Ardwick railway station

Ardwick railway station in Ardwick, Manchester, England, is about one mile (1.5 km) south-east of Manchester Piccadilly, in an industrial area of east Manchester. Plans to close the station permanently were scrapped in 2006 due to increasing activity in the area. The station has just one train in each direction calling on Monday to Friday in the winter 2019–20 timetable. These trains have additionally called at the station on Saturdays from May 2018.[1][2]

Ardwick
Class 142 passing Ardwick station
Location	Ardwick, Manchester England
Coordinates	53°28′16″N 2°12′47″W
Grid reference	SJ858972
Managed by	Northern Trains
Transit authority	Transport for Greater Manchester
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	ADK
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Original company	Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Central Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway
Key dates
November 1842	Station opened
Passengers
2015/16	896
2016/17	860
2017/18	882
2018/19	1,238
2019/20	1,520
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

It was opened by the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway in 1842 and became part of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway during mergers in 1847. That company changed its name to the Great Central Railway in 1897. The station became a junction between the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway under the Grouping of 1923, and passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Regional Railways under arrangement with the Greater Manchester PTE until the privatisation of British Rail.

Ardwick rail depot, opened 2006 for the Class 185 DMU fleet is a short distance to the east.

From 1878 to 1902 there was also an Ardwick stop shown on Crewe–Manchester line timetables for collection of Manchester tickets on down trains.[3]

Non-closure

Station entrance

In its draft Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for the North West, Network Rail proposed the closure of Ardwick, but the closure proposals were dropped from the final report published on 1 May 2007. Proposals to close Ardwick and two other stations in Greater Manchester were shelved after residents and passenger groups persuaded Network Rail that long-term development could improve the business case for keeping the stations open.

Ardwick is unstaffed and has a single island platform on the electrified line to Glossop and Hadfield. Access is from a footbridge, with no wheelchair access. It is immediately adjacent to the main Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line, and the two routes join just north of the station. It has a peak-hour-only service of one train inbound from New Mills Central to Manchester in the morning, and one train outbound to Rose Hill Marple in the evening (Monday – Saturday only). The only station from which a direct daily return to Ardwick is possible (without changing) is therefore Romiley, which is called at by both services. The lines passing through the station are all intensively used by non-stop trains and this, coupled with its location in a largely non-residential area, accounts for its infrequent service.

In 2004–2005 financial year only 285 passengers used the station, or fewer than one per day, increasing to 358 in 2005–2006. More recently, passenger numbers have increase to a little under 1000 per year, even with the skeleton service provided.

Services

Northern Trains operate 4 trains a day from the station; 2 in the morning peak to Manchester Piccadilly, and 2 in the evening peak; one to Rose Hill Marple via Guide Bridge and one to Hadfield. There is no Sunday service.[4]

Notes

1. Ltd, swlines. "Realtime Trains - 2S05 0726½ New Mills Central to Manchester Piccadilly". www.realtimetrains.co.uk.
2. Ltd, swlines. "Realtime Trains - 2R20 1635 Manchester Piccadilly to Rose Hill Marple". www.realtimetrains.co.uk.
3. "The Manchester to Crewe line 1". Railway Magazine. September 1960. p. 608. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
4. Table 78, 79 National Rail timetable, May 2020

References

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.

External links

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

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Ashburys		Northern Trains Hope Valley line Limited Services		Manchester Piccadilly

Manchester railways
City Centre and North Past, present and future
Manchester Metrolink Main line services to Rochdale to Oldham Moston Newton Heath to Bury Newton Heath and Moston Bowker Vale to Tameside Crumpsall Clayton Bridge Abraham Moss Park Woodlands Road to Tameside Queens Road Central Park Monsall Edge Lane Miles Platting Clayton Hall Velopark Oldham Road Holt Town Manchester Victoria Etihad Campus Exchange New Islington to Ordsall Chord and to Salford Ardwick Shudehill Ashburys High Street │ Manchester Piccadilly Mayfield Market Street │ Piccadilly Gardens to South Manchester Exchange Square Gorton Mosley Street Manchester Oxford Road St Peter's Square to Belle Vue Manchester Central │ Deansgate- Castlefield Deansgate Liverpool Road to Hyde Road to Ordsall Chord and to Salford to Tameside Cornbrook Cornbrook Pomona to Eccles Trafford Bar to Trafford to Trafford Firswood to Altrincham to Chorlton