Early years Crewe's location was chosen after
Winsford, to the north, had rejected an earlier proposal, as had local landowners in neighbouring
Nantwich, away. Crewe was the first station to have its own adjacent railway hotel, the
Crewe Arms Hotel, built in 1838, and still in use. It was the first to be completely rebuilt owing to the need for expansion. It was also the first to have completely independent rail lines built around it to ease traffic congestion. The station opened on 4 July 1837 on the
Grand Junction Railway. The purpose was to link the four largest cities of England by joining the existing
Liverpool and Manchester Railway with the projected
London & Birmingham Railway. The first long-distance railway in the world, it ran from
Curzon Street railway station in
Birmingham to
Dallam in
Warrington, Cheshire, where it made an end-on junction with the Warrington and Newton Railway, a branch of the L&M. The station was built in the township of Crewe, which formed part of the
ancient parish of Barthomley. The township later became a
civil parish in its own right and, later still, was renamed
Crewe Green to avoid confusion with the town of Crewe, which was adjacent to it. The station was at the point where the line crossed the
turnpike road linking the Trent and Mersey, and the Shropshire Union Canals. Since the land was bought from the
Earl of Crewe, whose mansion stood nearby and it was located in the township of Crewe, the station was called
Crewe. The railway station gave its name to the town of Crewe that was actually situated in the
ancient parish of Coppenhall. In 1936, the railway station was transferred from the civil parish of Crewe to the then municipal borough of the same name. As soon as the station opened, the
Chester and Crewe Railway was formed to build a branch line to
Chester; this company was absorbed by the GJR shortly before it opened to traffic in 1840. A locomotive depot was built to serve the Chester line and to provide banking engines to assist trains southwards from Crewe up the Madeley Incline, a modest gradient which was a challenge to the small engines of the day. By 1841, the Chester line was seen as a starting point for a new trunk line to the port of
Holyhead, to provide the fastest route to Ireland, and the importance of Crewe as a junction station began to be established. This was given further endorsement when the
Manchester and Birmingham Railway, a separate undertaking which had hoped to build a wholly independent line linking the two cities, shorter than the GJR, decided that it would be uneconomical to compete with that line over the greater part of its length: it decided to divert its own line to meet the GJR at Crewe. Teething squabbles between the companies delayed the running of through services for a while and the M&B had to build a temporary station of their own; part of this survives today as an isolated platform next to the North Junction, at the start of the line to Manchester. In 1842, the GJR decided to move its locomotive works from Edge Hill in
Liverpool to Crewe, siting the works to the north of the junction between the Warrington and Chester lines. To house the workforce and company management, the town of Crewe was built by the company to the north of the works.
London & North Western Railway In 1846, the GJR merged with the London and Birmingham to form the
London and North Western Railway Company which, until its demise in 1923, was the largest company in the world. The new company extended the existing lines to Holyhead, the Warrington line to Lancaster and Carlisle, and the Manchester line to Leeds; it built the new
Crewe and Shrewsbury Railway to Shrewsbury to join the joint GWR owned
Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway, which provided connections to
South Wales. The
North Staffordshire Railway built a line from
Stoke-on-Trent, joining the LNWR from the South East. Crewe was the centre of a wide-ranging railway network, and freight-handling facilities grew up to the south of the station. To cope with the increase of traffic, the station was rebuilt in 1867 (according to WH Chaloner); the buildings facing each other on the present platforms 5 and 6 date from this time and were built under the supervision of
William Baker. to 1901. Over 1,000 labourers were employed on what was known as the "big dig" at a cost about £500,000 (). This undertaking also included a
marshalling yard to the south of the station at
Basford Hall, a revolutionary
tranship shed which allowed fast transfer of freight from wagons to road vehicles under cover. The station was enlarged between 1903 and 1907, by providing eight through platforms each long. The cost of the improvements was £1,000,000 ().
