A station was subsequently opened as Bescot on the current site on 1 May 1850; it was renamed as Bescot Junction in August 1850.[2]
The line through the station was electrified in 1966 as part of the London Midland Region's electrification programme.[3] The actual energization[clarification needed] of the line from Coventry to Walsall through Aston took place on 15 August 1966.[4]
The station was re-opened on 11 September 2007 after a short period of closure for refurbishment. Whilst closed, no trains called at the station, but trains continued to pass through.
Incidents
On 8 December 1854 a South Staffordshire Railway passenger train from Walsall, hauled by a LNWR engine, struck the corner of a goods waggon, which was projecting from a siding towards the main line. The wagon then struck the engine's tender, and four of the following carriages, derailing and badly damaging them. One passenger died and over 20 more were in injured.[5]
The station footbridge offers views of Bescot Yard, and its freight movements. Bescot TMD is adjacent to the station.
Access to the station is via Bescot Crescent (where there is a car park) and then a footpath which passes underneath the M6 motorway and over the River Tame, then an overbridge.
London Midland proposed the closure of the ticket office, but this request was overruled in September 2012 by the Transport Minister.[7]
References
^Drake, James (1838). Drake's Road Book of the Grand Junction Railway (1838). Moorland Reprints. ISBN0903485257.