The current brutalist station building was built in 1962, and is the fourth station to have existed on this site. The interior of the station was refurbished in 2015, which allowed the station to have a new WHSmith store and an improved ticket office.
History
The railway station in 1960
The first station was built by the Grand Junction Railway and opened in July 1837 on the north side of Newport Road.[1]: 32 This soon proved to be inadequate, and was replaced in 1844 with a second station, designed by John Cunningham in an Elizabethan style. The station was rebuilt again on a larger scale in 1862, on a site to the north of the older ones, designed by the London and North Western Railway company architect WIlliam Baker in an Italian style. In 1866 a direct approach from the town centre was built, and the North Western Hotel (later the Station Hotel) was built opposite the station, this was demolished in 1972.[2]
Following the rebuilding of the station between 1961 and 1962, Isabel, a narrow gauge engine built by local firm WG Bagnall, stood on a plinth on the opposite side of Station Road, at the junction of Railway Street, until it was removed in the mid-1980s. It is now on the Amerton Railway.[7]
Incidents and accidents
Two accidents have happened at Stafford since 1990:
On 4 August 1990, an out-of-service train heading to a depot in Birmingham crashed into the back of an express train bound for Penzance on platform 4 at Stafford station. The driver was killed and 36 people were injured.[8]
On 8 March 1996, a mail train collided with a freight train carrying liquid carbon dioxide just south of Stafford. A mail sorter was killed and another 22 people were injured. The mail train Class 86 locomotive was catapulted up the embankment and came to rest against a house.[9]
The station today
There are five platforms in use at the station, all of which are accessible from either of the main lines that converge from the south.[10] Platform 1 is usually used for services to London Euston and platform 3 for Avanti northbound services via Crewe from the Trent Valley Line. Platform 4 is usually used for trains towards Birmingham New Street and the West of England. Platform 5 is usually used for CrossCountry services towards Manchester, London Northwestern Railway services towards Liverpool Lime Street and Avanti services to Preston extending to Blackpool or Scotland. Finally, platform 6 is usually used for trains starting/terminating towards/from London Euston, Birmingham New Street, Northampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Crewe and Liverpool Lime Street.[11]
The Stafford Area Improvements Programme improved the track layout around the station so that trains are no longer bound to a platform based upon direction of travel and trains can now use any platform, regardless of direction.
Stafford station, looking south from the end of platform 3/4.
Platform 6 used to be the terminus of the Chase Line, however it now terminates at Rugeley Trent Valley. The platform is also sometimes used for railtours, hence why the platform is split into 'a' and 'b' sections.
The former bay platform 2 is no longer used by passenger trains. When Virgin Trains operated the InterCity West Coast franchise, platform 2 served as a stable for their Class 57 rescue locomotives; this role is now redundant. Occasionally, the bay platform stables other locomotives from freight operators.
The westernmost platform, unofficially known as platform 7, was formerly used by Royal Mail to load mail from the sorting office next door to the platform. This practice has since ended and now the westernmost platform has been converted into a single goods line, with bi-directional operation. This was completed during the bank holiday weekend of 29–31 August 2015.[12]
In October 2012, Network Rail began refurbishment works at the station due to the poor condition of some of the structures. The work included resurfacing the platforms (platforms 1 and 3 had been completed before the works), improving surface and roof drainage, renewing the opaque glazing on the footbridge, installing new canopy roof covers on the platforms and some structural work on the platform supports.[13]
In June 2015, Virgin Trains unveiled £1 million plans to refurbish the entrance, ticket hall and foyer. The work started in November in the same year and was anticipated to be completed within 20 weeks. These were completed March 2016. The changes saw the number of ticket machines at the station double, WHSmith relocation of the travel centre to the current ticket purchasing area and Starbucks took the place of Pumpkin Café Shop. The cafe was also shortened to allow an increased size of the waiting area.[14][15]
Current facilities
Currently, the station has many facilities which are typical of those across the Avanti West Coast Network; this includes a ticket office, toilets, car park, coffee shop and newsagent.
Stafford Area Improvements Programme
The Stafford Area Improvements Programme by Network Rail aims to allow more trains to run and also aims to reduce journey times by removing key bottlenecks in the area around Stafford.[16]
The programme included large scale building works, north of Stafford station in Norton Bridge, Staffordshire, where a flyover was implemented to allow faster train services, and removed the need to slow down before entering the junction.
Other benefits of the programme, were the introduction of bi-directional signals at Stafford Station, which meant that trains can now use any platform, regardless of direction of travel.
Stafford resignalling
The resignalling aspect of the programme was completed over the bank holiday weekend of 29–31 August 2015. All platforms now have bi-directional signalling, and the goods loop is now operational.[17]
The resignalling programme meant that Stafford signal boxes would be closed, and trains would be controlled from the Rugby Rail Operating Centre (ROC). The last train was signalled from Stafford in the early hours of 29 August 2015, and the first train was signalled from Rugby ROC on the morning of 1 September 2015.[18]
Regular services
A 1902 Railway Clearing House diagram of railway junctions around StaffordA southbound Virgin Trains express calling at Stafford in 2014.
The station is currently served frequently by these operators: Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and West Midlands Trains, under the London Northwestern railway brand. Usual off-peak services at Stafford follow a pattern such as the one below:
2 trains per day extend to Blackpool North only, with 1 train every 2 hours running to Edinburgh (7tpd) and 6 trains per day (tpd) running to Glasgow Central. Services to Scotland run via Carlisle.
2 tph to Manchester Piccadilly via Stoke-on-Trent and Macclesfield.
Other services which operate on a less regular basis are also present at Stafford, including other Avanti West Coast services (e.g. towards Liverpool).
There have been proposals to reintroduce services to terminate on the Chase Line, which was cutback to Rugeley Trent Valley in 2008, as well a significant increase in the frequency of local services under Midlands Rail Hub.[25]
References
Lewis, Roy (1996). Staffordshire Railway Stations on old picture postcards (reprinted 2002). Nottingham: Reflections of a Bygone Age. ISBN1-900138-05-0
^Drake, James (1838). Drake's Road Book of the Grand Junction Railway (1838). Moorland Reprints. ISBN0903485257.
^Greenslade, M.W.; Johnson, D.A.; Currie, C.R.J. (1982). A History of Stafford. Staffordshire County Council. p. 198. ISBN0-9500812-8-0.
^Boyd-Hope, Gary (October 2015). "Time called on Stafford boxes No 4 and 5". The Railway Magazine. Vol. 161, no. 1, 375. Horncastle: Mortons Media Publishing. p. 91. ISSN0033-8923.
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