Talk:Bulwell station

Operated initially by the Midland Railway, adjacent signalboxes to Bulwell Market signalbox were Basford Sidings to the South and Bulwell Forest Crossing to the North. Basford Sidings closed around the late 1960s at approximately the same time as Bulwell Market Station and Signalbox closed. The adjacent Bulwell Forest Crossing signalbox on Carey Road, Bulwell closed around 1982 with the operation of Carey Road Crossing, Bulwell being transferred to nearby Bestwood Park Junction signalbox operated by CCTV cameras.

Until the opening of the Robin Hood Line around 1992, initially to Hucknall only, no trains stopped en-route between Lincoln Street Crossing Signalbox at Basford and Bestwood Park Junction Signalbox to the north end of Bulwell/Bestwood. From around 1968 to 1992 Bulwell disappeared from the Railway map.

Bulwell station lived on, after a fashion, until the mid to late 1980s in name only. The post of Bulwell Market Relief Signalman under B.R. initially based at Bulwell Market Signalbox and Station was retained with no actual signalbox as the home depot. Eventually the title was changed to Bestwood Park Relief around 1984-88 removing the last tie with the station until it was reconstructed around 1992 for the new Robin Hood Line to Hucknall.

Around 1993 Bulwell also served Newstead Station and a few years later Annesley Tunnel was re-opened extending passenger traffic from Bulwell to Kirkby-In-Ashfield, Sutton-In-Ashfield and all stations north of Mansfield. This restored rail travel potentials from Bulwell to that close to pre 1960s levels.

The reconstructed Robin Hood Line station at Bulwell was initially built at substantial cost as a double-track station with metal footbridge since the entire Leen Valley Line was double-tracked throughout until the advent of the NET service. However, the construction of the Nottingham Experss Transit (NET) tram line appropriated the "down" direction line of the earlier Midland railway route and the down platform was subsequently demolished to form the Bulwell NET tram stop.

The construction of a double track station only for half of it to be demolished a few years later wasted a sum of around £500,000 over a very short lifespan. It was suggested that the NET route take initially an alternative route through the centre of Bulwell as it did through Hyson Green and Nottingham. Another alternative was for a new bridge to be constructed adjacent to the Old Town Hall near Bulwell Market to the east of the Leen Valley Line, however these alternatives were probably ruled out due to the cost here outweighing that of demolishing a newly-constructed station platform and writing off the initial cost of constructing it. Taking the line through the pedestrianised centre of Bulwell and the perhiphery of the Bulwell Retail Park would have possibly captured more potential traffic though.

Due to the singling of the former Midland Railway line to accommodate the NET service there is insufficient line-capacity given the current line-speed to serve Bulwell with trains any more frequently than once per-hour. Every alternate train generally stops at Bulwell.

Unless the route of the NET service is changed over time there is no potential to improve rail services to Bulwell due to the physical constraints of the current double-track road overbrige and line speed of the existing single line.

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