Stone railway station serves the town of

Stone, Staffordshire Stone is a canal town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, north of Stafford, south of Stoke-on-Trent and north of Rugeley. It was an urban district council and a rural district council before becoming part of the Borough of Staffor ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The station is located on a junction of the Colwich to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

spur 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 ...

, but has platforms only on the branch from

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 th ...

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 ...

History

There have been two stations at Stone and both were opened 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 bas ...

. The first opened on 17 April 1848 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. The station was renamed ''Stone Junction'' in January 1888, but reverted to the original name ''Stone'' at some point between 1923 and 1947. The Colwich platforms were closed in 1947 and subsequently removed. The station building has been redeveloped by Stone Town Council as a

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole c ...

. APTIS ticketing here ceased in 1993, when the station became unstaffed.

Recent developments

In 2004, rail services were withdrawn from the station and were replaced by buses, operated by

BakerBus BakerBus was the trading name used by the bus fleet of Bakers Coaches, a bus and coach operator based in Biddulph, Staffordshire, England. Formed as a coach operator in 1936, they grew to operate a fleet of around 50 vehicles on local bus servic ...

; 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 Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in the United Kingdom operating the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Virgin CrossCountry operated some of the longest direct rail services in t ...

were reportedly going to reinstate Stone as a stop from June 2006 on the

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 We ...

service, but this never materialised. However, in December 2008, Stone station reopened for an hourly train service between

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

and

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city rail ...

, as part of a new revamped West Coast Main Line timetable unveiled 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 ...

. This service is operated by

London Northwestern 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 ...

, as of December 2017. Passenger usage is now returning to reasonable levels (see figures right).

Services

Stone is currently served by the hourly semi-fast

services between and via and . Trains operated by

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT ...

do not currently call at Stone. The new West Midlands franchise specification plans will, when implemented in 2018, see the current Euston to Crewe trains replaced by a new Birmingham–Wolverhampton–Stoke–Crewe service that will stop here. This was changed for a new London service via Birmingham, due to opposition against losing a direct link to London. However the operational difficulties resulting from attempting to operate services across Birmingham subsequently led to these services being split and the service here returning to a Birmingham-Crewe one.

Gallery

Image:Stone_railway_station_looking_south.jpg, Looking south, with the line to Colwich to the left and Norton Bridge to the right Image:Stone railway station plaque.jpg, Plaque on the station facade Image:CrossCountry unit 220030 at Stone railway station.jpg, A

Class 220 unit heading north towards

References

External links

*
No 6 - Stone Railway Station
, Neville Malkin's "Grand Tour" of the Potteries, retrieved Feb 2017 - has several old pictures, drawings and historical narrative {{Staffordshire railway stations Stone, Staffordshire Railway stations in Staffordshire DfT Category F2 stations Former North Staffordshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1849 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations served by West Midlands Trains Grade II listed railway stations 1849 establishments in England