Buxton railway station (Derbyshire)

Infobox UK station
name = Buxton
code = BUX


manager = Northern Rail
locale = Buxton
borough = High Peak
usage0405 = 0.225
usage0506 = 0.261
usage0607 = 0.264
platforms = 2
start = 1863 Buxton railway station is a railway station that serves the town of Buxton in Derbyshire. It is managed and served by Northern Rail. The station is 41 km (25¾ miles) south east of Manchester Piccadilly and is the terminus of the Buxton Line.

Two railways arrived in Buxton almost simultaneously in 1863. The Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway, heavily promoted by the LNWR, built its line from Manchester to Whaley Bridge and extended it to Buxton. Meanwhile the Midland Railway extended the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway from Rowsley. When the Midland extended its main line to New Mills in 1867, to bypass the LNWR, Buxton became a branch line from Millers Dale. The stations were side by side, with identical frontages designed by J. Smith with guidance from Joseph Paxton, each having a wrought iron glazed train shed.

The Midland station closed in 1967, along with the line to Rowsley, and the site is now a roadway. However the line through Dove Holes Tunnel from Chinley is still used for freight, such as limestone from Tunstead, along with the old Midland branch into Buxton. The LNWR station now handles local trains into Manchester, using its line through Dove Holes and Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Services

There is generally an hourly service each day (every half-hour during the morning and evening peaks - to Manchester Piccadilly with most services continuing to Blackpool North)

Platform 1 is a Departure Platform by Shunt Move. It is usually used in early mornings by the first trains of the day which stable in the platform overnight.

It is also used around 6pm: on arrival, 4 car trains are shunted into the platform so that 2 carriages can be detached for overnight stabling. 2 car units are also shunted into the platform when not required to work any further services for the rest of the day or in the coming few hours.

Platform 2 is the main platform for most arrivals and departures

Future

From December 2008 when the West Coast main line timetable is revamped, the Buxton-Blackpool service will be divided ( [http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/nrthrnrail-20sa-sch5-ed02.pdf] ). The two services which will be created from the split will be:
*Manchester Victoria To Blackpool North
*Manchester Piccadilly To Buxtonconsequently there will be no longer be a direct service between Buxton and Blackpool and passengers will need to transfer between the two Manchester stations or use Transpennine Express services between Manchester Piccadilly and Blackpool.

Network Rail has proposed, in their North West RUS, installing a cross-over which will allow platform 1 to become fully operational as an arrival and departure platform. Doing this will reduce the number of shunt moves.

References

* Radford, B., (1988) "Midland Though The Peak" Unicorn Books
* Pevsner, Nikolaus (1953) (revised Elizabeth Williamson 1978). "The Buildings of England: Derbyshire". Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071008-6

External links

* [http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/cgi-bin/hpac.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturethepast&keyval=picturethepast.ref_no=DMAG001930 "Picture the Past" Midland railway station]
* [http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/cgi-bin/hpac.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturethepast&keyval=picturethepast.ref_no=DCBM200181 "Picture the Past" Train in Ashwood Dale showing typical terrain for this line.]
* [http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=1&main_query=&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=buxton&imageUID=74195 English Heritage - Buxton station frontage]