Buxton railway station (Derbyshire)

Buxton railway station is a railway station that serves the town of Buxton in Derbyshire. It is managed and served by Northern Rail. The station is 25¾ miles (41 km) south east of Manchester Piccadilly and is the terminus of the Buxton Line.

History

Two railways arrived in Buxton almost simultaneously in 1863. The Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway, heavily promoted by the LNWR, built its line from Manchester to Whaley Bridge and extended it to Buxton. Meanwhile the Midland Railway extended the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway from Rowsley. When the Midland extended its main line to New Mills in 1867, to bypass the LNWR, Buxton became a branch line from Millers Dale. The stations were side by side, with identical frontages designed by J. Smith with guidance from Joseph Paxton, each having a wrought iron glazed train shed.

The Midland station closed in 1967, along with the line to Rowsley, and the site is now a roadway. However the line through Dove Holes Tunnel from Chinley is still used for freight, such as limestone from Tunstead, along with the old Midland branch into Buxton. The LNWR station now handles local trains into Manchester, using its line through Dove Holes and Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Services

There is generally an hourly service each day (every half-hour during the morning and evening peaks) to Manchester Piccadilly. Services to Blackpool North have now ceased, meaning passengers must now change at Manchester Piccadilly.

Platform 1 is a Departure Platform by Shunt Move. It is usually used in early mornings by the first trains of the day which stable in the platform overnight.

It is also used around 6pm: on arrival, 4 car trains are shunted into the platform so that 2 carriages can be detached for overnight stabling. 2 car units are also shunted into the platform when not required to work any further services for the rest of the day or in the coming few hours.

Platform 2 is the main platform for most arrivals and departures.

December 2008

From December 2008 the West Coast main line timetable was revamped and the Buxton-Blackpool service was be divided ([1]). The two services which were created from the split were:

• Manchester Victoria To Blackpool North
• Manchester Piccadilly To Buxton

In addition to this a new hourly Hazel Grove to Preston service was introduced.

5 through services continue to operate between Buxton and Blackpool North

Some Manchester Victoria to Blackpool North services are operated by 5 Car Class 180s (Monday - Friday Only)

Future

Transport for Greater Manchester has proposed increasing the frequency of services between Buxton/Hazel Grove and Manchester Piccadilly to 2/4 trains per hour from December 2009. However there are currently concerns about the availability of stock and paths for these additional services.

Network Rail has proposed, in their North West RUS, installing a cross-over which will allow platform 1 to become fully operational as an arrival and departure platform. Doing this will reduce the number of shunt moves.

References

• Radford, B., (1988) Midland Though The Peak Unicorn Books
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1953) (revised Elizabeth Williamson 1978). The Buildings of England: Derbyshire. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071008-6

External links

• Train times and station information for Buxton railway station (Derbyshire) from National Rail
• English Heritage - Buxton station frontage