Hazel Grove railway station is a junction on both the Stockport to

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

lines, serving the village of Hazel Grove,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The station 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 The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

and, following nationalisation, it was operated by the

London Midland Region The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irelan ...

of British Railways. There was once another station in the village, Hazel Grove (Midland) station, on the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

's line from New Mills South Junction to Manchester Central, via Cheadle Heath; this 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 Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and ea ...

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 , via Sale, to serve the station until that line was closed for conversion to

Manchester Metrolink Manchester Metrolink (branded locally simply as Metrolink) is a tram/ light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network has 99 stops along of standard-gauge route, making it the most extensive light rail system in the United Ki ...

operation in late 1991; 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; it also controls a pair of carriage sidings at the Stockport end used for stabling trains that terminate here. 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; this provides a faster route between Manchester and Sheffield than the former route via

Romiley Romiley is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it borders Marple, Bredbury and Woodley. At the 2011 census, the Romiley ward, which includes Compstall, Bredbury Green ...

and

New Mills Central New Mills Central railway station serves the town of New Mills in Derbyshire, England. It is on the Hope Valley Line between Manchester Piccadilly railway station, Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield railway station, Sheffield, east of the form ...

. The chord also enables Sheffield trains to serve Stockport and run to/from Liverpool Lime Street.

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

As of December 2022, the station is served on weekdays by two trains per hour northbound to and one train per hour southbound to , with one southbound train terminating here. The service terminating here does not run on Sundays. The station is also served by one train per day on the Hope Valley line to . Many regular services operated by East Midlands Railway and

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...

pass through the station but do not stop.

Recent history

Class 323 units operated the hourly Hazel Grove to Manchester Piccadilly service but, from October 2015 until May 2018, diesel multiple units ran the service as the route was extended to run to Preston and through to Blackpool North, to replace the weekday service from

Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world. A branch of the West Coast ...

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 was part of a major timetable revamp that saw 3 trains to Manchester each hour off-peak on weekdays and Saturdays and 2 each hour to Buxton. Regular running to destinations beyond Manchester ceased temporarily at the May 2018 timetable change."Rail North Committee Meeting – Item 5, Train Service Planning Update, p.2
''Transport for the North'' Committee Meeting minutes, 9 October 2018; Retrieved 1 March 2019 Through running resumed in May 2019, with an hourly Monday-Saturday service running to the now-electrified using Class 331 EMUs. As of December 2022, this service has reverted to terminating at using Class 323s.

References

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

External links

Railscot – Hazel Grove
{{coord, 53.3777, N, 2.1226, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport DfT Category D stations Former London and North Western Railway stations Railway stations served by East Midlands Railway Northern franchise railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 1857 establishments in England