Styal railway station

Styal railway station serves the village of Styal in Cheshire, England. It is a stop on the Styal Line, which links Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport and Wilmslow.

History
The station was opened in 1909, with the construction of the line from Wilmslow to Manchester London Road (now Piccadilly).

It won numerous best-kept station garden awards in the 1940s and 1950s under stationmasters Mott, Hilton and Jackson. The garden is long abandoned, but there were plans to uncover and restore some of it in spring 2011.

Styal enjoyed a half-hourly service in each direction until the mid-1990s. The construction of the airport rail link in 1993 saw services reduced, with only 8 trains per day in each direction on Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, there was a two hourly service in each direction. This was gradually reduced down to a skeletal Monday - Saturday service and no Sunday service.

A petition was created to seek a resumption of a morning commuter service to Manchester and daytime services to serve HMP Styal, National Trust Styal and local residents.

Services were temporarily suspended in summer 2020 and again in early 2021, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic; they have since been reinstated.

Location
Styal station is on Station Road, to the east of the main road in the centre of the village.

It is sited close to the edge of the National Trust's Quarry Bank Mill/Styal Estate and Styal Women's Prison and Young Offenders' Institute.

Facilities
The station has the following facilities:
 * A ticket machine
 * Customer information screens on both platforms
 * Step-free access to both platforms
 * A station car park, on the southbound platform

Services
Since May 2018, a major timetable revamp has seen the station gain an hourly service 7 days a week in both directions.

The current Monday-Saturday service pattern consists of one train per hour in each direction between Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly, via Manchester Airport.

On evenings and Sundays, there is an hourly service each way between Liverpool Lime Street and Wilmslow, via Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.

All stopping services are operated by Northern Trains.