railroad.wikisort.org - Station

Kidsgrove railway station serves the town of Kidsgrove in Staffordshire, England. The station is 7.5 miles (12.07 km) north of Stoke-on-Trent. The station is served by trains on the Crewe to Derby Line which is also a community rail line known as the North Staffordshire line. The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway.

Kidsgrove
General information
Location	Kidsgrove, Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme England
Grid reference	SJ837543
Managed by	East Midlands Railway
Platforms	4
Other information
Station code	KDG
Classification	DfT category E
Key dates
9 October 1848 (1848-10-09)	Opened as Harecastle[1]
2 October 1944	renamed Kidsgrove Central[1]
18 April 1966	renamed Kidsgrove[1]
Passengers
2016/17	0.228 million
2017/18	0.244 million
2018/19	0.235 million
2019/20	0.236 million
2020/21	54,796
Interchange	5,812
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

In the year 2009–10 the usage of the station grew by almost 58% to over 100,000 recorded journeys, in addition more than 6,434 passengers used the station to change trains. The increase in usage (followed by a similar increase for 2010–11) has been attributed to improved timetable in December 2008 (specifically the introduction of London Midland's service to London Euston via Tamworth).[2]

History

The present station was opened 9 October 1848 by the North Staffordshire Railway as Harecastle and was during the early years of the North Staffordshire era variously called Harecastle Junction, Kidsgrove Junction. Kidsgrove Junction, Harecastle before settling upon Harecastle in 1875.[1] Between 1885 and 1886 and 1923 and 1924 it was called Harecastle for Kidsgrove.[1] In 1944 it was renamed Kidsgrove.

In British Rail days it was known as Kidsgrove Central when the town had three stations, the other two were Kidsgrove Liverpool Rd and Market Street Halt on the old North Staffordshire Railway's Potteries Loop Line (all three stations were opened by the North Staffordshire Railway). It is situated on the Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line at the junction where the line from Stoke-on-Trent divides for Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly.

It is just north of the Harecastle Tunnels on the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Harecastle railway tunnel and 1965 railway diversion.

Platforms and services

Services

Services at Kidsgrove are operated by East Midlands Railway using Class 156, 158 and 170 DMUs, London Northwestern Railway using Class 350 EMUs and Northern Trains using Class 323 and 331 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[3][4]

• 2 tph to Crewe
• 1 tph to Birmingham New Street
• 1 tph to Newark Castle via Derby and Nottingham
• 1 tph to Stoke-on-Trent only
• 1 tph to Manchester Piccadilly via Macclesfield

On Sundays, the station is served by an hourly service between Crewe and Birmingham and 6 trains per day to Manchester. Hourly Sunday services operate between Crewe and Derby after 14:00 only.

No services operated by Avanti West Coast or CrossCountry call at Kidsgrove (though 2 Cross Country and 2 Avanti West Coast services pass through platforms 1 & 2 each hour).

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Longport		East Midlands Railway Crewe to Derby Line		Alsager
Stoke-on-Trent		London Northwestern Railway Birmingham to Crewe
Longport or Stoke-on-Trent		Northern Trains Stafford to Manchester Line		Congleton
	Historical railways
Alsager Road Line open, station closed		North Staffordshire Railway Crewe to Derby Line		Chatterley Line and station closed
Mow Cop and Scholar Green Line open, station closed		North Staffordshire Railway Stafford to Manchester Line
Lawton Line and station closed		North Staffordshire Railway Sandbach to Stoke Line

Platforms

The station has 4 platforms. Platform 1 serves the hourly Northern service to Stoke-on-Trent. Platform 2 serves the hourly Northern services to Manchester Piccadilly. Platform 3 serves both the East Midlands Railway services to Derby and the London Northwestern Railway services to Birmingham New Street. Platform 4 serves both the East Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway services to Crewe.

References

External links

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

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