Guide Bridge railway station
Guide Bridge railway station serves the Guide Bridge area of Audenshaw, in Greater Manchester, England. It is east of, on both the Glossop Line and the Hyde loop of the Hope Valley Line. The station is managed by Northern Trains, which also operates all services that stop here.
History
The station was built by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway on its new line from Ardwick Junction, near to the Manchester and Birmingham Railway's terminus at Store Street, to ; it opened as Ashton and Hooley Hill on 11 November 1841, when the line opened as far as Godley Toll Bar. It was renamed Ashton in February 1842 and became Guide Bridge on 14 July 1845, when the line was extended to Sheffield.The station had a four platform configuration originally, with a large office on the southern side. However, the southern platforms were decommissioned and the tracks were lifted in 1984–85; this was part of layout alterations associated with the changeover from 1500 V DC to 25 kV AC working on the Hadfield line, with demolition of the buildings following a few years later. The area has been covered, with a section forming part of the car park, but some evidence remains of the previous two tracks. The junction at the country end of the station was also remodelled in 2011 to allow Stockport-Stalybridge Line trains to cross the junction at 30 mph rather than 15 mph as previously.
With the electrification of the Woodhead Line between Manchester and Sheffield in the early 1950s, Guide Bridge, already a major centre of railway operations, increased in importance. Express trains called here, as well as electric multiple units between London Road and the north Derbyshire towns of and. There were also diesel multiple unit-operated services from London Road to, via, which closed south of Rose Hill in January 1970; Stockport Edgeley to ; and to, via the Oldham, Ashton & Guide Bridge Railway, which closed to passengers in 1959.
The station was also where express services, to and from on the route, changed locomotives. Drawn by a Bo-Bo or Co-Co electric locomotive from Sheffield, a steam diesel locomotive would take the train the final few miles to Manchester Central and vice versa. The Woodhead Line was busy with goods traffic, especially with coal traffic from South Yorkshire to Lancashire power stations. The station also accepted goods under British Railways Passenger freight service and had a licensed buffet.
There was a large marshalling yard about a mile east of Guide Bridge at Dewsnap, with a stabling point immediately to the east of the station, where engines could be fuelled. Guide Bridge was also where the local retail coal merchants transferred coal from British Rail coal wagons, carefully weighed into one hundredweight sacks for delivery to homes around Ashton, Audenshaw and Denton. Express passenger trains via the Woodhead line ceased operation on 5 January 1970, but Dewsnap sidings and Guide Bridge stabling point were busy until the final closure of the Woodhead Line east of Hadfield on 20 July 1981. The electric locomotives were a frequent sight here, along with and diesel locomotives.
Arriva Trains Northern had plans to establish Guide Bridge as a major interchange station, coupled with hopes that the Woodhead line might reopen. Such aspirations failed to materialise when First TransPennine Express took over the franchise.
On 22 October 2006, a fire gutted the waiting room, footbridge and ticket office. The fire has subsequently been attributed to arson and caused around £1m of damage to the station, necessitating the demolition of the footbridge. This has not been rebuilt, so a lengthy walk out of the station and along the adjacent main road to change platforms is required.
In January 2009, the previously free car parking was abolished, with a daily charge of £3 being introduced. As a result, the once busy car park largely fell quiet. A subsequent review was taken, following complaints from neighbouring residents, with backing of local councillors; it investigated the redistribution of cars once parked on the ample station facility to the surrounding residential streets, with charging dismissed soon afterwards.
Parliamentary service
The station also lies on the Stockport-Stalybridge line, which used to be an hourly operation. It was almost entirely withdrawn in 1989, when trans-Pennine services between Manchester and were rerouted from to serve Manchester Piccadilly. In 2004, there was a 16:08 Fridays-only service from to Guide Bridge, whilst weekend engineering work was taking place in the Stockport area.Subsequent to this, the once-weekly parliamentary train on the route operated in the other direction; it left at 9:22 and calling at 9:37, on Fridays only. This train was also unusual in that it arrived at Guide Bridge on the Manchester-bound platform before changing tracks after departure. Since the start of the summer 2018 timetable on 20 May, the service on this route has operated on Saturdays instead of Fridays, with a return working introduced. From the December 2023 timetable, it departs Guide Bridge at 08:37 for Stockport and arrives back at 09:19.
Facilities
A new single-storey ticket office was commissioned in December 2014; it was built on the former island platform, as part of a £1.7 million revamp of the station. Improved lighting, an extended car park to 140 spaces, CCTV cameras and bicycle storage lockers were also provided. The new facilities were opened officially by the Minister of State for Transport Baroness Kramer.The ticket office is open Monday to Saturday daytimes. The station also provides seating, shelters, toilets and customer information screens.
Services
The general off-peak service at Guide Bridge consists of the following, in trains per hour/week :Glossop Line:
- 2 tph to, via
- 2 tph to.
- 3 tp2h to
- 3 tp2h to Manchester Piccadilly.
- 1 tpw to
- 1 tpw to.