London, Midland and Scottish Railway to the left and a
6P Jubilee to the right In 1923, the LNWR became part of the
London, Midland & Scottish Railway group; Crewe remained the major centre for locomotive construction. In 1938–39, the signal boxes at North and South Junctions were completely reconstructed as massive concrete structures to withstand air raids and remained in use until the resignalling project in 1985. The North Junction signal box can now be visited as part of the
Crewe Heritage Centre. Although the railway station is virtually synonymous with the town of Crewe, it was not actually incorporated within the borders of the borough of Crewe until the late 1930s, as it lies about to the south-east of the actual town centre. Train operation at Crewe changed little in over fifty years, with the exception of two new signal boxes and associated greatly improved colour light signalling, track circuiting and electrically operated track points. The trains did become longer and heavier and were hauled by larger engines, which required increased supplies of water to be taken on board before departure, but the number of passenger trains using Crewe station and the method of operation did not vary greatly despite the passage of two world wars. Trains continued to divide at Crewe with the front portion for Manchester and the rear for Liverpool. The
station pilot engine always had a pair of restaurant cars in a bay platform ready to attach to a morning service to London. Always there were extra coaches waiting to be attached to overcrowded trains. In addition to passengers there were vast quantities of mail, parcels and even live animals and birds of all descriptions transported in specially designed transit crates. When necessary the station staff had to feed and water these special passengers, which travelled in copious luggage vans.
British Railways In 1948, the LMS was nationalised as
British Railways,
London Midland Region. Nationalisation greatly facilitated the modernisation of British Railways and, after a false start developing new improved steam engines, electrification came, along with diesel power and fixed-formation air-braked trains. These changes had a significant effect on Crewe station. Notably, the variation in station use caused firstly by the
electrification in stages of the West Coast Main Line between 1959 and 1974, and secondly by the general end of steam traction on Britain's railways. Following the completion of electrification in 1974, trains did not need to change locomotives at Crewe, except for the London to Chester and Holyhead service. Many locomotive hauled trains were replaced by electric or diesel multiple unit trains, with much faster turn-round times. Additionally, two local branch lines had closed, which resulted in fewer trains terminating at Crewe. However, compensating for the decline of local passenger traffic, the reduction in mail and parcels traffic and the total elimination of livestock carriage, came the great increase in inter-city passenger traffic and the need for even faster, smoother and more efficient handling of passenger trains. In 1963, the architects to the London Midland Region of British Railways provided a
Porte-cochère at the passenger entrance on Nantwich Road. It was constructed of eight laminated wood
Hyperbolic paraboloid shells. This was replaced between 1983 and 1985 with the current steel structure. In 1985, in a £14.3 million scheme, the track layout was modernised and simplified, eliminating many points and crossings and allowing running over the North Junction. At the same time all but one of the six 1902 extension platforms were taken out of use. Four
Class 40 locomotives were reallocated to this work in 1985, and were renumbered as
97405–97408 for the engineering duties.
Present day In 2007,
Network Rail published a proposal to replace the existing Crewe station with a new station located approximately to the south. A
Crewe Town station was also proposed nearer the town centre on the Chester line, with a shuttle service to the new main station. In 2009, the station was identified as one of the ten worst
category B interchange stations for mystery shopper assessment of fabric and environment. The proposal to move the station was abandoned in 2010 and the current building was renovated instead.
Cheshire East Council implemented a regeneration master plan for Crewe, which included the station. In 2011,
Cheshire East Council purchased the former
Royal Mail depot and Weston House for £2.75 million. The council demolished the two buildings and created a new entrance to the station, as well as a 244 space car park and a secure bike parking structure, at a cost of £7 million. The construction work was undertaken by
Balfour Beatty. With seven
train operating companies calling, Crewe is tied with , , and for the highest number calling at a UK station.
Accidents and incidents On 7 November 1980, two freight trains collided at Crewe station. ==Future==