Etruria station is a closed station in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England, which served the areas of

Etruria Etruria () was a region of Central Italy, located in an area that covered part of what are now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and northern and western Umbria. Etruscan Etruria The ancient people of Etruria are identified as Etruscan civiliza ...

and the larger district of

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...

. It closed on 30 September 2005.

History

The station was opened 9 October 1848 by the North Staffordshire Railway and was modified by it in the 1870s, when the Potteries Loop Line was constructed. The station was an island platform situated underneath a bridge carrying the A53, approximately one mile north of Stoke-on-Trent station. Its train services were suspended in May 2003 during the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line. Central Trains did not restart services to Etruria when the work was finished and continued to serve the station with rail replacement buses only, although First North Western reintroduced a limited service, beyond what was contractually required.

Closure

After already low passenger numbers dwindled even further, closure was proposed by the

Strategic Rail Authority The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for Rail transport in the United Kingdom, the railway industry. Its motto was 'Brita ...

in February 2004. The closure was granted approval by the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

on 21 July 2005. The final train was Northern Rail Class 323 unit 323226 which left at 07:16 to

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...

. The closure was condemned by Transport 2000. The platform signage and platform objects were removed in June 2006 and by December 2008 the platform had been demolished to permit the straightening of the track and remove a speed restriction to allow trains to run at southbound and northbound.

Possible reopening

In March 2020, a bid was made to the Restoring Your Railway fund to get funds for a feasibility study into reinstating the station. This bid was unsuccessful. A second bid was made to the Restoring your railways fund in 2021, this bid was also unsuccessful.

Route

References

External links

Guardian.co.uk: Last train to EtruriaBBC Stoke & Staffordshire
- 360° view of Etruria Station {{Closed stations Staffordshire Buildings and structures in Stoke-on-Trent Disused railway stations in Stoke-on-Trent Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 2005 Former North Staffordshire Railway stations