Hazel Grove railway station

Hazel Grove Add→{{rail-interchange}}
General information
Location	Stockport
Managed by	Northern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	HAZ
History
Opened	1857

Hazel Grove railway station is on the Stockport to Buxton / Sheffield line, serving the village of Hazel Grove, Greater Manchester, England. It was built for the Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway by the London and North Western Railway and opened on 9 June 1857. From 1923 until 1948 it was owned by the London Midland and Scottish Railway and following nationalisation it was operated by the London Midland Region of British Railways.

At one time there was another station in the village (Hazel Grove (Midland)), on the Midland Railway's line from New Mills South Junction to Manchester Central via Cheadle Heath, which opened in 1902, but it was less conveniently situated and closed in 1917.

The line was extremely expensive to build with extensive earthworks. The navvies were accommodated in specially-built houses near the Rising Sun pub, which still exist, and are known as the "Navvy Mansions". The line from Edgeley Junction (just south of Stockport) to Hazel Grove was electrified in 1981 on the 25 kV AC overhead system. This allowed electric trains on the route from Altrincham via Sale to serve the station until that line was closed for conversion to Manchester Metrolink operation in late 1991 (though electric services to and from Piccadilly continued thereafter).

The signal box on the Buxton-bound platform remains in use. This controls the junction between the Buxton line and the chord linking it to the route through Disley Tunnel towards Sheffield at the country end of the station and also a pair of carriage sidings at the Stockport end used for stabling trains that terminate here.

The station in the 1900s

Facilities

The station is staffed all week, with its ticket office on platform 1 open 06:05-19:00 weekdays (until 20:00 on Fridays only), 07:00-20:00 Saturdays and 09:00-16:30 Sundays. There are waiting rooms on both platforms, toilets in the main building and a small coffee shop on platform 2. Train running details are provided via automated announcements, timetable posters and digital information screens. Step-free access is available to both platforms via the lifts built into the footbridge linking the platforms.

Services

Today Hazel Grove is served by three trains per hour to/from Manchester Piccadilly – the two trains per hour to/from Manchester Piccadilly to Buxton and the hourly Manchester Piccadilly to Hazel Grove stopping service. More trains operate in morning peak hours with East Midlands Railway running a service, the 8:17 service to Liverpool Lime Street. Only a few of the local DMU services between Manchester and Sheffield go via Hazel Grove – most travel via New Mills Central. Whilst between Hazel Grove and Buxton the line is not electrified, Hazel Grove through to Manchester Piccadilly is. So Class 323 units have started to be put into use again once an hour on the Hazel Grove to Manchester Piccadilly service. From October 2015 until May 2018, the Preston service finishing/starting from here ran through to Blackpool North (to replace the weekday service from Liverpool Lime Street that is now operated by EMUs). Electric operation returned at the May 2018 timetable change, with one train per hour to/from Piccadilly worked by Class 319 EMUs. This is part of a major timetable revamp that will see 3 trains to Manchester each hour off-peak on weekdays and Saturdays and 2 each hour to Buxton. Regular running to destinations beyond Manchester has now ceased, but will resume at the May 2019 timetable change (when Blackpool trains are re-introduced).

The single-track Hazel Grove Chord opened in 1986. This allowed trains to/from Stockport and Manchester Piccadilly to access the former Manchester Central – New Mills South Junction line just south of Hazel Grove station and thus provides a faster route between Manchester and Sheffield than the former route via Romiley and New Mills Central. The chord also enables Sheffield trains to serve Stockport and run to/from Liverpool Lime Street.

References

• Radford, B., (1988) Midland Though The Peak Unicorn Books
• Harrison, P., (2006) Striking A Chord With Electric

External links

• Train times and station information for Hazel Grove railway station from National Rail
• Railscot – Hazel Grove

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Chinley		Northern Hope Valley Line		Woodsmoor
				Stockport
Middlewood		Northern Buxton line		Woodsmoor
Terminus		Northern Buxton line or Hazel Grove-Southport		Woodsmoor
Chinley		East Midlands Railway Liverpool-Norwich Limited Service		Stockport