Ardwick railway station

Ardwick railway station serves Ardwick in Manchester, England. It is about one mile (1.5 km) south of Manchester Piccadilly. It was opened by the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway in 1842.

History

Opened by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway, it 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 meeting point of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923, and passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

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

Non-closure

Network Rail, in its draft Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for the North West, proposed the closure of Ardwick station. However, 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 Manchester to Glossop/Hadfield line. This is across a footbridge from the entrance, so wheelchair access is impossible. It is immediately adjacent to the main Manchester branch of the WCML, and the two routes join just north of the station. It has a very limited peak-hour-only service of five trains per day (Monday - Friday only). The modern maintenance depot for the Class 185 DMU fleet is a short distance to the east.

In 2004-2005 financial year, only 285 passengers used the station, or less than one per day. This number increased slightly in 2005-2006, to 358. As a result it was proposed to close the station, but it was given a reprieve as a consequence of the increased commercial activity in the vicinity. The station is in the New East Manchester regeneration area.

Services

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 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199. 
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-9068-9999-0. OCLC 228266687.