Rugeley Trent Valley is a railway station serving the market town 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 Valley Trading Estate and located close to the River Trent. West Midlands Trains operate the station, and all trains serving it.
The station opened in September 1847 at the same time as the line. The line from Cannock was added by the Cannock Mineral Railway in 1859.
Services on the Chase Line were withdrawn in January 1965, as a result of the Beeching cuts, and reinstated on 25 May 1998 when the line was extended back into Rugeley Trent Valley from Birmingham New Street and Walsall.
From the mid-1960s until 1998, it was served only by local stopping trains between Stafford and either Rugby or (from 1987) Coventry[1][2] – these were withdrawn in 2004 when work began to upgrade the main line to four tracks, with bus replacements operating until London Midland introduced the present semi-fast service between London Euston and Crewe via Stafford in 2008.
The station was the location of Queen Elizabeth II's naming of Class 67 locomotive No. 67029 Royal Diamond, marking her diamond wedding anniversary with Prince Philip, on 12 October 2007.
Layout
Rugeley Trent Valley has three platforms with Platform 3 located at the main entrance and Platforms 1 and 2 located on an island platform. Platform 1 is bi-directional which is used for terminating services from Birmingham New Street where as Platform 2 is used for northbound services to Crewe while Platform 3 is used for southbound services to London Euston. Between Platforms 2 and 3 there are two fast lines for non-stop services. All platforms are electrified.
Rugeley Trent Valley is unstaffed but does have a ticket machine and a PERTIS machine at the entrance, as the Penalty fare scheme operates here.[3] Intending passengers must buy a ticket or permit to travel before boarding.
Services
Rugeley Trent Valley is managed by West Midlands Trains who operate all services calling at the station.
Chase Line
The station is served by trains operated by West Midlands Railway on the Chase Line from Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International.[4]
From 2008 to 2019 these ran half-hourly during peak times and hourly during off peak times on weekdays, half-hourly on Saturdays and hourly on Sundays.[6] These services used to be extended to terminate at Stafford, but as of the December 2008 timetable changes these services were all cut back to terminate at Rugeley Trent Valley.
The Chase Line saw a major timetable reorganisation in May 2019, coinciding the completion of electrification. Services ran half-hourly throughout the day, and initially trains alternated in terminating at
Birmingham International and London Euston via Birmingham, Coventry, Northampton and Milton Keynes.[7]
The service was simplified by 2021, with all Chase line services to and from Rugeley Trent Valley being West Midlands Railway services terminating at Birmingham New Street, calling at all stations north of and including Walsall, but only stopping at Tame Bridge Parkway south of there. The frequency remained at 2tph on Mondays to Saturdays, while on Sundays services ran hourly.[8]
Intercity Avanti West Coast services between London Euston and North West England do not call at Rugeley Trent Valley, due to the low passenger numbers compared to other Trent Valley stations as well as short platforms which do not accommodate the tilting Class 390 Pendolino or Class 221 Super Voyager trains Avanti West Coast operate.
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