Meir railway station served the
Meir
Meir ( he, מֵאִיר) is a Jewish male given name and an occasional surname. It means "one who shines". It is often Germanized as Maier, Mayer, Mayr, Meier, Meyer, Meijer, Italianized as Miagro, or Anglicized as Mayer, Meyer, or Myer.Alfred J. ...
area of
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 ...
, England. It was opened in 1894 by the
North Staffordshire Railway
The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire.
The company was based i ...
on its line to
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
and was situated in a
cutting
Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force.
Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the scal ...
to the east of Meir tunnel.
The station closed in 1966 with hardly any evidence of its existence left today apart from the
footprint
Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. They ...
of the buildings which are covered in vegetation.
The building was of timber construction which had a booking office with cast iron coal burning stove, a waiting room that had benched seating, a small store room for cleaning and bike storage, and a bucket type toilet that was normally emptied by the junior porter in a dug out hole in the small wooded area to the rear of the building.
There was a wooden shelter in the middle of the downside platform, and on the eastern end stood the
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
shed made of sleepers complete with chute from the bridge for road vehicle delivery.
Re-opening proposal
On 23 May 2020, it was announced by the UK Department for Transport that they would fund a feasibility study into re-opening Meir railway station as part of their
Restoring Your Railway
The Beeching cuts were a reduction of route network and restructuring of British Rail in the 1960s. Since the mid-1990s there has been significant growth in passenger numbers on the railways and renewed government interest in the role of rail ...
policy. The re-opening would depend on a suitable business case being proposed and accepted.
Tunnel
Meir railway tunnel is located between
Longton Longton may refer to several places:
* Longton, Kansas, United States
* Longton, Lancashire, United Kingdom
* Longton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom
See also
* Longtan (disambiguation)
* Longtown (disambiguation) Longtown may refer to several plac ...
in the west and Meir station in the east. The east tunnel portal is located at the end of Meir station and runs for .
[West tunnel portal is at .] The tunnel was constructed by the North Staffordshire Railway and was opened in 1848 when the line was opened between Stoke and
Uttoxeter
Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town in the East Staffordshire district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border. It is situated from Burton upon Trent, from Stafford, from Stoke-on-Trent, from De ...
on 7 August of that year.
References
Further reading
*
{{Closed stations Staffordshire
Disused railway stations in Stoke-on-Trent
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1894
Former North Staffordshire Railway stations
Beeching closures in England