Rugeley Town railway station serves the town of

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated north of Lichfield, south-east of Stafford, nort ...

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 is 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 ...

, with services operated by

and London Northwestern Railway. The station is situated around half a mile from Rugeley town centre. The station is located in Wharf Road.

History

The original station was opened 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 ...

on 1 June 1870. The station, together with all those on the line between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley, were closed on 18 January 1965 as part of the Beeching Axe, although the line remained open as freight-only. The station closed to goods on 6 September 1965. A new station opened in 1997, some 250m south of the original, as the second stage of the reopening to passengers 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 ...

saw the extension of services beyond

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 ...

. The following year, the short section of track between Rugeley Town 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 ...

stations was also reopened, allowing services to be extended via the Trent Valley section of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

(though through running there ended at the December 2008 timetable change). In May 2019, a new service to London Euston started to run using Class 350s operated by London Northwestern Railway In April 2011, the area was still mechanically signalled from the Brereton Sidings signal box immediately south of the station on the east side of the line (the sidings are no longer extant, though there is still an active rail connection to the adjacent coal-fired

Rugeley power stations The Rugeley power stations were a series of two coal-fired power stations located on the River Trent at Rugeley in Staffordshire. The first power station on the site, Rugeley A power station was opened in 1961, but has since been closed and demo ...

), but the box closed in 2013 (along with neighbouring Hednesford & Bloxwich boxes and the PSB at Walsall) as part of the ongoing West Midlands re-signalling scheme. Control passed to the West Midlands Signalling Centre at Saltley, though in the long term the WCML South Rail Operating Centre at Rugby will have responsibility for this part of the country.

Services

On Monday to Saturday, there is a half hourly service northbound to Rugeley Trent Valley and southbound to Walsall and Birmingham New Street, with 1tph running to Birmingham International. On Sundays the service is hourly.GB National Rail Timetable 2015-16 - Table 70, Birmingham - Walsall and Rugeley

References

External links

{{Staffordshire railway stations Rugeley Railway stations in Staffordshire DfT Category F2 stations Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1870 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1965 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1997 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains Beeching closures in England Reopened railway stations in Great Britain 1870 establishments in England

History

Services

References

Further reading

External links