Stone station having WMR branding

[finwoah]

Recently I passed through Stone station on the Crewe-Stafford via Stoke LNWR shuttle and saw its has the orange WMR branding with WMR station signs. This seems very odd considering its only served by LNWR, and other LNWR only stations like Winsford have LNWR branding. Anyone know why?

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Because it was meant to be part of WMR when the franchise split which never happened.

As it's now a Crewe-Stafford shuttle it makes even less sense given it has no direct service to the West Midlands.

 

[yorkie]

Recently I passed through Stone station on the Crewe-Stafford via Stoke LNWR shuttle and saw its has the orange WMR branding with WMR station signs. This seems very odd considering its only served by LNWR, and other LNWR only stations like Winsford have LNWR branding. Anyone know why?

I think this may happen (or certainly has happened) at other stations operated by West Midlands Trains.

West Midlands Trains is one of a few TOCs who operate trains under multiple brand names; in this case WMR and LNR (the latter often erroneously referred to as LNWR, just to add to the confusion!) and the brand names don't always stay consistently the same and service patterns do change on occasions.

Most TOCs only use one brand name; exceptions include WMT, GTR, Greater Anglia and there is also the matter of SWR who use a separate brand name for their Island Line services.

 

[Watershed]

The other 'shacks' between Wolverhampton and Stoke (exclusive), i.e. Penkridge, Wedgwood and Barlaston, are the same. They all have WMR branding but have only ever been served by LNR branded services (the last two stretching the definition of 'services' as they have been de-facto permanently bustituted for the last 20 years).

The shacks between Stoke and Crewe are curious, they are all EMR managed - despite being predominantly served by LNR and Northern nowadays.

 

[trentvalley]

Wilnecote and Coleshill Parkway are another 2 WMR branded but only served by Crosscountry.

Curiously Tutbury & Hatton is managed by EMR but has some Crosscountry Community Rail branding on the platform but Crosscountry have nothing to do with the North Staffs line

 

[louis97]

Curiously Tutbury & Hatton is managed by EMR but has some Crosscountry Community Rail branding on the platform but Crosscountry have nothing to do with the North Staffs line

XC get involved with community rail on routes that link to their network, see here - https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/xc-community-hub/community-rail-partnerships

The North Staffs line is one of them.

 

[childwallblues]

LNR/WMR are linked. When I next go through Acton Bridge, Hartford and Winsford I will check their signeage as they are exclusively served by LNR.

 

[finwoah]

LNR/WMR are linked. When I next go through Acton Bridge, Hartford and Winsford I will check their signeage as they are exclusively served by LNR.

Been to those stations and they do have LNR branding

Wilnecote and Coleshill Parkway are another 2 WMR branded but only served by Crosscountry.

Curiously Tutbury & Hatton is managed by EMR but has some Crosscountry Community Rail branding on the platform but Crosscountry have nothing to do with the North Staffs line

Something to do with XC having some weird clause or something where they don’t operate any stations.

 

[ThreeIfByAir]

Something to do with XC having some weird clause or something where they don’t operate any stations.

For instance, Burton-on-Trent nearby is managed by EMR but served exclusively by XC.

(Back in the day, Lockerbie was managed by ScotRail and served exclusively by XC. It's still managed by ScotRail and still has no ScotRail services, but now everything except one Virgin train each way is TPE.)

 

[finwoah]

The other 'shacks' between Wolverhampton and Stoke (exclusive), i.e. Penkridge, Wedgwood and Barlaston, are the same. They all have WMR branding but have only ever been served by LNR branded services (the last two stretching the definition of 'services' as they have been de-facto permanently bustituted for the last 20 years).

The shacks between Stoke and Crewe are curious, they are all EMR managed - despite being predominantly served by LNR and Northern nowadays.

Alsager is EMR branded and i think it’s quite a 50/50 split between LNR and EMR, Kidsgrove seems to be similar, managed by EMR, but with a pretty even 1/3 split between LNR, EMR and Northern. Longport is quite interesting, managed by EMR yet 90% of EMR services skip it, with it predominantly stopped at by Northern and LNR.

For instance, Burton-on-Trent nearby is managed by EMR but served exclusively by XC.

(Back in the day, Lockerbie was managed by ScotRail and served exclusively by XC. It's still managed by ScotRail and still has no ScotRail services, but now everything except one Virgin train each way is TPE.)

Don’t think XC even go to Lockerbie now since the west coast route to scotland got binned off.
Also, quite the throwback mentioning Virgin haha

 

[paddy1]

Intrigued as to why Coventry never had the Virgin or Avanti branding when far less busier and less important Avanti/Virgin managed stations do (or did)? Coventry is the busiest in terms of passenger numbers and it's London flow (1.3m in 2023/24) of all of the Avanti managed stations. It still bears the Inter City claret banding station signage. Possibly because of it's listed building status prohibiting it?

 

[ThreeIfByAir]

Don’t think XC even go to Lockerbie now since the west coast route to scotland got binned off.
Also, quite the throwback mentioning Virgin haha

Oops! I saw VT as the operator and failed to translate to Avanti in my brain...