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	Blythe Bridge, Staffordshire Moorlands England
Grid reference	SJ956411
Managed by	East Midlands Railway
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	BYB
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Original company	North Staffordshire Railway
Pre-grouping	North Staffordshire Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
7 August 1848	Opened as "Blyth Bridge"[1]
1907	Renamed "Blythe Bridge"[2]
Passengers
2015/16	91,354
2016/17	95,918
2017/18	95,570
2018/19	91,610
2019/20	91,124
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

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.[3]

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

East Midlands Railway operate all services at Blythe Bridge using Class 156 DMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[4]

• 1 tph to Crewe via Stoke-on-Trent
• 1 tph to Derby

On Sundays, there is an hourly service although no trains operate before 14:00.

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. "Minute No. 6232". Minutes of Meeting of the Superintendents' Conference (Report). London: Railway Clearing House. 2 July 1907. (Unpublished).
3. "Impact: Station Improvements coming soon" (PDF). East Midlands Trains. September 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
4. Table 50 National Rail timetable, May 2020

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2016). Derby to Stoke-on-Trent. West Sussex: Middleton Press. figs. 52-57. ISBN 9781908174932. OCLC 954271104.

External links

• Train times and station information for Blythe Bridge railway station from National Rail
• Page with more info on the station
• Railways in Draycott
• Photographs of the old station buildings
• Photograph of Blythe Bridge Signal Box