Stone railway station

Stone railway station serves the market town of Stone, Staffordshire, England. The station is located on a junction of the Colwich to Manchester spur of the West Coast Main Line, but has platforms only on the branch from Stafford to Stoke-on-Trent.

Stone
General information
Location	Stone, Stafford England
Coordinates	52.908°N 2.155°W / 52.908; -2.155
Grid reference	SJ896345
Managed by	West Midlands Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	SNE
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Original company	North Staffordshire Railway
Pre-grouping	North Staffordshire Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
17 April 1848	First station opened as Stone
1 May 1849	Station relocated
January 1888	Renamed Stone Junction
?	Renamed Stone
1947	Colwich platforms Closed
24 May 2004	Services withdrawn
15 December 2008	Services reinstated
Passengers
2019/20	0.184 million
2020/21	53,556
2021/22	0.172 million
2022/23	0.214 million
2023/24	0.233 million
Listed Building – Grade II
Feature	Stone railway station
Designated	27 July 1972
Reference no.	1297502[1]
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

There have been two stations at Stone and both were opened by the North Staffordshire Railway.^[2] The first opened on 17 April 1848^[2] 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.^[2] The station was renamed Stone Junction in January 1888, but reverted to the original name Stone at some point between 1923 and 1947.^[2] The Colwich platforms were closed in 1947 and subsequently removed.

The station building has been redeveloped by Stone Town Council as a community centre.^[3]

APTIS ticketing here ceased in 1993, when the station became unstaffed.^{[citation needed]}

Service withdrawal and reinstatement

In 2004, rail services were withdrawn from the station and were replaced by buses, operated by BakerBus; this was initially whilst upgrade work was carried out on the Stafford and Colwich to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 were reportedly going to reinstate Stone as a stop from June 2006 on the Birmingham to Manchester service, but this never materialised.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2008, Stone station reopened for an hourly train service between Crewe and London Euston, as part of a new revamped West Coast Main Line timetable unveiled by the Department for Transport.^{[4][dead link‍]} This service was operated by London Midland, then London Northwestern Railway, until its withdrawal.^[5]

Services

Stone is currently served by the hourly London Northwestern Railway services between Stafford and Crewe via Alsager, Kidsgrove, Longport and Stoke-on-Trent. Trains operated by CrossCountry do not currently call at Stone.

The new West Midlands franchise saw the former Euston to Crewe trains replaced by a new Birmingham–Wolverhampton–Stoke–Crewe service that stopped here.^[6] The London service was changed to one via Birmingham, despite opposition against losing a direct link to London. The Birmingham service was cut back in December 2023 to start at Stafford, with Stone losing its direct links to Birmingham and Wolverhampton.^[7][8]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Stoke-on-Trent towards Crewe		London Northwestern Railway Stafford–Crewe		Stafford Terminus
Historical railways
Barlaston and Tittensor Line and station open		North Staffordshire Railway Stafford to Manchester Line		Norton Bridge Line open, station closed
		North Staffordshire Railway Stone to Colwich Line		Aston-by-Stone Line open, station closed

Gallery

• 
  Looking south, with the line to Colwich to the left and Norton Bridge to the right
• 
  Plaque on the station facade
• 
  A CrossCountry Class 220 unit heading north towards Stoke-on-Trent

See also

• Listed buildings in Stone, Staffordshire

References

1. Historic England, "Stone Railway Station (1297502)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 11 January 2017
2. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 221. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
3. Stone Town Council website retrieved Feb 2017
4. ""All aboard first train in five years", The Sentinel, 12-15-2008".^{[dead link‍]}
5. GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 67
6. "Rail Minister Paul Maynard announces a host of extra benefits and services for passengers in the West Midlands"Department for Transport Press release 30 August 2016; retrieved 28 October 2016
7. "Timetable | Crewe to Stafford via Stoke-on-Trent | 21 May 2023 until 9 December 2023". West Midlands Railway.
8. "Timetable Change: Sunday 10 December 2023". London Northwestern Railway. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023.

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2016). Rugeley to Stoke-on-Trent. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 41–42, 45–62. ISBN 9781908174901. OCLC 972169395.

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
• Train times and station information for Stone railway station from National Rail