Rugeley Town railway station

Rugeley Town railway station serves the town of Rugeley, Staffordshire, England. The station is operated by West Midlands Railway, with services operated by West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway. The station is situated around half a mile from Rugeley town centre. The station is located in Wharf Road.

Rugeley Town
LocationRugeley, Cannock Chase
England
Coordinates52.754°N 1.937°W / 52.754; -1.937
Grid referenceSK043174
Managed byWest Midlands Railway
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeRGT
ClassificationDfT category F2
History
Original companyLondon and North Western Railway
Pre-groupingLondon and North Western Railway
Post-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
1 June 1870Opened
18 January 1965Closed
2 June 1997Reopened
Passengers
2015/16 0.141 million
2016/17 0.142 million
2017/18 0.105 million
2018/19 0.115 million
2019/20 0.119 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

The original station was opened by the London and North Western Railway on 1 June 1870.[1] The station, together with all those on the line between Walsall and Rugeley Trent Valley, were closed on 18 January 1965[1] as part of the Beeching Axe, although the line remained open as freight-only. The station closed to goods on 6 September 1965.

A new station opened in 1997, some 250m south of the original, as the second stage of the reopening to passengers of the Chase Line saw the extension of services beyond Hednesford. The following year, the short section of track between Rugeley Town and Rugeley Trent Valley stations was also reopened, allowing services to be extended via the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line to Stafford (though through running there ended at the December 2008 timetable change). In May 2019, a new service to London Euston started to run using Class 350s operated by London Northwestern Railway

In April 2011, the area was still mechanically signalled from the Brereton Sidings signal box immediately south of the station on the east side of the line (the sidings are no longer extant, though there is still an active rail connection to the adjacent coal-fired Rugeley power stations), but the box closed in 2013 (along with neighbouring Hednesford & Bloxwich boxes and the PSB at Walsall) as part of the ongoing West Midlands re-signalling scheme.[2] Control passed to the West Midlands Signalling Centre at Saltley, though in the long term the WCML South Rail Operating Centre at Rugby will have responsibility for this part of the country.

Services

On Monday to Friday, there is an hourly service in the daytime northbound to Rugeley Trent Valley and southbound to Walsall and Birmingham New Street. This service frequency also applies in the evenings and on Sundays.[3] At peak periods and all day Saturday daytime, there are two departures per hour each way - this was the basic daytime weekday frequency on the route for several years in the mid-to-late 2000s, but it reverted to just one per hour at the December 2010 timetable change.

References
  1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 201. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. End of the Line for 38 Signal Boxes www.expressandstar.com news article; Retrieved 17 September 2013
  3. GB National Rail Timetable 2015-16 - Table 70, Birmingham - Walsall and Rugeley

Further reading
  • "Central Trains extends services to Rugeley". RAIL. No. 307. EMAP Apex Publications. 18 June – 1 July 1997. p. 8. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.
Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
London Northwestern Railway
Chase Line
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