line. The daily services to/from London serve Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford, and Luton.
Video Oakham railway station
History
The station was opened by the Midland Railway on 1 May 1848. The building was designed by the company architect, Mr. Wood of London, and is Grade II listed.
Station Masters
Maps Oakham railway station
Buildings
The station building, the nearby level crossing signal box and footbridge are each listed buildings. The signal box was the prototype for the Airfix kit signal box.
Since 2007 some of the station buildings have been used as the headquarters of the charitable organisation Change Agents UK.
Services
From Oakham there is an hourly service in both directions operated by CrossCountry, with some additional peak-hour trains. Services run westbound to Birmingham New Street via Melton Mowbray, Leicester, Narborough, Hinckley, Nuneaton and Coleshill Parkway whilst services eastbound run to Stansted Airport or Cambridge via Stamford, Peterborough, March, Ely and Audley End.
Despite managing the station, East Midlands Trains (EMT) only operates a limited number of services to/from it. A few trains operate at either end of the day, mainly for train crew route knowledge retention purposes. An early morning service runs from Nottingham to Norwich and an evening service operates from Spalding via Peterborough to Nottingham.
The station retains a ticket office which is staffed part-time, a car park and help points for times where there are no staff present.
A single daily return service to London St Pancras commenced on 27 April 2009 running via Corby and is notable for being the first regular passenger service to cross the spectacular and historic Welland Viaduct since 1966. The company introduced a further return service from Derby via East Midlands Parkway (for East Midlands Airport) from May 2010. Further services may be introduced in the future. The initial London service had been due to start on 14 December 2008 but because of a delay in reaching agreement with the Department for Transport and the rolling stock operating company (ROSCO) for the four additional trains needed for the service EMT started the service around four months later.
Former services
Prior to the Beeching Axe trains used to stop at a number of smaller village destinations in Rutland. These were closed between 1961 and 1966.
Summary of former services
Sample train timetable for July 1922
The table below shows the train departures from Oakham on weekdays in July 1922. The basic services are Peterborough to Leicester and Kettering to Nottingham. In this timetable, Oakham is served by two London to Nottingham expresses, arriving in Oakham at 10.22 and 18.55. Southbound the only direct service is at 18.09, but two additional Nottingham to London expresses call at Manton with connections from Oakham at 08.43 and 11.05.
References
External links
- Train times and station information for Oakham railway station from National Rail
Source of article : Wikipedia
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