The station is a small Neoclassical building, with side pavilions and Doric columns in keeping with the nearby Royal Hotel of 1826.

In 1874 the Midland extended its Derby to Melbourne line to Ashby de la Zouch, partly using the route of the former Ticknall Tramway.

In the nationalisation of transport in Britain in 1948 the line passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways.

In the 1990s BR planned to restore passenger services between Leicester and Burton as the second phase of its Ivanhoe Line project.

In 2009 the Association of Train Operating Companies published a £49 million proposal to restore passenger services to the line that would include reopening a station at Ashby.