Blythe Bridge railway station

Blythe Bridge railway station in Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire, England, is served by trains on the Crewe to Derby Line; it 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. The full range of tickets for travel are purchased from the guard on the train at no extra cost.

Blythe Bridge
Location
PlaceBlythe Bridge
Local authorityStaffordshire Moorlands
Grid referenceSJ956411
Operations
Station codeBYB
Managed byEast Midlands Railway
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 78,470
2015/16 91,354
2016/17 95,918
2017/18 95,570
2018/19 91,610
History
Original companyNorth Staffordshire Railway
Pre-groupingNorth Staffordshire Railway
Post-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway
7 August 1848Opened[1]
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Blythe Bridge from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

The station was opened on 7 August 1848 by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR). Until 1907 the spelling of the station name was Blyth Bridge.[1] The station buildings were demolished in the early 1990s and today it is unstaffed.

In 2010 it won East Midlands Trains' Best Small Station award.[2]

Signalling

Blythe Bridge had at one time two signal boxes, Blythe Bridge and Stallington, both of which controlled level crossings, which was a common feature across the former NSR.

Blythe Bridge signal box was opened by the NSR in 1884 on their Derby to Stoke line. The box was built to a standard McKenzie & Holland design and under the S.R.S. designation system is referred to as a MKH Type1.

The signal box was equipped with a standard McKenzie & Holland lever frame and a gate wheel for operating the level crossing gates which controlled traffic on the busy former A50. These gates were later replaced by a barrier crossing when traffic got too heavy for the signalman.

Blythe Bridge signal box finally closed in 1980 and the level crossing was converted to CCTV control with the barriers supervised by Caverswall signal box.

Blythe Bridge in 1962

Services

An hourly service operates in each direction, to Derby eastbound and to Stoke & Crewe westbound. Sunday trains only operate from 15:00 onwards.[3]

Foxfield Railway

The station is situated 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) south of Caverswall Road railway station, the current southern terminus of the Foxfield Railway.

References
  1. Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077.
  2. "Impact: Station Improvements coming soon" (PDF). East Midlands Trains. September 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  3. GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Table 50 (Network Rail)

Further reading
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2016). Derby to Stoke-on-Trent. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 52-57. ISBN 9781908174932. OCLC 954271104.
Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
East Midlands Railway
Crewe-Derby Line
Preceding station   Historical railways   Following station
Line open, station closed
North Staffordshire Railway
Crewe to Derby Line
Line open, station closed

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.