# Stalybridge railway station

Stalybridge railway station serves Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the Huddersfield Line, 7+1⁄2 miles (12.1 km) east of Manchester Piccadilly and 8+1⁄4 miles (13.3 km) east of Manchester Victoria. The station is managed by TransPennine Express.

## History
### 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)) station 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 per hour (80 km/h) to pass through the station. TransPennine Express services began using electric traction through the station on 1 December 2024.

### 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 miles per hour (80 km/h) 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.

## Services

Stalybridge has five platforms, two of which are bay platforms.
Platforms 1, 3, and 4 are all through platforms which are used by TransPennine Express.
Platform 2 is the smaller bay platform, used regularly only by Northern's Saturday-only Stockport parliamentary service. Platform 5 is used by the hourly Northern service.

### TransPennine Express

* 1tph (xx:40) to Liverpool Lime Street calling at Manchester Victoria, Lea Green and Liverpool Lime Street
* 1tph (xx:40) to Hull calling at Huddersfield, Leeds, Selby, Brough and Hull
* 1tph (xx:13) to York calling at Mossley, Greenfield, Marsden, Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, Deighton, Mirfield, Wakefield Kirkgate, Normanton, Castleford, and York
* 1tph (xx:23) to Manchester Piccadilly calling at Manchester Piccadilly only
* During peak hours, there is an additional all-stops service to Huddersfield (xx:44) and an additional service to Manchester Piccadilly (xx:53).

### Northern Trains

* 1tph (xx:52) to Southport calling at Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester Victoria, Salford Central, Salford Crescent, Kearsley, Farnworth, Moses Gate, Bolton, Westhoughton, Hindley, Wigan Wallgate, Gathurst, Appley Bridge, Parbold, Hoscar, Burscough Bridge, New Lane, Bescar Lane, Meols Cop, and Southport
* On Sunday's, the Northern service (xx:03) terminates at Wigan North Western, calling at all intermediate stops.
As of January 2025, this service is excluded from Northern's amended Sunday timetable due to the ongoing dispute with conductors.

### 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.
| Preceding station | National Rail | Following station |
| Manchester Piccadilly | TransPennine Express TransPennine North Route | Huddersfield |
| Manchester Victoria | TransPennine Express TransPennine North Route | Mossley |
| Ashton-under-Lyne | Northern TrainsHuddersfield Line | Terminus |
| Guide Bridge | Northern TrainsStockport–Stalybridge lineParliamentary service | Terminus |
| Disused railways |||||
| Terminus | London and North Western RailwayMicklehurst Line | Staley and MillbrookLine and station closed |
| Dukinfield and AshtonLine and station closed | London and North Western RailwayStalybridge Junction Railway | Terminus |