Rail campaigners have launched a petition and are holding a meeting urging East Midlands Railway to reinstate an hourly service.

The service, which calls at Blythe Bridge and Longton, was reduced during the pandemic and is still missing six trains a day.

Members of the North Staffordshire Rail Community Partnership want the hourly Crewe – Stoke – Derby service reinstated.

A spokesperson said: "This leaves Derby, Stoke and Crewe, and all communities in between, with fewer trains than they've had for decades. Even some peak time services have been cut.

"By comparison, the much more sparsely populated Derwent Valley Line (Derby to Matlock) currently enjoys 18 services in each direction/day (service reinstated May 2023) compared with just 14 services/day between Stoke and Derby – two major North Midlands population centres."

They are holding an on-line meeting on Thursday, August 3rd from 5.30 pm – 6.30 pm and have also launched a petition.

"The failure to restore the full service, despite earlier assurances that the depleted timetable was a temporary Covid measure, is causing inconvenience, anger and loss of passenger footfall along the line," say the rail campaigners.

The petition can be signed here

You can sign the petition here and anyone wanting to contact the North Staffs Community Rail Partnership can email [email protected]

The link for the on-line Teams meeting is here: Click here to join the meeting Meeting ID: 391 888 980 842, Passcode: BPCLPA