Kidsgrove is a junction station in Staffordshire between Longport and Alsager or Congleton.
Northern 323 230 arrives at Kidsgrove
Information
Type:
National Rail
(West Coast Main Line & Crewe-Derby Line)
Station code:
KDG
Opened:
1848
Platforms:
4
The station was opened are Harecastle & Kidsgrove [1] in 1848 by the North Staffordshire Railway, it had a number of name changes in the 1850s including being called Harecastle Junction and Kidsgrove Junction at various times! It was renamed Harecastle in 1885 before becoming Kidsgrove Central in 1944. After the closure of the other two stations in Kidsgrove the station became just Kidsgrove in 1966.
Kidsgrove is at the junction of two lines, the Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line (the branch splits at Kidsgrove for services to Crewe or Manchester Piccadilly) and the Crewe-Derby Line. The station is triangular shaped with each line having a pair of platforms. The platforms are connected via a lengthy footbridge.
The station has changed a little since the early twentieth century. The station used to have a north facing bay platform but this has now been lifted. A signalbox at the junction was closed in 2002 [2]. The station will receive lifts and a new footbridge to allow for step free access to all platforms.
The station is managed by East Midlands Railway and also served by London North Western Railway and Northern. There are at least six trains an hour.
EMR 158 889 departs heading South
An EMR 153 travels under the footbridge
Central platforms
LNWR 350 241 arrives with a South bound service
Looking South
[1] Adrian Hartless, Lines North of Stoke (Middleton Press, 2019) Map. XVII [2] Ibid. Fig. 63
