Work has started on a major scheme to resurface platforms and renew roof coverings at Stafford’s railway station. The £3m project will take nine months to complete and the station will remain open to passengers during the work.

This will be welcome news to the two million passengers who use the station every year.

Jo Kaye, Network Rail’s route managing director, said: “Stafford is a typical early 1960s concrete station built in what was then a modernistic style. Time has taken its toll on the building so we are putting right some of the problems it currently has.”

Platform surfaces have become uneven as a result of water getting into joints between paving slabs and the use of de-icing chemicals in winter months.

The roof covering has failed in several areas and there are broken roof lights and glazing panels on the footbridge, all of which have allowed water to get into the fabric of the buildings.

Platform 1 and 3 were resurfaced last year and now the three other platforms are to receive similar treatment.

Where necessary, the platform support walls at track level will be repaired or rebuilt.

New surface water drains will replace the existing drainage channel that runs along the middle of the platforms.

The platforms will then be resurfaced, using block paving to match the recently completed work, and new coping stones will be laid along the platform edge with a tactile strip behind them to aid visually impaired passengers.

New canopy roof coverings over all platforms will make them watertight, and gutters, down pipes and glazed roof panels will be renewed.

The missing opaque glazing on the footbridge that links the platforms and passenger lifts will be renewed, and the timber cladding repaired and repainted.

Finally, a new roof access walkway system will be installed to make future maintenance work much easier.

Sections of the platforms have already been fenced off and scaffolding will be erected on the platforms over several weekends from the end of October.