Stockport railway station

Stockport
Stockport railway station in 2014
Location	Stockport, Metropolitan Borough of Stockport England
Grid reference	SJ892898
Managed by	Avanti West Coast
Platforms	6 (Numbered 0-3, 3a, 4)
Other information
Station code	SPT
Classification	DfT category B
History
Original company	Manchester and Birmingham Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
15 February 1843 (1843-02-15)	Opened as Stockport
?	Renamed Stockport Edgeley
6 May 1968	Renamed Stockport
Passengers
2016/17	3.782 million
2017/18	3.853 million
2018/19	4.437 million
2019/20	4.305 million
Interchange	0.774 million
2020/21	0.913 million
Interchange	0.128 million
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Stockport railway station in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England is 8 miles south-east of Manchester Piccadilly on the West Coast Main Line to London Euston.

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+1⁄2-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, Preston, Blackpool North, Wigan North Western and Southport.

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 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 weekday service pattern is (tph = trains per hour):

• Avanti West Coast
  • 3 tph to Manchester Piccadilly
  • 2 tph to London Euston via Stoke-on-Trent
  • 1 tph to London Euston via Crewe^[5]
• CrossCountry
  • 2 tph to Manchester Piccadilly
  • 1 tph to Bournemouth via Macclesfield and Birmingham New Street of which some at evening peak Monday-Saturday call at Congleton instead of Macclesfield (Calls at Congleton are currently suspended)
  • 1 tph to Bristol Temple Meads via Macclesfield and Birmingham New Street,^[6] of which some continue to Paignton or Plymouth
• East Midlands Railway
  • 1 tph to Liverpool Lime Street via Warrington Central
  • 1 tph to Norwich via Sheffield and Nottingham^[7]
• TransPennine Express
  • 1 tph to Cleethorpes
  • 1 tph to Manchester Airport via Manchester Piccadilly^[8]
• Transport for Wales
  • 1 tph to Manchester Piccadilly
  • 1 tph to Carmarthen/Milford Haven via Shrewsbury and Cardiff Central of which some continue to Fishguard Harbour and Pembroke Dock^[9]
• Northern Trains
  • 6 tph to Manchester Piccadilly (with 1 tph continuing to Blackpool North and 1 tph continuing to Southport)^[10]
  • 2 tph to Alderley Edge (with 1 tph continuing to Crewe)
  • 3 tph to Hazel Grove (with 2 tph continuing to Buxton)
  • 1 tph to Chester^[11]
  • 1 tph to Stoke-on-Trent via Macclesfield
  • 2 trains per week to Stalybridge^[12]

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Wilmslow		Transport for Wales Welsh Marches Line		Manchester Piccadilly
Congleton Limited Service		CrossCountry CrossCountry Network
Macclesfield
Wilmslow Limited Service
Sheffield		East Midlands Railway Liverpool Lime Street - Norwich
Dore and Totley Limited Service
Chinley Limited Service
Hazel Grove Limited Service
Sheffield		TransPennine Express South TransPennine
Dore & Totley Limited Service
Cheadle Hulme		Northern Trains Alderley Edge - Southport		Heaton Chapel
				Manchester Piccadilly
		Northern Trains Crewe - Manchester Piccadilly		Heaton Chapel
				Manchester Piccadilly
		Northern Trains Stoke-on-Trent - Manchester Piccadilly		Heaton Chapel
				Manchester Piccadilly
Hazel Grove		Northern Trains Buxton line		Heaton Chapel
Davenport				Levenshulme
				Manchester Piccadilly
Navigation Road		Northern Trains Mid-Cheshire Line		Heaton Chapel
				Levenshulme
				Manchester Piccadilly
Davenport		Northern Trains Hazel Grove - Blackpool North Monday-Saturday only		Heaton Chapel
Chinley		Northern Trains Hope Valley Line Limited service		Manchester Piccadilly
Hazel Grove
Terminus		Northern Trains Stockport–Stalybridge line Saturdays only		Reddish South
London Euston		Avanti West Coast West Coast Main Line		Manchester Piccadilly
Macclesfield
Stoke-on-Trent
Wilmslow

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.^[13][14][15] 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."^[16]

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.^[17]

Bus[]

The bus stops immediately outside the station were previously served by the Metroshuttle free bus service. This service was withdrawn in 2019,^[18] meaning the bus stops are now only used by the infrequent service number 312^[19] and occasionally rail replacement buses.

The bus 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.^[20]

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
Location	Stockport, Stockport England
Coordinates	53°24′18″N 2°09′46″W / 53.405°N 2.1628°W / 53.405; -2.1628
Other information
Status	Proposed station
Location
Stockport Interchange Location within Manchester_Metrolink

An extension to the Metrolink line from East Didsbury to Stockport was planned in 2004 and GMPTE 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.^[21] 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.^[21]

See also[]

• Stockport Tiviot Dale railway station

References[]

Further reading[]

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

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stockport railway station.

• Train times and station information for Stockport railway station from National Rail

Coordinates: 53°24′21″N 2°9′45″W / 53.40583°N 2.16250°W / 53.40583; -2.16250