Stockport railway station

Stockport railway station in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, is 6 miles south-east of Manchester Piccadilly on the West Coast Main Line to London Euston.

Stockport
National Rail
Stockport railway station in 2014
General information
LocationStockport
England
Grid referenceSJ892898
Managed byAvanti West Coast
Platforms6 (Numbered 0-3, 3a, 4)
Other information
Station codeSPT
ClassificationDfT category B
History
Original companyManchester and Birmingham Railway
Pre-groupingLondon and North Western Railway
Post-groupingLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
15 February 1843 (1843-02-15)Opened as Edgeley
?Renamed Stockport Edgeley
6 May 1968Renamed Stockport
Passengers
2017/18Increase 3.853 million
2018/19Increase 4.437 million
2019/20Decrease 4.305 million
 Interchange  0.774 million
2020/21Decrease 0.913 million
 Interchange Decrease 0.128 million
2021/22Increase 2.786 million
 Interchange Increase 0.456 million
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

44444 shunting just south of the station in 1950

The Manchester and Birmingham Railway opened in stages from Manchester and reached Stockport in 1840. The 5+12-mile (9 km) line ran from a temporary station in Manchester to another in Stockport at the north end of the uncompleted Stockport Viaduct. The temporary station, which was later renamed Heaton Norris, was Stockport's only station for more than two years.[1] After the viaduct was completed, the M&BR built a station at its southern end as an experiment. The decision was prompted by complaints that the first station was a long way from the industrial parts of town and even farther from the residential districts on the south side. The second station opened on 15 February 1843 as Edgeley. By 1844, it was the town's principal station. Heaton Norris, at the north end of the viaduct, closed in 1959.[1]

The station was operated by the London and North Western Railway and became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. In 1948, British Railways ran the system.

Most lines into the station were electrified at 25 kV AC, using overhead wires, under the British Railways 1955 Modernisation Plan; however, not all of the local lines were electrified.

A Regional Railways branded diesel multiple unit, BR Class 101, calling at the station in 1993.

Facilities

The station is positioned at high level above the valley of the River Mersey and with lifts that link a pedestrian underpass to central Stockport and Edgeley.

The station is staffed, has a ticket office and ticket machines, customer service points, shops, toilets, waiting rooms, lifts from the station subway and step-free access to the platforms.[2][3]

In 2009, the station was identified as one of the ten worst category B interchange stations for mystery shopper assessment of fabric and environment and received a share of £50m funding for improvements.[4]

Services

Current passenger routes

Trains running north-west serve Manchester Piccadilly; some continue on to Manchester Oxford Road and beyond to Liverpool Lime Street via Warrington Central. There are no longer regular services from here to Bolton and points north (passengers should change at Piccadilly or Manchester Oxford Road).

South-east from Stockport, express services run to Sheffield and onwards to Cleethorpes, Nottingham and Norwich with local services running to Hazel Grove and Buxton.

The two southbound West Coast Main Line routes run via Cheadle Hulme. One continues via Macclesfield and Stoke-on-Trent to Birmingham New Street and London; the other via Wilmslow and Crewe for through services to London and Birmingham and via Shrewsbury and the Welsh Marches Line to Cardiff, Carmarthen, Pembroke Dock and Milford Haven. Trains to Birmingham continue to destinations in the south of England such as Bournemouth via Reading and Bristol Temple Meads.

The Mid-Cheshire Line runs hourly westbound through Altrincham, Knutsford, Northwich to Chester.

The Stockport to Stalybridge Line, via Guide Bridge, no longer has a regular passenger service. It was reduced from an hourly shuttle service to a once a week, one direction only skeleton service in the early 1990s. It now has two services a week, one in each direction on Saturday mornings.

The main concourse opened in September 2004 in a development that included a new platform (platform 0) that only became fully operational at the beginning of March 2008. A pedestrian subway leads to the island platforms, which have a buffet and newsagent.

The MondaySaturday off-peak service pattern in trains per hour (tph) is:

Avanti West Coast

CrossCountry

East Midlands Railway

TransPennine Express

Transport for Wales Rail

Northern Trains

Preceding station   National Rail National Rail   Following station
Avanti West Coast
Transport for Wales Rail
CrossCountry
East Midlands Railway
Limited service
Limited service
Limited service
TransPennine Express
Limited service
Northern Trains
Northern Trains
Northern Trains
Northern Trains
Northern Trains
Limited service
TerminusNorthern Trains
Saturdays only

Platform use

Platform 0
Platforms 2 and 3

Platform 0 — Typically services to Hazel Grove, Buxton, Sheffield, Norwich, Nottingham and Cleethorpes (opened in 2003).

