Stalybridge railway station

Stalybridge railway station serves Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the Huddersfield Line, 7+1/2 mi east of Manchester Piccadilly and 8+1/4 mi east of Manchester Victoria. The station is managed by TransPennine Express.

Ownership and routes
Stalybridge station was built by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway (SAMR) and opened as the terminus of its Stalybridge branch on 23 December 1845. There was an Ashton, Stalybridge and Liverpool Junction Railway (AS&LJR) (later the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR)) Stalybridge adjacent that opened in 1846, the terminus of that company's line from Manchester Victoria.

On 27 July 1846 Parliament authorised the SAMR amalgamation with other railways and with effect from 1 January 1847 it became part of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) which took ownership of the station.

The station became a through station on 13 July 1849 when the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR) opened the line from this station, via an end-on connection, to Huddersfield, at this time the incoming lines from Manchester to the two adjacent stations were connected and joint passenger facilities, with separate booking offices, were provided. The station becoming jointly owned and managed by the MS&LR and L&NWR. Joint goods facilities with separate warehouses were provided at the adjacent L&YR site. The L&NWR had running powers over both the L&YR line from Manchester Victoria and the MS&LR line from Guide Bridge. It remained a Joint station until nationalisation, having been jointly owned by the MS&LR and L&NWR and used by the L&YR, then the MS&LR became the Great Central Railway (GCR) during whose tenure the Midland Railway also started to use the station.

The station was used by all three companies but despite being enlarged in 1858, getting refreshment rooms in 1859, it remained unsatisfactory and in 1869 the L&YR returned to using their old station. The connection lines between the stations were replaced in 1883 and a new station was built in 1885.

From 1882 the L&NWR built their own line to Stalybridge from Denton Junction (to the south of Guide Bridge) with the southerly section to Dukinfield and Ashton station opening on 2 October 1882 and the remaining section into Stalybridge opening on 1 August 1893 for goods and 7 August 1893 for passengers. This line closed to passengers on 25 September 1950 and to goods on 1 January 1968.

The L&NWR built a further line to relieve congestion on the way to Huddersfield, this line known as the Micklehurst Loop ran from Stalybridge on the opposite side of the valley from the original line, rejoining it at Diggle. The line was opened for goods on 1 December 1885 and for passengers on 3 May 1886. The line closed to passengers on 7 September 1964 and closed to goods traffic in stages, finally closing on 3 October 1966.

In the 1890s the station had two main through platforms with three bay platforms all facing toward Manchester, two on the north and one to the south of the station. The main platform lines had two further through lines between them and there was another two through lines to the south. A signal box was located above the four central lines in the centre of the station and a subway at the eastern end of the station gave access to the southern platform from the main station buildings on the north side.

A joint goods yard with a shed was located to the south of the passenger station, it was able to accommodate most types of goods including live stock and was equipped with a twenty ton crane.

Names
Quick (2022) reports that at first the station was called "a glorious mixture of Staleybridge, Staley Bridge, Stalybridge and Staly Bridge" in the various published timetables with Bradshaw's Handbook finally settling on the Stalybridge version in 1890. In some publications, for example on Ordnance Survey maps, it was called Stalybridge Joint Station to distinguish it from the L&YR station.

Current Facilities
The station has an entrance block with a ticket office. Ramps and a passenger subway lead up to the platforms. The station is one of very few to retain its original buffet, the 1998 refurbishment of which won awards from CAMRA and English Heritage. At the 2008 Tameside food and drink festival it was voted best bar.

Following further refurbishment in 2012 Lord Pendry of Stalybridge, who often uses the buffet bar and contributed over half of the £6,000 costs, unveiled a plaque to mark the works.

Michael Portillo visited the buffet bar in "Manchester Piccadilly to Silkstone Common", a 2017 episode of Great British Railway Journeys.

In a £1.5m overhaul of the station, which began in 2007, the platforms were raised and the toilets, information services and shelters on the westbound platform were improved. In December 2008 the new entrance was completed.

As part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade the station, platforms and railway tracks have been reworked in 2022/2023 to support the electrification and to enable a speed of 50 miles to pass through the station.

Recent developments
Further work to expand the station was completed in 2012 - this saw major alterations to the track layout (including the opening of two new platforms) and signalling, with control of the latter passing to the Manchester East signalling centre at Stockport. The project cost £20 million as the station closed on Sundays throughout the summer of 2012 followed by a nine-day line blockade at the end of October but gives improved operational flexibility and reliability, allowed the line speed through the station and junction to be increased to 50 mph and left it ready for the electrification of the Leeds - Manchester trans-Pennine route which is currently ongoing and is scheduled to be finished in 2032. The two new platforms were opened on 5 November 2012; the former platform 1 was renumbered 4, and a new bay on the northern side is Platform 5.

An Access for All scheme, funded by the Department for Transport, gave easier access to all of the platforms. Lifts were built to give step-free access to the entire station, though the station had no steps previously as there were ramps to all platforms.

TransPennine Express
Since the winter 2022 timetable change, the frequency has been improved in both directions to three departures per hour - eastbound these run to Hull, Huddersfield (stopping) and Newcastle, whilst westbound there are two to Manchester Piccadilly and one to Liverpool Lime Street via Manchester Victoria. Certain stopping services at peak times continue beyond Huddersfield to York via Wakefield Kirkgate and Castleford (except on Sundays).

Northern Trains
Since the May 2018 timetable change, all Northern Trains trains from Manchester Victoria now start and terminate here. The base frequency is hourly on weekdays and Saturdays, with trains continuing to Bolton and Southport (the latter since the summer 2019 timetable change).

An hourly service also runs on Sundays, with services starting/finishing at Wigan North Western.

The "parliamentary service" from Stockport
A parliamentary train still travels along the whole Stockport–Stalybridge line, which for many years was in one direction only and with no return service. An attempt was made to close the line to passenger services in the early 1990s (the service having been drastically cut in May 1989 after the re-routing of TransPennine Express services from Manchester Victoria to Manchester Piccadilly), but closure was refused by the Department of Transport which ordered that a regular service continue. The train is the only one to call at Denton and Reddish South. The train ran on a Friday as the 09:22 Stockport to Stalybridge; however, from the start of the summer 2018 timetable, the service shifted to Saturday and operates in both directions. The new southbound train left at 08:46 for Stockport and returns from there at 09:45, arriving back at Stalybridge around 20 minutes later. In the December 2023 timetable, it leaves Stalybridge at 08:30, and calls at Guide Bridge, Denton and Reddish South, arriving at Stockport at 08:59. It returns from Stockport at 09:28.