Kidsgrove railway station

Kidsgrove railway station serves the town of Kidsgrove in Staffordshire, England. The station is 7.5miles 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 Trains (EMT) train operating company (TOC).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 Desiro service to London Euston via Tamworth).HistoryThe 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 1885/6 and 1923/4 it was called Harecastle for Kidsgrove. In 1944 it was renamed Kidsgrove.