Platform 1 — southbound services to Macclesfield, Crewe, Stoke-on-Trent and Alderley Edge. It is also signalled for use by trains in the Manchester direction.

Platform 2 — southbound platform for services to Stoke-on-Trent, Chester, Crewe, Alderley Edge, services to South Wales, London, Bristol, Bournemouth, Paignton and Plymouth.

Platform 3 — mainly used by Fast services to Manchester Piccadilly along with services to Manchester Airport, Liverpool Lime Street, Blackpool North, Preston, Salford Crescent, Bolton, Wigan, Southport and Barrow-in-Furness.

Platform 3a — used by the weekly Parliamentary train from / to Stalybridge.

Platform 4 — mainly used by stopping services to Manchester Piccadilly along with services to Manchester Airport, Liverpool Lime Street, Blackpool North, Preston, Salford Crescent, Bolton, Wigan, Southport and Barrow-in-Furness.

Non-stopping trains

It has been claimed that Stockport viaduct was built on condition that all passenger trains using it were required to stop at Stockport station.[11][12][13] Local MP Andrew Gwynne commissioned research into the issue and reported "Sadly no such Act of Parliament exists, although it is common currency in the town that it does. I made enquiries with the House of Commons Library and the Parliamentary Archives back at the time some intercity trains stopped using Stockport. It appears it is purely an urban myth."[14]

Interchange with other transport modes

Main entrance, showing the taxi rank (left foreground)

Taxi

Passengers can board taxis from the taxi rank located immediately outside the station entrance.[15]

Bus

The bus stops immediately outside the station were previously served by the Metroshuttle free bus service. This service was withdrawn in 2019,[16] and as of 2020 the bus stops were only used by the infrequent service number 312[17] and occasionally rail replacement buses.

The station is a short walk from Stockport bus station where most services can be accessed. As part of Transport for Greater Manchester's Stockport Interchange project, a new bridge to improve the walking route between the two facilities is planned to be built.[18]

Passengers can also use the bus stops on the nearby Wellington Road which are well-served by services, especially the 192 between Manchester Piccadilly and Hazel Grove, that are mostly operated by Stagecoach Manchester.

Tram

Stockport Interchange
Metrolink station
General information
LocationStockport, Stockport
England
Coordinates 53.405°N 2.1628°W / 53.405; -2.1628
Other information
StatusProposed station
Location

An extension to the Metrolink line from East Didsbury to Stockport was planned in 2004 and the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive applied for powers to build it. The project came to a halt when the Big Bang extension was stopped due to the loss of potential funding.[19] As a result, there is currently no tram interchange at Stockport station.

The proposed extension would have reused some of the former railway alignment, but some of it was built on or filled in after closure. This made re-opening more difficult and the proposed line would have included new infrastructure and street running sections to take it into Stockport. The line would have terminated at Stockport bus station.[19]

See also

References

  1. Holt, Geoffrey O (1978). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Vol. 10: North West. David & Charles. pp. 117–119. ISBN 0715375210.
  2. National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Stockport Accessed 2014-06-03
  3. Stockport Station Plan Accessed 2014-06-03
  4. "£50m revamp for 'worst stations'". BBC News. 17 November 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2009.
  5. Table 65 National Rail timetable, May 2023
  6. Table 50 National Rail timetable, December 2022
  7. Table 53 National Rail timetable, May 2023
  8. Table 21 National Rail timetable, May 2023
  9. Table 131 National Rail timetable, December 2022
  10. "National Rail Timetable 097 Manchester to Guide Bridge, Glossop and Hadfield (including Stockport to Stalybridge)" (PDF).
  11. Andrew Macfarlane, ed. (1989). "Manchester–Buxton". Peaks and Plains by Rail. Railway Development Society. Norwich: Jarrold Colour Publications. p. 19. ISBN 0-7117-0429-5.
  12. "Concern over proposed train cuts". BBC News. 5 December 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2008.
  13. "Register your viaduct vote online for trains to stop". Stockport Express News Website. MEN. 26 March 2008. Archived from the original on 25 March 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
  14. Gwynne, Andrew (17 November 202). "Rail services to London via Stockport to be retained – MP". Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  15. "National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Stockport". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  16. "Stockport Metroshuttle is axed". www.keybuses.com. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  17. "Stockport - Handforth Dean via Cheadle timetable" (PDF). Diamond Buses. 2020.
  18. "Stockport interchange". Transport for Greater Manchester. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  19. "Metrolink, East Didsbury to Stockport". LRTA. Archived from the original on 29 December 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2016.

Further reading

  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2014). Crewe to Manchester. Middleton Press. figs. 78-88. ISBN 9781908174574. OCLC 892047119.

53°24′21″N 2°9′45″W

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