Trains at Stafford, WCML, 07/08/26

Stafford railway station is a major interchange railway station in Stafford, Staffordshire, England, and is the second busiest railway station in Staffordshire, after Stoke-on-Trent.

The station serves the market and county town, as well as surrounding villages.

The station lies on the junction of the Trent Valley line, the Birmingham Loop/Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line, and the West Coast Main Line.

Stafford station also formerly served the now defunct Stafford to Uttoxeter and Stafford–Shrewsbury lines.
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.

The first station was built by the Grand Junction Railway and opened in July 1837 on the north side of Newport Road.

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.

Lines originally built by the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway and the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company (to Shrewsbury) also used the station.

The Stafford to Uttoxeter line closed to passenger traffic in 1939, with the Shrewsbury line closing as part of the Beeching Axe in 1964.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Duration of the video: 10:25 - 13:20

We’ll be seeing services by Avanti West , London Northwestern Railway, Cross Country, Lumo & freight as well.

I hope you enjoyed this video if you did smash that like button and don’t forget to subscribe for more upcoming videos and feel free to leave any comments or suggestions of stations that you would like for me to do in the comments below as I’ll try get back to them as soon as possible.

It’s been a long time since I last visited Stafford but I always enjoy my time especially the amount of variety I tend plus a positive was seeing some Lumo services go by for the first time plus having some Cross Country voyagers supporting their new livery and Avanti units supporting their remembrance and climate change livery plus having a fair amount of freight come through which is always nice to see.

My next station will be Crewe which is situated on West Coast Mainline it’s been a long time since I’ve visited that station but I always enjoy train spotting there so until then thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.