East Didsbury railway station

East Didsbury is a suburban railway station in south Manchester, England. On the Styal Line between Longsight (Slade Lane Junction) and Wilmslow, it is served by Liverpool Lime Street-Manchester Airport & Crewe trains operated by Northern Trains, Llandudno - Manchester Airport services operated by Transport for Wales Rail and some peak Manchester Airport services operated by TransPennine Express.

This article is about the present-day railway station in Didsbury, Manchester. For other uses, see Didsbury railway station (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with East Didsbury tram stop.

East Didsbury
View across to the southern platform in 2015
LocationEast Didsbury, Manchester
England
Grid referenceSJ853903
Managed byNorthern Trains
Transit authorityTransport for Greater Manchester
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeEDY
ClassificationDfT category E
Key dates
1909Opened
Passengers
2015/16 0.268 million
2016/17 0.280 million
2017/18 0.264 million
2018/19 0.282 million
2019/20 0.296 million
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

East Didsbury tram stop is close to the railway station.

History

East Didsbury Station was opened in 1909 by the London and North Western Railway and, until 6 May 1974, was called East Didsbury and Parrs Wood.[1][2] From 1923, the line was operated by the London Midland and Scottish Railway. Following the formation in 1948 of British Rail, rail services were operated by the London Midland Region of British Railways, then North-Western Regional Railways. The station was rebuilt in the 1959[3] by the architect to the London Midland section of British Rail, William Robert Headley.

Services to Manchester Airport began in 1993 upon the opening of the Manchester Airport spur. With the privatisation of rail services in 1996/7, East Didsbury was served by the North Western Trains franchise.

Other Didsbury stations
Map of Didsbury's railways past and present

Before the Beeching Axe of the 1960s, the Didsbury area was served by three railway stations: East Didsbury, Didsbury, and Withington and West Didsbury.

Didsbury railway station opened in 1880 in the centre of Didsbury Village on the Midland Railway's Manchester South District Line, which connected with the Cheshire Lines Committee line into Manchester Central. This connected to the Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee line from Chinley and the Midland Railway used it for its express services from London St. Pancras. It closed in 1967 and, though the building was used for a while by a hardware dealer, it has now disappeared, apart from the platforms, a clock tower and a drinking fountain dedicated to the memory of a local philanthropist, Dr. D.J. Wilson Rhodes (1847–1900).[4]

There was also Withington and West Didsbury, the next station on the line towards Manchester; the two being so similar in appearance that passengers sometimes alighted at the wrong one. Originally it was called "Withington", then from 1884 "Withington and Albert Park", receiving its final name in 1915. All that remains is a boundary wall; a block of flats (Brankgate Court) has been built on the site.

The former Midland line was partially re-opened to passengers in 2013 when it was converted into a light rail track for the Manchester Metrolink tram system.[5]

Services

Mondays to Saturdays, the station has a basic service of three train per hour each way.

These consist of 2tph between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Airport, with 1tph extending to Crewe, and 1tph during off peak times to both Manchester Airport and Llandudno via Chester, operated by Transport for Wales.

At peak times, some TransPennine Express services between Doncaster or Newcastle and Manchester Airport call additionally.

On Sundays, there are 2tph northbound to Liverpool Lime Street via Manchester. Southbound services run through to Manchester Airport, with one service per hour continuing to Wilmslow.[6]

Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
Northern Trains
Northern Trains
TransPennine Express
Transport for Wales Rail
Chester to Manchester line

References
  1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens.
  2. Slater, J.N., ed. (July 1974). "Notes and News: Stations renamed by LMR". Railway Magazine. London: IPC Transport Press. 120 (879): 363. ISSN 0033-8923.
  3. Lawrence, David (2018). British Rail Architecture 1948-97. Crecy Publishing Ltd. p. 65. ISBN 9780860936855.
  4. Radford, J.B. (1988). Midland through the Peak: A pictorial history of the Midland Railway main line routes between Derby and Manchester. Paddock Wood: Unicorn Books. ISBN 978-1-85241-001-8
  5. Kirby, Dean (23 May 2013). "First passengers travel on tram extension to East Didsbury". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  6. Table 85 National Rail timetable, December 2018

Further reading
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2014). Crewe to Manchester. Middleton Press. figs. 55-56. ISBN 9781908174574. OCLC 892047119.

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