Stone railway station

Stone National Rail
Location
Place Stone
Local authority Stafford
Coordinates 52°54′29″N 2°09′18″W / 52.908°N 2.155°W / 52.908; -2.155Coordinates: 52°54′29″N 2°09′18″W / 52.908°N 2.155°W / 52.908; -2.155
Grid reference SJ896345
Operations
Station code SNE
Managed by West Midlands Trains
Number of platforms 2
DfT category F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13 Increase 94,784
2013/14 Increase 103,472
2014/15 Increase 106,474
2015/16 Increase 108,902
2016/17 Increase 127,608
History
Original company North Staffordshire Railway
Pre-grouping North Staffordshire Railway
Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway
17 April 1848 First station opened as Stone
1 May 1849 Station relocated
January 1888 Renamed Stone Junction
? Renamed Stone
1947 Colwich Platforms Closed
24 May 2004 Services Withdrawn
15 December 2008 Services Reinstated
Listed status
Listed feature Stone Railway Station
Listing grade Grade II listed
Entry number 1297502[1]
Added to list 27 July 1972
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Stone from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Stone railway station serves the town of Stone, Staffordshire, England. The station is located on a junction of the Colwich to Manchester spur of the West Coast Main Line, but has platforms only on the branch from Stafford to Stoke-on-Trent.

History

There have been two stations at Stone, and both were opened by the North Staffordshire Railway.[2] The first opened on 17 April 1848,[2] and was next to the Newcastle Road bridge. With the opening of the Colwich line on 1 May 1849, the original station closed, being replaced the same day by the current station.[2] The station was renamed Stone Junction in January 1888, but reverted to the original name Stone at some point between 1923 and 1947.[2] The Colwich platforms were closed in 1947 and subsequently removed.

The station building has been redeveloped by Stone Town Council [3] as a community centre.

APTIS ticketing here ceased in 1993 when the station became unstaffed.

Recent developments

In 2004 rail services were withdrawn from the station and replaced by buses operated by BakerBus, initially whilst upgrade work was carried out on the Stafford and Colwich to Cheadle Hulme lines. However, the former Stafford to Stoke local service that formerly called here was never reinstated once the work was completed (the units used on it being redeployed in the West Midlands) and so the rail replacement service continued (the Trent Valley local service between Stafford and Coventry also suffered the same fate).

Virgin Trains were reportedly going to reinstate Stone as a stop from June 2006 on the Birmingham to Manchester service,[4] but this never materialised.

However, in December 2008 Stone station reopened for an hourly train service between Crewe and London Euston as part of a new revamped West Coast main line timetable unveiled by the Department for Transport.[5] This service is operated by London Midland.[6] Passenger usage is now returning to reasonable levels (see figures right).

Services

Stone is currently served by the hourly semi-fast London Northwestern services between London Euston and Crewe via Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent. Trains operated by CrossCountry do not currently call at Stone.

The new West Midlands franchise specification plans will (when implemented in 2018) see the current Euston to Crewe trains replaced by a new Birmingham - Wolverhampton - Stoke - Crewe service that will stop here.[7] This was changed for a new London service via Birmingham due to opposition against losing a direct link to London.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Historic England, "Stone Railway Station (1297502)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 11 January 2017
  2. 1 2 3 4 Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 221. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
  3. ↑ Stone Town Council website retrieved Feb 2017
  4. ↑ "Virgin & Stone" - UK Railway newsgroup discussion February 2006
  5. ↑ "All aboard first train in five years", The Sentinel, 12-15-2008.
  6. ↑ GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 67
  7. ↑ "Rail Minister Paul Maynard announces a host of extra benefits and services for passengers in the West Midlands"Department for Transport Press release 30 August 2016; Retrieved 28 October 2016
  8. ↑

Further reading

  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2016). Rugeley to Stoke-on-Trent. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 41-42, 45-62. ISBN 9781908174901. OCLC 972169395.
Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
London Northwestern Railway
London - Crewe
Historical railways
Line and station open
North Staffordshire Railway
Line open, station closed
North Staffordshire Railway
Line open, station closed,
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