Rose Hill Marple railway station
Rose Hill Marple  | |
|---|---|
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View looking toward the buffer stop. Prior to 1970, the line continued south towards Macclesfield. | |
| Location | |
| Place | Marple |
| Local authority | Stockport |
| Coordinates | 53°23′46″N 2°04′34″W / 53.396°N 2.076°WCoordinates: 53°23′46″N 2°04′34″W / 53.396°N 2.076°W |
| Grid reference | SJ950887 |
| Operations | |
| Station code | RSH |
| Managed by | Northern Rail |
| Number of platforms | 1 |
|
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries | |
| Annual rail passenger usage* | |
| 2004/05 | 70,667 |
| 2005/06 |
 73,497 |
| 2006/07 |
 70,943 |
| 2007/08 |
75,548 |
| 2008/09 |
90,478 |
| 2009/10 |
97,780 |
| 2010/11 |
114,700 |
| 2011/12 |
118,522 |
| 2012/13 |
136,116 |
| 2013/14 |
158,066 |
| Passenger Transport Executive | |
| PTE | Greater Manchester |
| History | |
| Original company | Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Macclesfield Committee |
| Post-grouping | Macclesfield Committee |
| 2 August 1869 | Opened as Marple (Rose Hill) |
| ? | Renamed Rose Hill (Marple) |
| ? | Renamed Rose Hill Marple |
| National Rail – UK railway stations | |
| * Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Rose Hill Marple from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Methodology may vary year on year. | |
| UK Railways portal | |
Rose Hill Marple railway station is one of two stations serving Marple, in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, England, the other being Marple railway station.
It is the terminus of a spur of the Hope Valley Line, with services to Manchester Piccadilly calling at Romiley and then taking one of two routes to the regional centre: either via Woodley, Hyde Central, Hyde North, Guide Bridge and Fairfield, or via Bredbury, Brinnington, Reddish North, Ryder Brow and Belle Vue, followed by Ashburys.
The station is one of the three which provide access to the Middlewood Way.
History
The station opened on 2 August 1869. Originally named Marple (Rose Hill), it was later renamed Rose Hill (Marple), before the current form Rose Hill Marple was adopted.[1]
It was built on the Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway, with dual tracks and thus two platforms. The second southbound platform (now removed, as the line is operated as a single track 'long siding') had simply a waiting shelter. The remaining station building previously provided an indoor waiting area and was only recently brought back into use in 2007 with a new ticket window operating weekday mornings.
In 1970, the route south to Bollington and Macclesfield closed to all traffic, the majority of travellers between Macclesfield and the City of Manchester preferring to use the faster West Coast Main Line route via Stockport instead. Rose Hill itself avoided a similar fate due to its high levels of commuter traffic toward Manchester Piccadilly.[2]
Subsequent diesel services to and from Manchester Piccadilly originally alternated between the two available routes - one train running via Bredbury, followed by a train travelling via Hyde and Guide Bridge. In the late 1990s, the services to the two railway stations in Marple were streamlined, with most Rose Hill services now running via Hyde and most Marple services running via the more direct Bredbury line.
From 13 December 2010, Rose Hill Marple gained an extra second service per hour off-peak due to the diversion of a service which previously turned back at Marple railway station.
Current services
Monday to Saturday daytimes there is a half-hourly service to Manchester Piccadilly via Hyde, with some peak period additional trains via Bredbury. The evening service from the station is limited (just two departures after 19.15)[3] and there is no Sunday service. Most services are operated with British Rail Class 142 'Pacer' Diesel Multiple Units.
Return tickets to and from Rose Hill and Marple railway stations are priced identically and allowed to be interchangeable by train operating company Northern Rail, allowing, for example, a passenger with a return ticket to Manchester Piccadilly from Rose Hill Marple to return instead to the nearby Marple station.
Current facilities
Rose Hill is officially designated as a 'Park & Ride' station[4] and, upon a resurfacing and small extension of its car parking facilities, was advertised as such through flyers in the local area in 2005 in a bid to attract more travellers who might otherwise have driven to their destination or used the more frequent services from nearby Marple station.
Since 2007 the station building has a staffed ticket window on weekday mornings until 12:30pm for the first time in over 10 years, with payment possible via cash or debit/credit card. The covered area provides a shelter from bad weather with a three-seater standard-issue Northern Rail bench and a single Metro newspaper distributor. The original waiting room was recently refurbished and can be accessed during ticket office opening hours.
Though toilets are not provided at the station, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council used to provide public conveniences a few yards along Railway Road (closed in 2011), the station's access road, at the entrance to Middlewood Way, a "linear park" and trail for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders, which follows the line's previous route to Macclesfield. The initial section of this route was tarmacked and given street lighting in 2006 to encourage its use by residents of local residential developments in reaching the station and Stockport Road.
In addition to exposed railings around the station area, three secure bicycle lockers are provided at the North end of the platform, which require a 'BLUC' key for use.[5]
Service enhancement
From December 2010, the service to/from Rose Hill was increased from 1 to 2 trains per hour. This was achieved by diverting the xx23 Manchester Piccadilly to Marple fast service and the xx52 return working.
Future
As part of Manchester's Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) bid, which would have seen a weekday peak time congestion charge introduced on roads into the city centre, Rose Hill was among the stations listed to receive station improvements and improved services from the proposed £3bn injection into the region's public transport.[6] This scheme is unlikely to proceed after the plans were rejected substantially in a public referendum in December 2008.
Rose Hill has been touted as a suitable terminus for a new Metrolink tram service to the area, with possible routes being either a simple conversion of the existing line to Manchester or a new link into Stockport town centre via Bredbury and Portwood. The latter would provide an Eastern extension from the proposed Western link into Stockport town centre from Didsbury, linking together many towns in the borough along the Goyt and Mersey rivers.[7] Despite heavy road traffic from private cars and buses, the local centres of Marple, Romiley and Bredbury have not been linked to their borough centre of Stockport by a direct rail route since 1982.
References
- ↑ Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. pp. 155, 199. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
- ↑ Marshall, J (1981) Forgotten Railways North-West England, David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbot. ISBN 0-7153-8003-6, p.30
- ↑ Northern Rail Timetable 22: Manchester to Rose Hill and New Mils Central, 19 May to 7 December 2013 www.northernrail.org; Retrieved 2013-08-20
- ↑ http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/rsh/details.html
- ↑ "BLUC - Bike Locker Users Club". Stockport Council. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
- ↑ http://www.gmfuturetransport.co.uk/
- ↑ "Regeneration".
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rose Hill Marple railway station. |
- Train times and station information for Rose Hill Marple railway station from National Rail
- Episode 4 of Beeching's Tracks broadcast on BBC Four on 11 December 2008
| Preceding station | National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | Northern Rail Mondays-Saturdays only | |||
| Disused railways | ||||
| Terminus | Great Central Railway & North Staffordshire Railway Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway |
High Lane | ||
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