Crewe to Derby Line
| Crewe-Derby Line |
| (from west to east)
Crewe |
The Crewe to Derby Line is a railway line in central England, running from Crewe south east to Derby. Services on the line are provided by Central Trains.
The line serves or has formerly served the following places (highlighted place names currently have a station whereas the others formerly had a named station that is now closed): Crewe; Radway Green and Barthomley; Alsager; Kidsgrove; Chatterley; Longport; Etruria; Stoke-on-Trent; Fenton; Longton; Normacot; Meir; Blythe Bridge; Cresswell; Leigh; Bramshall; Uttoxeter; Marchington; Sudbury; Scropton; Tutbury and Hatton; Egginton; Peartree and Normanton; and Derby.
This line was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway Company and became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923.
The line was opened between Stoke and Uttoxeter on August 7, 1848. The next stage from here to Tutbury was opened September 11, 1848. Just beyond Tutbury was formerly a branch line to Burton upon Trent, having opened on the same date, but now closed.
A separate company, the Cheadle Railway Company, built a line from Creswell to Cheadle, which was opened throughout on January 1, 1901 and was closed to passengers in 1953 and to freight traffic in 1978.
The section of line between Eggington and the Midland Railway Derby to Birmingham line was opened on July 13, 1849. The section between Stoke and Kidsgrove is part of the West Coast Main Line, which together with the section from Kidsgrove to Crewe opened on October 9, 1848.
The route is double track for all of its length except for a three mile section between Alsager and Crewe, which was singled by British Rail. The section from Crewe to Kidsgrove was electrified in 2003 for use as a diversionary route for the West Coast Main Line.
In April 2006, Network Rail organised its maintenance and train control operations into "26 Routes". The line from Crewe to Kidsgrove (where it joins the line from Manchester) through to Stoke-on-Trent forms part of Route 18 (The West Coast Mainline). The line through to Derby from the junction just south of Stoke-on-Trent station forms part of Route 19 (The Midland Main Line and East Midlands).
Services
When Central Trains were awarded the franchise for the line in the 1990s, the Crewe-Derby service (which under BR Regional Trains had run between Crewe, Derby and Nottingham then either Lincoln or Skegness) was expanded to run between Manchester Airport and Skegness. However, poor punctuality meant that this was later curtailed to Crewe-Skegness. In Autumn 2005, further poor performance saw the through service limited to Crewe-Derby.
Peartree station is served on weekdays by one train daily in each direction. Etruria station lies on the route but was closed in 2005.
