Woodley railway station

Woodley railway station serves the suburb of Woodley in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The station is 9+1/4 mi east of Manchester Piccadilly on a branch of the Hope Valley Line to Rose Hill Marple. It is situated where the A560 road from Stockport to Gee Cross, near Hyde, crosses over the railway line.

History


The station was opened on 5 August 1862 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway; it became a junction later when a line from Stockport Tiviot Dale, the Stockport and Woodley Junction Railway, reached the suburb in 1865. The station subsequently became jointly owned and operated by the MS&L, Great Northern Railway and Midland Railway, as part of the Cheshire Lines Committee system.

From 1866, a second link from Apethorne Junction to the north gave an east-facing link to the Woodhead Line, at Godley Junction; it was used heavily for many years by trans-Pennine freight traffic, mainly coal from the South Yorkshire coalfields to Fiddlers Ferry power station.

In 1909, the railway line from Hyde through Woodley to Romiley and Marple was owned by the Great Central and Midland Joint Railway. The line from Stockport Tiviot Dale through Woodley was owned by the Cheshire Lines Committee.

The Stockport route closed to passengers in January 1967, although a short section at the eastern end remains in use today for goods traffic, serving a Tarmac stone terminal and waste recycling plant at Bredbury.

The Apethorne link was closed in 1982, soon after the Woodhead route itself, and is now a shared-use path.

In July 2020, Northern Trains informed local residents that services between Manchester and Rose Hill Marple would not operate between early-September and mid-December 2020; this was due to the train operating company's staff shortages from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This left Woodley, along with Rose Hill Marple, Hyde North and Hyde Central, without a train service for around four months. Regular services have been restored since.

Facilities
The station is unmanned. Service information is offered via automated announcements, digital display screens, an induction loop and timetable posters. Step-free access to both platforms is available directly from Hyde Road; a stepped footbridge connects the two platforms.

The station building on the northbound platform is now a private dwelling; next to it is a small car park with five spaces available for rail users. Waiting shelters are present on both sides.

Services
Northern Trains' typical service is one train per hour in each direction between Manchester Piccadilly and Rose Hill Marple, via the Hyde loop, with some additional trains during the day. There is no service on Sundays. A normal service operates on bank holidays.