East Didsbury railway station

East Didsbury is a suburban railway station in the south of the city of Manchester, England.

It stands on the Styal Line, between Longsight (Slade Lane Junction) and Wilmslow. It is now served by the Manchester-Crewe service, operated by Northern Rail, and by First TransPennine Express for Manchester Airport services.

History

East Didsbury Station was opened in 1909 by the London and North Western Railway and, until 6 May 1974, was called East Didsbury and Parrs Wood.^[1][2] From 1923 the line was operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway. Following the formation in 1948 of British Rail, rail services were operated by the London Midland Region of British Railways, then North-Western Regional Railways. Upon privatisation of rail services in 1996/7, East Didsbury was served by the North Western Trains franchise. Services to Manchester Airport began in 1993 upon the opening of the Manchester Airport spur.

Other Didsbury stations

Prior to the Beeching Axe of the 1960s, the Didsbury area was served by three different railway stations: East Didsbury, Didsbury, and Withington and West Didsbury.

Didsbury Station was opened in 1880 in the centre of Didsbury Village on the Cheshire Lines Committee line into Manchester Central. This connected to the Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee line from Chinley, and the Midland Railway used it for its express services from London St. Pancras. It closed in 1967 and, though the building was used for a while by a hardware dealer, it has now disappeared, apart from the platforms, a clock tower and a drinking fountain dedicated to the memory of a local philanthropist, Dr. D.J. Wilson (1847–1900).^[3]

There was also Withington and West Didsbury, the next station on the line, the two being so similar in appearance that passengers would alight at the wrong one. Originally it was "Withington" then from 1884 "Withington and Albert Park", receiving its final name in 1915. All that remains is a boundary wall, a block of flats, Brankgate Court, having been built on the site.

Future plans

East Didsbury Metrolink station is a future station proposed in Phase 3B of the Manchester Metrolink "Big Bang" extension plans.^[4] It will be a newly-built station on the re-opened Cheshire Lines Committee route, which runs under the Styal line.

Located on the east side of the Kingsway, north of Parrs Wood Lane, East Didsbury will the terminus of the Metrolink line. Situated in a cutting, the station will provide access to both the East Didsbury & Heaton Mersey areas of Manchester & Stockport. The Metrolink station will be approximately 200m north-east of the National Rail station of the same name.

All three Didsbury station sites are featured in proposals to extend the Metrolink system. In the 1980s it was first proposed to re-open the CLC line between Chorlton and Didsbury, providing a light-rail service between East Didsbury and central Manchester.^[5]

In 2006, it was announced that the CLC line would be re-opened as part of a phased expansion project, dubbed the "Big Bang", and that the extension would initially go only as far as St Werburgh's Road.^[6] Following the rejection of the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund in a public referendum in 2008, extension of the line to East Didsbury (Phase 3B) will now go ahead with funding from national and local government.^[4][7][8]

Construction of the line through Chorlton began in April 2009 and that part of the new line became operational in July 2011.^[9] The date for the opening as far as East Didsbury has not been confirmed as yet, but the Metrolink station is currently scheduled to open in the summer of 2013.^[10] Passengers will be able to travel on the old rail alignment into Manchester for the first time since 1967.

References

External links

• Train times and station information for East Didsbury railway station from National Rail
• Metrolink extension plans for City South line