Kidsgrove railway station
Kidsgrove railway station serves the town of Kidsgrove in Staffordshire, England. The station is 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. 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). 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. Between 1885 and 1886 and 1923 and 1924 it was called "Harecastle for Kidsgrove". 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: 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). 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.