Stockport railway station
Stockport railway station serves the market and industrial town of Stockport, in Greater Manchester, England. It is located south-east of, on a spur of the West Coast Main Line to.
History
The Manchester and Birmingham Railway opened in stages from Manchester and reached Stockport in 1840. The line ran from a temporary station in Manchester to another in Stockport, at the north end of the uncompleted Stockport Viaduct. The temporary station, which was later renamed, was Stockport's only station for more than two years. After the viaduct was completed, the M&BR built a station at its southern end as an experiment. The decision was prompted by complaints that the first station was a long way from the industrial parts of town and even farther from the residential districts on the south side. The second station opened on 15 February 1843 as Edgeley; by 1844, it became the town's principal station. Heaton Norris, at the north end of the viaduct, closed in 1959.The station was operated by the London and North Western Railway and became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. In 1948, operations transferred to British Railways.
Most lines into the station were electrified at 25 kV AC, using overhead wires, under the British Railways' 1955 Modernisation Plan; however, not all of the local lines were electrified.
On 27 January 2025, as part of publicity for the new Scott Mills Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2, all of the station signs were changed from Stockport to "Scottport" for the day.
Facilities
The station is positioned at high level above the valley of the River Mersey, with lifts that link a pedestrian underpass to central Stockport and Edgeley.The station is staffed, with a ticket office, ticket machines, customer service points, shops, toilets, waiting rooms, lifts from the station subway and step-free access to the platforms.
In 2009, the station was identified as one of the ten worst category B interchange stations for mystery shopper assessment of fabric and environment; it received a share of £50m funding for improvements.
Routes
Trains running north-west serve Manchester Piccadilly; some continue on to and beyond to, via. Passengers wishing to travel north should change at Piccadilly or Oxford Road.South-east from Stockport, express services run to and onwards to, and ; local services run to and.
The two southbound West Coast Main Line routes run via : one continues via and to or London Euston; the other via and for through services to London Euston or via and the Welsh Marches line to,, and. Trains to Birmingham, via Stoke-on-Trent, continue to destinations in the south of England including, via, and.
The Mid-Cheshire Line runs westbound to, via, and.
The Stockport to Stalybridge Line, via, no longer has a daily passenger service. It was reduced from an hourly shuttle service to a once a week, one direction only skeleton service in the early 1990s. It now has two services a week, one in each direction on Saturday mornings.
The main concourse opened in September 2004, in a development that included a new platform 0 that only became fully operational at the beginning of March 2008. A pedestrian subway leads to the island platforms, which have a buffet and a newsagent.
Platforms
There are six platforms:- 0 — southbound services to Hazel Grove, Buxton, Sheffield, Norwich, Nottingham and Cleethorpes
- 1 — southbound stopping services to Macclesfield, Crewe, Stoke-on-Trent and Alderley Edge. It is also signalled for use by trains in the Manchester direction
- 2 — southbound main line services to South Wales, London, Bristol, Bournemouth and Paignton; it is also sometimes used for local services Stoke-on-Trent, Chester, Alderley Edge and Crewe
- 3 — northbound main line services to Manchester Piccadilly
- 3a — used by the weekly parliamentary train to/from Stalybridge
- 4 — northbound stopping services to Manchester Piccadilly and main line services to Liverpool Lime Street.
Service
Avanti West Coast:
- 3 tph to
- 3 tph to ; of which:
- * 1 tph calls at,, and
- * 1 tph calls at Stoke-on-Trent and
- * 1 tph calls at, and.
- 2 tph to Manchester Piccadilly
- 1 tph to, via Macclesfield, and
- 1 tph to, via Macclesfield and Birmingham New Street; of which:
- * 2tpd continue to, via.
- 1 tph to, via
- 1 tph to, via and.
- 6 tph to Manchester Piccadilly
- 1 tph to
- 1 tph to Crewe
- 1 tph to
- 1 tph to, via Hazel Grove
- 1 tph to
- 1 tph to Stoke-on-Trent
- 1 tpw to, via, and.
- 1 tph to
- 1 tph to Liverpool Lime Street, via Warrington Central.
- 1 tph to Manchester Piccadilly
- 1 tph to, via Crewe and ; alternate services continue to, or.
Non-stopping trains
Interchange with other transport modes
Buses
The bus stops immediately outside the main station entrance were previously served by the Metroshuttle free bus service; this service was withdrawn in 2019. These are only now used for rail replacement bus services.The station is a short walk from Stockport Interchange, which was constructed on the site of the former bus station, and was opened for passengers on 17 March 2024. A bridge to improve the walking route between the two facilities was built as part of the development.
Passengers can also use the bus stops on the nearby Wellington Road, which are well-served by routes that are operated mostly by Stagecoach Manchester; these include the Greater Manchester [bus route 192|192] between Manchester Piccadilly and Hazel Grove.
Taxis
Passengers can board taxis from the taxi rank located immediately outside the station entrance.Tram
An extension to the Manchester Metrolink line from to Stockport was planned in 2004 and the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive applied for powers to build it. The project came to a halt when the Big Bang extension was stopped due to the loss of potential funding.On 4 June 2025, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced £2.5 billion in funding for Greater Manchester, some of which will be used to extend the Metrolink network into the town centre. Labour MP for Stockport Navendu Mishra said "the details around the project were yet to be figured out."