Styal Line
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The Styal Line is a railway line in south Manchester and north-east Cheshire. It runs from Slade Lane Junction, some 2 km south of Manchester Piccadilly, to Wilmslow. There also is a spur to Manchester Airport. The line is an early commuter line running through many suburban stations. It was electrified in 1959 as part of the West Coast Main Line electrification scheme but ironically most of the trains now using the line are diesel powered. The branch to the airport leaves the Styal Line via a triangular junction between Heald Green and Styal.
Services are currently operated by:
- Northern Rail, whose trains come from Manchester Piccadilly to the Airport via selected suburban stops. These trains have usually departed from other stations in the North-West such as Blackpool North, Barrow-in-Furness, Windermere, all via Preston and Bolton. Also from Southport and Liverpool. All these trains come through from Manchester Oxford Road railway station to Platforms 13 and 14 at Manchester Piccadilly. From the south, its trains join from the Crewe to Manchester Line at Wilmslow.
- TransPennine Express, which run trains on this line through Manchester Piccadilly (main line terminal platforms). Their services are through services from across the north of England including Newcastle, Middlesbrough, York and Leeds, and from Cleethorpes via Sheffield also serving Manchester suburban stations en route. Their trains also operate from Barrow-in-Furness, Windermere via Preston, Bolton and Manchester Piccadilly.
[edit] History
In early 1900s the line between Manchester Piccadilly and Stockport became unable to cope with the increasing traffic. To solve the problem, a new route avoiding Stockport was constructed by the London and North Western Railway. It ran from Slade Lane Junction (located in Longsight, Manchester) to Wilmslow through what was then mainly a rural area. The primary purpose was to provide a bypass for express trains, but a few wooden stations were built on the line to encourage suburban development. In practice, very few expresses latterly used the line, as it was necessary for most trains to serve the important station at Stockport.
The line opened in 1909, and from 1923 was operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway. The Manchester Airport spur was added in 1993 (initially towards Heald Green only, the link towards Styal was added a few years later)
[edit] External links
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