Stockport to Stalybridge Line
Encyclopedia
The Stockport to Stalybridge Line is a short railway line in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

, running from Stockport
Stockport railway station
Stockport railway station is in Greater Manchester, England, 8 miles south-east of Manchester Piccadilly station on the West Coast Main Line from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston. It was opened on 15 February 1843 by the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, following completion of the large...

 north east to Stalybridge
Stalybridge railway station
Stalybridge railway station serves Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. It lies on the Huddersfield Line 12 km east of Manchester Piccadilly and 13 km east of Manchester Victoria. The station is managed by First TransPennine Express....

. Although it once received a frequent service, for the past few years it has been served by a single train run by Northern Rail
Northern Rail
Northern Rail is a British train operating company that has operated local passenger services in Northern England since 2004. Northern Rail's owner, Serco-Abellio, is a consortium formed of Abellio and Serco, an international operator of public transport systems...

, once a week in one direction.

This minimal service, termed a parliamentary train
Parliamentary train
A Parliamentary train or Parly is, nowadays, a British English term for a train that operates a Parliamentary service - that is to say a token service to a given station, thus maintaining a legal fiction that either the station or, in some cases, the whole line is open, although in reality the...

 for historical reasons, is often seen in the case of this line as to avoid the official procedures involved in terminating the passenger service. In this case, the re-routing of Trans-Pennine express services from Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

 and points east to Manchester Piccadilly from Manchester Victoria in May 1989 removed the main reason for its existence. Following the changeover, passengers who formerly used the Stalybridge - Stockport shuttle to avoid the need to change stations in Manchester (if heading from Yorkshire to Stockport and beyond or vice-versa) could travel via Manchester Piccadilly and change there instead. Ironically the northern part of the route (from Guide Bridge to Stalybridge) is now busier than ever, as it is used by the re-routed express services between Leeds & Manchester Piccadilly.

The scarcity of services on the line has led to it becoming popular with rail enthusiasts
Railfan
A railfan or rail buff , railway enthusiast or railway buff , or trainspotter , is a person interested in a recreational capacity in rail transport...

, as well as real ale connoisseurs visiting the Station Buffet at Stalybridge.

The line serves the following places:
  • Stockport
    Stockport
    Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...

  • Reddish
    Reddish
    Reddish is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It is north of Stockport and southeast of Manchester...

  • Denton
    Denton, Greater Manchester
    Denton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is five miles to the east of Manchester city centre, and has a population of 26,866....

  • Guide Bridge
    Guide Bridge railway station
    Guide Bridge railway station serves Guide Bridge, a part of Audenshaw, Tameside in Greater Manchester, England and is operated by Northern Rail. The station is 4¾ miles east of Manchester Piccadilly on the Glossop Line.-History:...

  • Stalybridge
    Stalybridge
    Stalybridge is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 22,568. Historically a part of Cheshire, it is east of Manchester city centre and northwest of Glossop. With the construction of a cotton mill in 1776, Stalybridge became one of...



From December 2008 the Parliamentary service instead operates on a Friday morning, leaving Stockport at 09.22 and arriving at Stalybridge at 09.49.

Creation

The line was built by the Manchester and Birmingham Railway
Manchester and Birmingham Railway
The Manchester and Birmingham Railway was built between Manchester and Crewe and opened in stages from 1840. Between Crewe and Birmingham, trains were worked by the Grand Junction Railway...

, at around the time of its merger into the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...

. The contract was let to John Brogden and Sons
John Brogden and Sons
John Brogden and Sons was a firm of Railway Contractors, Iron and Coal Miners and Iron Smelters operating from roughly 1837 to the bankruptcy in 1883. However the business essentially started when John Brogden moved from his father's farm near Clitheroe to set up in business in the rapidly...

 in October 1845.

Closure

Network Rail
Network Rail
Network Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...

, in their Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for the North West, proposed closure of Reddish South and Denton stations and withdrawal of the remaining passenger service. The report noted however that the cost of withdrawing the service (closure notices, dealing with objections, etc.) would be greater than the costs of operating the weekly service (Network Rail noted that the cost of each trip was just £96). The line itself would have remained open for freight and diverted passenger workings. The threat was withdrawn, possibly temporarily, in May 2007 when GMPTE
Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive
Transport for Greater Manchester is the public body responsible for co-ordinating public transport services throughout Greater Manchester, in North West England. The organisation traces its origins to the Transport Act 1968, when the SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive was established to...

 suggested it was to support three trains per hour between Stockport and Manchester Victoria
Manchester Victoria station
Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England is the city's second largest mainline railway station. It is also a Metrolink station, one of eight within the City Zone...

.

Grand Union, a new open access train operating company
Train operating company
The term train operating company is used in the United Kingdom to describe the various businesses operating passenger trains on the railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand...

, had proposed using the line for passenger services between London and Bradford via the West Coast Main Line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...

, using Guide Bridge station as a stop. These proposals have since been withdrawn, however another company Alliance Rail, proposed a similar service from London to Leeds calling at Stockport and Stalybridge.
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