Hednesford railway station serves the town of

Hednesford Hednesford (pronounced ) is a historic market town in the Cannock Chase (district), Cannock Chase district of Staffordshire, England. Cannock Chase is to the north, the town of Cannock to the south and Rugeley to the southwest.The population ...

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. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by

West Midlands Railway West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...

History

The station was opened in 1859 on the

Cannock Mineral Railway The Cannock Mineral Railway was a railway company that built a line from Cannock to join the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) at Rugeley, in England. It was conceived and authorised as the Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire Junct ...

's line from to and taken over by the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

a decade later (though the LNWR had worked the line from the outset). It closed to passengers on 18 January 1965 and to goods traffic on 6 September the same year as a result of the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

, though the line that passed through remained in use for goods & mineral traffic, serving the power station at Rugeley and various local collieries. The station reopened in 1989 by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

, as the terminus of the first stage of the reopening of the

Chase Line The Chase Line is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs from its southern terminus, Birmingham New Street, to Walsall, and then Rugeley in Staffordshire, where it joins the Trent Valley Line. The name of the lin ...

from

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

to passenger trains. At first, there was just a single platform (the current Walsall-bound one); however when services were extended to

Rugeley Town Rugeley Town railway station serves the town of Rugeley, Staffordshire, England. The station is operated by West Midlands Railway, with services operated by West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway. The station is situated around ...

in 1997, a second platform was added. There is no ticket office so the

Penalty fare A penalty fare, standard fare, or fixed penalty notice is a special, usually higher, fare charged because a passenger using public transport did not comply with the normal ticket purchasing rules. It should not be confused with an unpaid fares n ...

scheme operates at the station, and passengers must buy a ticket or permit to travel from the machines at the station to avoid paying the £20 surcharge. Hednesford is the only station not located in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

to be part of the West Midlands Trains free travel zone, situated in Zone 5 of the West Midlands railway network. It has been in place since the introduction of the scheme but is the only station to operate this scheme as Cannock, Landywood and Rugeley do not operate in the same zone.

Transport

Rail frequencies vary. On weekdays there are typically two trains per hour to

and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

at peak times and one train per hour during the off peak period and in the evenings. There are two trains per hour throughout the day on Saturdays with an hourly evening service. Trains operate between

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

and

Rugeley Trent Valley Rugeley Trent Valley is a railway station located on the outskirts of Rugeley in Staffordshire, England. It is one of two stations serving Rugeley, the other being Rugeley Town. It is on the eastern side of the town close to the Rugeley Trent ...

where connections to Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe are available.GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 70 (Network Rail) On Sundays there is an hourly service throughout the day after 10:00. Most services are operated by Class 350 electric trains and journey times are typically 21 minutes to Walsall and 45 minutes to Birmingham New Street. A small number of services to/from London Euston, Birmingham New Street or Walsall start or terminate here. Hednesford no longer has a bus station, although there is an interchange on Victoria Street acting as a hub to locations such as Cannock, Rugeley, Lichfield and Pye Green. All services are run by

Chaserider Chaserider is the brand name for bus services operated around Cannock and Staffordshire by D&G Bus a local bus operator owned by Centrebus who are based in Adderley Green, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. History During November 2020, Centrebus ...

. No buses operate on Sunday and bank holiday.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hednesford Railway Station Hednesford Railway stations in Staffordshire DfT Category F1 stations Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1859 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1989 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains Beeching closures in England 1859 establishments in England 1989 establishments in England Reopened railway stations in Great Britain