Birmingham and Henley-in-Arden Railway

First station and branch line

The first railway station at Henley was opened to passengers on 6 June 1894 (and to goods on 2 July 1894) at the end of a short branch line, 3 miles 7 chains (5.0 km) in length, running from Rowington Junction, near Lapworth (then known as Kingswood) on the Great Western Railway (GWR) main line from London to Birmingham. Construction of the branch line began in 1860, but was not finished because of a lack of funding. New authorisation was given in the Birmingham and Henley-in-Arden Railway Act 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. clxxv), and construction was again begun again in the 1890s by a new company, the Birmingham and Henley-in-Arden Railway, and completed in June 1894. The branch came under the control of the GWR in 1900.

On 9 December 1907 the North Warwickshire Line was opened for goods traffic; it opened to passengers on 1 July 1908. This connected Henley with a new station, and made the branch line superfluous. A short spur, 32 chains (640 m) in length, was constructed to allow branch line trains to enter the new station, but the old one continued to be used for goods. The branch continued in operation until 1915, when it was closed as a wartime economy measure, and its tracks were taken up to be used for the First World War war effort. Official closure of the 2 miles 59 chains (4.4 km) between Rowington Junction and the old station took place on 1 January 1917. The short spur to the old station continued to be used for goods until December 1962.

Current station

The current station was opened in 1908 with the North Warwickshire Line, which then was an important main line connecting Birmingham with Cheltenham via Stratford-upon-Avon. The new station was one of the most prestigious on the new line, and was provided with three platforms. One of which was for trains terminating from Birmingham, and for a short period, trains terminating from the old branch line, until it closed.

The station today is unstaffed, and only two of the three original platforms are in use. The original station building and canopy is still extant on one platform, but is now boarded up.

A modern lift-equipped footbridge was installed at the station in 2014, the original footbridge was dismantled and donated to the heritage Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway where it was re-erected at Broadway.

In 2022, a local community group, Friends of Henley Railway Station, agreed to a 25-year lease of the station building from Network Rail. The following year, the group initiated a renovation of the building intended to return it to its original state, retaining as many features as possible. The renovated building, housing The Station, a community bar/taproom and lounge run by Henley Mile Brewery, a microbrewery also located inside the building, was opened in early 2024 by Lord Peter Hendy, chair of Network Rail. Within two months, local media was reporting that the new venue was "... already receiving high praise from beer lovers near and far."

The station is served by hourly local trains in each direction, between Birmingham Snow Hill and Stratford-upon-Avon, run by West Midlands Trains. Most Birmingham trains continue to Stourbridge Junction. On Sundays, trains run to/from Worcester Foregate Street on the same hourly frequency.

Accidents

Several accidents have taken place at both the original and present stations at Henley:

On 4 September 1899, at the original branch line station, a passenger train with four passengers on board, was approaching the station on the descending gradient, it failed to slow down, and crashed through the buffers at the end of the station; the locomotive and first coach then came to rest in a nearby meadow. The engine crew jumped off before the accident, the four passengers were on board the other coaches and were unhurt. The driver stated that the brakes failed to operate when he applied them.

Just after midnight on 25 June 1911, at the present station, an accident occurred when the signalman at Henley mistakenly believed that a train approaching the station was a local terminating train, and so set the points for the bay platform: in fact the train was the Wolverhampton to Bristol express. The express entered the bay at around 30 mph, despite the driver applying the emergency brakes, the train smashed through the buffers and overturned onto the up main line, demolishing a signal. The first two coaches were smashed, but were empty; nine of the 33 passengers on board were slightly injured. The driver and fireman were scalded when they returned to shut off the steam on the locomotive to prevent a boiler explosion.