Guide Bridge railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Guide Bridge
code = GUI


manager = Northern Rail
locale = Audenshaw
borough = Tameside
start = 1846
platforms = 2
lowusage0405 = 130,173
lowusage0506 = 154,264
lowusage0607 = 147,375

Guide Bridge railway station serves Guide Bridge a part of Audenshaw, Tameside in Greater Manchester, England and is operated by Northern Rail. The station is 6 km (4¾ miles) east of Manchester Piccadilly on the Glossop Line.

History

Originally known as "Ashton and Hooley Hill"," it was renamed "Ashton" in February 1842 and became "Guide Bridge" around July 1845. It 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, (now Piccadilly) to Sheffield , opening on 11 November 1841 as far as Godley Toll Bar and finally reaching Sheffield on 14 July 1845.

With the electrification of the Manchester - Sheffield (via Woodhead) line in the early 1950s, Guide Bridge, already a major centre of railway operations, increased in importance. Express trains called here, as well as EMU trains between Manchester London Road and the north Derbyshire towns of Glossop and Hadfield. The Woodhead Line was busy with freight traffic, especially with coal traffic from South Yorkshire to Lancashire power stations.

There was a large marshalling yard about a mile east of Guide Bridge at Dewsnap. There was also a stabling point immediately to the east of Guide Bridge station where engines could be fueled. Express passenger trains via the Woodhead line ceased operation on 5 January1970, 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 Class 76 electric locomotives were a frequent sight here, along with Class 25, Class 40 and numerous others classes of diesels.

The former TransPennine Express operator, Arriva Trains Northern, had plans to establish Guide Bridge as a major interchange station, coupled with hopes that the Woodhead line might re-open. Such aspirations seem to have fallen by the wayside, however, since First/Keolis took over the TransPennine Express franchise

On 22 October 2006 a fire gutted the waiting room, footbridge and ticket office. [cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6075064.stm| title = Railway station damaged in blaze | accessdate = 2006-10-24| date = 2006-10-22| publisher = BBC News] The fire has subsequently been attributed to arson and caused around £1m of damage to the station, [cite news| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6170224.stm| title = Reward to catch station arsonists | accessdate = 2006-11-21| date = 21 November 2006| publisher = BBC News] necessitating the demolition of the footbridge.

Future

This station was proposed as being a possible stop of the railway company Grand Union Railway service running between London Euston & Bradford Interchange. However, due to the need to substantially rewrite the 2008 WCML timetable, in order to accommodate the additional services, the application was withdrawn in August 2008.

ervice

The current service at Guide Bridge consists of a half hourly Manchester Piccadilly - Hadfield EMU service and an hourly (DMU) service between Piccadilly and Rose Hill Marple (see Northern Rail timetables 22 & 24 for details). There is no Sunday service on the Rose Hill line.

The Stockport-Stalybridge Line DMU service, which had been an hourly operation, was almost entirely withdrawn when Trans Pennine services between Manchester and Leeds were re-routed from Manchester Victoria to serve Manchester Piccadilly in 1989. There was for a time a 16:08 Friday only "service" from Stalybridge to Guide Bridge whilst weekend engineering work was taking place in the Stockport area (in 2004) [cite news | url = http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/118/118102_ghost_train_in_reverse_gear.html| title = Ghost Train In Reverse Gear | accessdate = 2008-08-08| date = 28 May 2004| publisher = Manchester Evening News] , but currently the once-weekly "parliamentary" service on the route operates in the other direction (leaving Stockport at 11.28 and calling at 11.42, on Saturdays only). Ironically, TransPennine trains are routed through Guide Bridge but do not stop there.

See also

*Audenshaw Junction rail crash

References

* Radford, B., (1988) "Midland Though The Peak" Unicorn Books

External links

* [http://www.thesectionalappendix.co.uk/MIDDBWM01.html British Railways in 1960: Dunford Bridge to Manchester]