page_title: Stafford railway station
section_title: The station today
hierarchical_section_title: Stafford railway station / The station today
caption_attribution_description: English: A Direct Rail Services Class 68, numbered 68013, sits in the former Royal Mail postal platform at Stafford. This is working a weekday freight working to and from Mountsorrel quarry.
context_page_description: Stafford railway station is the only railway station in Stafford, Staffordshire, England, and is the second busiest railway station in Staffordshire, after Stoke-on-Trent. The station serves the county town, as well as surrounding villages. The station lies on the junction of the Trent Valley Line and the Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line.
  Stafford station also formerly served the now defunct Stafford to Uttoxeter and Stafford to Shrewsbury lines.
  The current 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 WH Smiths store and an improved ticket office.
context_section_description: 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 services from London Euston towards Liverpool and Crewe. Platform 4 is usually used for trains towards Birmingham New Street and the West of England. Platform 5 is usually used for services from towards Manchester and Wales. 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 meant that trains are no longer bound to a platform based upon direction of travel and trains can now use any platform, regardless of direction.
  Platform 6 used to be the terminus of the Chase Line, however it now terminates in Rugeley. The platform is also sometimes used for railtours, hence why the platform is split into 'a' and 'b' sections.
  The former bay platform 2 is no longer used by passenger trains. When Virgin Trains operated the West Coast services, platform 2 served as a stable for their Class 57 rescue locomotives; this role is now redundant. Occasionally, the bay platform stables other locomotives from freight operators.
  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.
  In October 2012, Network Rail began refurbishment works at the station due to the poor condition of some of the structures. The work included resurfacing the platforms (platforms 1 and 3 had been completed before the works), improving surface and roof drainage, renewing the opaque glazing on the footbridge, installing new canopy roof covers on the platforms and some structural work on the platform supports.
  In June 2015, Virgin Trains unveiled £1 million plans to refurbish the entrance, ticket hall and foyer. The work started in November in the same year and was anticipated to be completed within 20 weeks. These were completed March 2016. The changes saw the number of ticket machines at the station double, WHSmith relocation of the travel centre to the current ticket purchasing area and Starbucks took the place of Pumpkin Café Shop. The cafe was also shortened to allow an increased size of the waiting area.
caption: Stafford station in 2016, with a Vossloh Class 68 locomotive using the converted former Royal Mail platform.
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