Wilmslow railway station

Wilmslow
General information
Location	Wilmslow, Cheshire East England
Coordinates	53.327°N 2.226°W / 53.327; -2.226
Grid reference	SJ850811
Managed by	Northern Trains
Platforms	4
Other information
Station code	WML
Classification	DfT category C2
History
Opened	1842
Key dates
1959	Electrified
Passengers
2016/17	1.531 million
2017/18	1.600 million
2018/19	1.620 million
Interchange	0.139 million
2019/20	1.561 million
Interchange	0.144 million
2020/21	0.260 million
Interchange	16,853
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Wilmslow railway station is in Wilmslow, Cheshire, England, 12 miles (19 km) south of Manchester Piccadilly on the Crewe to Manchester Line.

This station is a junction on the Crewe–Manchester line 6 miles (9.7 km) 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-staffed booking office below the platforms.

History

Both the Main Line and the Styal line were electrified in 1959 as part of the West Coast Main Line electrification and modernisation programme with the construction and installation of a state of the art signal box and control centre 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 Provisional IRA exploded two bombs in relay boxes near this signal box, causing disruption to rail and road services. 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 Avanti West Coast, Northern Trains and Transport for Wales services stopping at Wilmslow en route to Manchester Piccadilly. One Northern Trains service operates via Manchester Airport (all stations via Heald Green), the remainder all run via Stockport. Since May 2018, some Northern Trains services run beyond Piccadilly to either Liverpool Lime Street via Earlestown or Southport via Bolton.

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

A small number of CrossCountry services stop at Wilmslow on the route between Manchester Piccadilly and Bournemouth during peak times.

On Sundays, there are hourly main line services to South Wales and London but the local routes run less frequently i.e. two trains per hour to Manchester Piccadilly - one via Stockport and one via Manchester Airport continuing to Liverpool Lime Street via Chat Moss. Southbound there is an hourly local stopping service to Crewe. The service from Liverpool Lime Street terminates here.

Preceding station		National Rail		Following station
Crewe		CrossCountry Cross Country Network Limited Service		Stockport
		Avanti West Coast West Coast Main Line
		Transport for Wales Rail Welsh Marches Line
Alderley Edge		Northern Trains Crewe–Manchester line		Handforth
		Northern Trains Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street via Chat Moss (Styal line local stopping service)		Styal
				Manchester Airport
Terminus		Northern Trains Wilmslow to Liverpool Lime Street via Warrington Central (One early morning service)		East Didsbury

Future high speed services

The economic case for High Speed 2 Phase 1 includes one train per hour each way stopping at Wilmslow, travelling between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly.

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2014). Crewe to Manchester. Middleton Press. figs. 38-42. ISBN 9781908174574. OCLC 892047119.

External links

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