Stafford railway station

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Stafford
Location
Place	Stafford
Local authority	Stafford
Coordinates	52°48′13″N 2°07′23″W / 52.80359, -2.12307Coordinates: 52°48′13″N 2°07′23″W / 52.80359, -2.12307
Operations
Station code	STA
Managed by	Virgin Trains
Platforms in use	5
Live departures and station information from National Rail
Annual Rail Passenger Usage
2004/05 *	1.016 million
2005/06 *	1.072 million
History
Key dates	Opened July 1837 Rebuilt 1844 Rebuilt 1862 Current building opened 1962
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Stafford from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.
UK Railways Portal

Stafford railway station (Ordnance Survey grid reference SJ918229) is an important main line interchange station in the United Kingdom. It serves the county town of Stafford.

The present station built in 1962 is a good example of the Brutalist style of architecture - the beauty of the building was perceived to be its very functionality and its designs follows the Modernist approach.

From the south, two branches of the West Coast Main Line meet here; the Trent Valley branch and the Birmingham branch. To the north, the trunk of the line continues towards Crewe, whilst the Manchester branch goes on to Stoke-on-Trent.

In 2007, the station's visual display units were upgraded.

The station is also served by rail replacement bus services, notably the X1 (operated by Baker Buses) which serves the locations of Norton Bridge, Stone, Barlaston and Wedgwood; all of which possess a rail station but no stopping train service. A rail replacement bus service operates along the Trent Valley serving the stations of Rugeley, Atherstone and Polesworth - as well as the major stations of Tamworth Low Level, Lichfield Trent Valley and Nuneaton.

[edit] History

The first station was built by the Grand Junction Railway and opened in July 1837. It soon became inadequate and was replaced by a second station in 1844. A third station was built in 1862 which was eventually replaced by the current concrete brutalist building in 1962, built as part of the modernisation programme which saw the electrification of the West Coast Main Line.

Lines originally built by the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway and the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company (to Shrewsbury) also used the station up to the 1960s.

Two accidents have happened at Stafford, both in recent years. In 1990, an out-of-service train heading to a depot in Birmingham crashed into the back of an express train bound for Penzance on Platform 4 at Stafford station. The driver was killed and 36 people were injured. Then in 1996, a mail train collided with a freight train carrying industrial acid just south of Stafford in a small village. A mail sorter was killed and another 22 people were injured. The mail train locomotive was catapulted up the embankment and came to rest against a house.

[edit] References

Lewis, Roy (1996). Staffordshire Railway Stations on old picture postcards (reprinted 2002). Nottingham: Reflections of a Bygone Age. ISBN 1-900138-05-0

[edit] Current Services

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Lichfield Trent Valley or Wolverhampton		Virgin Trains West Coast Main Line		Crewe or Stoke-on-Trent
Wolverhampton		CrossCountry Cross Country Network		Stoke-on-Trent or Crewe
Penkridge		London Midland Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line West Coast Main Line		Crewe
Terminus		London Midland Stafford to Manchester Line		Norton Bridge
Rugeley Trent Valley		London Midland Chase Line		Terminus