Wilmslow railway station

Wilmslow Add→{{rail-interchange}}
General information
Location	Cheshire East
Managed by	Northern Rail
Platforms	4
Other information
Station code	WML

Wilmslow railway station serves the large town of Wilmslow, in the borough of Cheshire East and the county of Cheshire, England. The station is 12 miles (19 km) south of Manchester Piccadilly on the Crewe to Manchester Line.

This station is a junction on the Crewe to Manchester Line six miles south of Stockport with the Styal Line from Wilmslow to Manchester Airport, with some trains then continuing to Manchester.

The station has four platforms with disabled access to each, two waiting rooms, public toilets and also has a double-manned booking office located below the platforms, of which refurbishment took place in winter 2011/12; allowing improved wheelchair access to the counter, amongst other improvements. The booking office itself overlooks a small newsagent's; selling the usual items as well as freshly brewed hot drinks. A Virgin Trains 'Fast Ticket' Machine was installed below platform 1 in June 2009, even though this station is managed by Northern Rail.

Both the Main Line and the Styal Line were electrified in 1959 as the first and, to a degree, the proving stage of the West Coast Main Line electrification and modernisation programme. A significant feature of that stage was the construction and installation of a state of the art signal box and control centre located near the end of the Styal Line down platform at Wilmslow and serving virtually the entire railway from Crewe to Manchester via both routes. The complexity of that installation was not repeated for the remainder of the electrification scheme, which had its control and signalling systems renewed in ways that were less highly automated.

In March 1997 the IRA exploded two bombs in relay boxes near this signal box, thereby causing great disruption to rail and road services, but there were no casualties. The railway reopened the following day. In April 2006, as part of the total renewal of the railway from Crewe to Cheadle Hulme near Stockport, the large 1959 signal box was demolished.

Large-scale resignalling of the line through Wilmslow was completed behind schedule in the Autumn of 2006.

Services

Monday to Saturday, there are five trains per hour northbound with Northern Rail, Arriva Trains Wales and Virgin Trains services stopping at Wilmslow en route to Manchester Piccadilly. One Northern service operates via the Airport, the remainder all run via Stockport.

Southbound Monday to Saturdays there are four trains per hour to Crewe. These consist of two Northern Rail trains per hour to Crewe (local stopping service), an hourly Arriva Trains Wales fast service that continues via Shrewsbury to Cardiff Central and Swansea and an hourly London Euston-bound Virgin Trains express service. There is also one local Northern Rail train per hour that terminates at Alderley Edge.

On Sundays, there are hourly main line services to South Wales & London but the local routes run less frequently i.e. hourly to Piccadilly via Stockport & Alderley Edge, two hourly to the Airport & Crewe.

External links

• Train times and station information for Wilmslow railway station from National Rail
• Crewe-Manchester Community Rail Partnership

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Crewe		Arriva Trains Wales Welsh Marches Line		Stockport
Alderley Edge		Northern Rail Crewe to Manchester Line		Handforth
				Styal
Crewe		CrossCountry Cross Country Network Limited Service		Stockport
		Virgin Trains West Coast Main Line