The final two places with two stations: Lichfield and Rugeley

Saturday 23rd May 2026

And so this long running series comes to an end with the final two places each with a pair of stations on different lines.

Both are located almost adjacent to each other in Staffordshire with the city of Lichfield and the town of Rugeley sharing a common theme for their station pairs. Each has one station on the West Coast Main Line (with Trent Valley in its name) located on the northern edge of the urban area with the other station to be found close to the commercial centre (with City or Town in its name).

All four stations are overseen by West Midlands Trains using its Northwestern Railway branding for Lichfield Trent Valley and Rugeley Trent Valley and West Midlands Railway branding for Lichfield City and Rugeley Town.

Let’s look at Lichfield first. It’s two stations opened within a couple of years of each other in the 1840s. Lichfield Trent Valley came first in 1847 with Lichfield City following in 1849. The Trent Valley railway was formed in 1845 connecting the London and Birmingham Railway at Rugby with the Grand Junction railway at Stafford.

Today this busy four track section of electrified line is a strategic link in the national network carrying Avanti West Coast trains between London Euston and North Wales, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow on the centrally located fast lines with hourly stopping services run by Northwestern Railway between London Euston and Crewe on the outer slow lines which stops at Lichfield Trent Valley.

One of the Avanti West Coast trains an hour also stops at Lichfield (as well as Tamworth) in each direction between Euston and Crewe/Liverpool as can be seen in the above photo.

The station has a third platform at an upper level on twin tracks which cross over the Trent Valley tracks (as in the above photo) where West Midlands Railway’s half hourly service south to Bromsgrove via Lichfield City, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham New Street and Kings Norton commences.

Although there are two tracks here, there’s only one platform (numbered 3) with the other platform long disused.

Stairs and a lift link platform 3 with both platforms 1 and 2 at the lower level.

Facilities on platform 3 are very limited with most of the platform on the bridge over the Trent Valley tracks but at the southern end there is a shelter for waiting passengers to use.

The tracks are electrified south of platform 3 towards Lichfield City but north of Lichfield Trent Valley they’re unnelectrified as they head towards Burton-on-Trent, south of which they connect into the line on to Derby and south to Tamworth and Birmingham used by Cross Country. There’s also an unnelectrified connecting spur from the southbound Trent Valley slow line providing a link to these tracks towards Burton-on-Trent as shown on Google maps.

As can also be seen in the above map, it’s a long walk from the station exit from the northbound platform 1 up to Burton Road and, even longer if accessing the southbound platform 2 which necessitates crossing through platform 3 and back down again.

The station’s car park is located on this stretch of road right down to the station building which is a very basic affair…

… with a waiting area in front of a ticket office window…

… and toilets.

It was good to see an electronic departure sign showing bus departures once you’ve walked to Burton Road…

… and back on the platform, there’s an adjoining coffee outlet…

… and a rather exposed shelter further along.

Platform 2 has a more enclosed shelter and also some open-air seating.

Let’s catch that West Midlands Railway train waiting on platform 3 down to Lichfield City and see what that has to offer, not least its much more substantial station building…

… and island platform.

Whereas Lichfield Trent Valley is located 1.7 miles from the city centre, Lichfield City is centrally located, conveniently right opposite the bus station.

At ground floor level there’s a small reception area in front of a ticket office window…

… with two ticket machines on hand for when the ticket office is closed, and one of the machines isn’t working.

There’s also a station shop.

Then it’s under the northbound track through a tunnel…

… and either up the stairs or use the lift…

… to reach the island platform…

… which has a waiting room and toilet, closed for refurbishment.

Lichfield City sees the half hourly ‘cross city’ service from Lichfield Trent Valley to Bromsgrove as mentioned earlier and considering there are no other departures with its 777,000 passengers in 2024/25 it compares well to its neighbour Lichfield Trent Valley which saw 888,000 passengers.

Both these figures compare well with Rugeley Trent Valley and Rugeley Town stations with a similar set up to Lichfield located eight miles north west up the Trent Valley with Rugeley Trent Valley seeing 201,000 passengers and Rugeley Town only 185,000 passengers in 2024/25.

Both stations have much more basic facilities which reflect this difference. Neither of the stations are staffed and neither has any station buildings.

Rugeley Trent Valley is also served by Northwestern Railway’s hourly service between London Euston and Crewe but not Avanti West Coast’s London/Liverpool trains. The station also has a terminating West Midlands Railway service connecting the town to Birmingham International every half hour via Walsall and Birmingham New Street.

However there are no tracks passing over the Trent Valley lines here with the West Midlands Railway trains terminating alongside the Trent Valley lines in an island platform making for convenient interchange from the northbound platforms 2 towards Crewe and Stafford.

A footbridge provides a connection to the southbound platform 3…

… and the exit from the station, but there are no lifts making platforms 1 and 2 inaccessible to those with mobility issues.

There’s a small car park by the step free exit where there’s also a ticket machine…

… and the southbound platform 3 has one shelter.

… as does platforms 1 and 2.

Platform 2 is also not long enough to take a 10 car Class 730 as now used by London Northwestern Railway on its service to Crewe so passengers need to be in the front section of the train to alight.

Down at Rugeley Town, the station is located a fair distance from the main road with step free access to both platforms from separate roads either side of the tracks (Tom Smith Way to the southbound platform and Sandy Lane to the northbound platform).

There’s a footbridge connecting the two platforms for those able to use stairs.

Approaching the station from Tom Smith Way entails walking through the car park…

… to a ramped entrance/exit where there’s a ticket machine.

Approaching the station from Sandy Lane entrails spotting the rather small sign indicating there’s access to the station…

… and following a footpath through a private car park for the adjacent medical facility to reach the platform.

There’s a shelter on each platform…

… and that’s about it.

And that brings to an end this series with many thanks to readers who’ve suggested other places I can visit in the future which have more than two stations. I’ll keep them in mind. And if you missed any of the 41 other places featured, here are the links to those blogs.

1: Hertford; 2: Canterbury. 3: Wigan, 4 Dorchester, 5 Windsor, 6 Wakefield, 7 Reddish, 8 Yeovil, 9 Newark-on-Trent, 10 New Mills, 11 Tyndrum, 12 St Albans, 13 Falkirk, 14 Catford, 15 Helensburgh, 16 Gainsborough, 17 Edenbridge, 18 Bicester, 19 Worcester, 20 Epsom, 21 Ewell, 22 Wrexham, 23 Runcorn, 24 Farnborough, 25 Bradford, 26 Enfield, 27 Dalston, 28 Kentish Town, 29 West Hampstead, 30 Battersea, 31 Penge, 32 Bromley, 33 Coulsdon, 34 Carshalton, 35 Harringay, 36 Oulton Broad, 37 Thorne, 38 Burscough, 39 Marple, 40 St Budeaux, 41 Heath.

Watch out for a new series on a new theme commencing in a couple of weeks.

Roger French

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