Stone railway station

52°54′29″N 2°09′18″W / 52.908°N 2.155°W / 52.908; -2.155Grid referenceSJ896345Managed byWest Midlands RailwayPlatforms2Other informationStation codeSNEClassificationDfT category F2HistoryOriginal companyNorth Staffordshire RailwayPre-groupingNorth Staffordshire RailwayPost-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish RailwayKey dates17 April 1848First station opened as Stone1 May 1849Station relocatedJanuary 1888Renamed Stone Junction?Renamed Stone1947Colwich platforms Closed24 May 2004Services withdrawn15 December 2008Services reinstatedPassengers2018/19 0.167 million2019/20 0.184 million2020/21 53,5562021/22 0.172 million2022/23 0.214 million FeatureStone railway stationDesignated27 July 1972Reference no.1297502^[1]

Location

Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Stone railway station serves the market 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 was closed and 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 as a community centre.^[3]

APTIS ticketing here ceased in 1993, when the station became unstaffed.^{[citation needed]}

Service withdrawal and reinstatement

In 2004, rail services were withdrawn from the station and were replaced by buses, operated by BakerBus; this was initially whilst upgrade work was carried out on the Stafford and Colwich to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 CrossCountry were reportedly going to reinstate Stone as a stop from June 2006 on the Birmingham to Manchester service, but this never materialised.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[4][dead link]} This service was operated by London Midland, then London Northwestern Railway, until its withdrawal.^[5]

Services

Stone is currently served by the hourly London Northwestern Railway services between Stafford and Crewe via Alsager, Kidsgrove, Longport and Stoke-on-Trent. Trains operated by CrossCountry do not currently call at Stone.

The new West Midlands franchise saw the former Euston to Crewe trains replaced by a new Birmingham–Wolverhampton–Stoke–Crewe service that stopped here.^[6] The London service was changed to one via Birmingham, despite opposition against losing a direct link to London. The Birmingham service was cut back in December 2023 to start at Stafford, with Stone losing its direct links to Birmingham and Wolverhampton.^[7][8]

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Stoke-on-Trent		London Northwestern Railway Stafford – Stoke – Crewe		Stafford
Historical railways
Barlaston and Tittensor Line and station open		North Staffordshire Railway Stafford to Manchester Line		Norton Bridge Line open, station closed
		North Staffordshire Railway Stone to Colwich Line		Aston-by-Stone Line open, station closed,

Gallery

• 
  Looking south, with the line to Colwich to the left and Norton Bridge to the right
• 
  Plaque on the station facade
• 
  A CrossCountry Class 220 unit heading north towards Stoke-on-Trent

See also

• Listed buildings in Stone, Staffordshire

References

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.

External links

Mainline

Chase Line	Cannock Hednesford Landywood Rugeley Town Rugeley Trent Valley
Crewe–Derby line	Blythe Bridge Kidsgrove Longport Longton Stoke-on-Trent Uttoxeter
Cross-City Line	Lichfield City Lichfield Trent Valley Shenstone
Cross Country Route	Burton-on-Trent Tamworth Wilnecote
Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line	Penkridge Stafford
Stafford–Manchester line	Barlaston Kidsgrove Longport Stafford Stoke-on-Trent Stone Wedgwood
Trent Valley line (WCML)	Lichfield Trent Valley Rugeley Trent Valley Stafford Tamworth
Wolverhampton–Shrewsbury line	Bilbrook Brinsford Parkway (Proposed) Codsall

Heritage

Chasewater Railway	Brownhills West Chasetown (Church Street) Chasewater Heaths Norton Lakeside Halt
Churnet Valley Railway	Cheddleton Consall Kingsley and Froghall
Foxfield Railway	Caverswall Road Dilhorne Park