Crewe to Manchester Line
| Crewe-Manchester Line |
| Principal stations (from west to east)
Crewe |
The Crewe to Manchester Line is a railway line in north west England, running from Crewe north east to Manchester.
The line serves the following places: Crewe; Sandbach; Holmes Chapel; Goostrey; Chelford; Alderley Edge; Wilmslow; Cheadle Hulme; Stockport and Manchester.
The line was built by the Manchester and Birmingham Railway Company, which diverted to Crewe in 1841 and merged in 1846 with others to form the London and North Western Railway Company, which in turn became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923.
The line from Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly (including the Styal Line) was the first section of the West Coast Main Line to be electrified, in 1959. The line is joined at Cheadle Hulme by the WCML line from London via Stoke-on-Trent and at Stockport by the Mid-Cheshire Line from Chester and by the Hope Valley Line from Sheffield joined with the Manchester to Buxton Line.
In April 2006, Network Rail organised its maintenance and train control operations into "26 Routes" and the Crewe to Manchester line was included in Route 20 (North West Urban).
Services
Services on the line are provided by Northern Rail, which operates trains from Crewe via Wilmslow and the Styal Line to Manchester Airport and to Manchester via Stockport. Arriva Trains Wales operate a through express service from Milford Haven and Cardiff via the Welsh Marches Line to Manchester. Virgin Trains operate West Coast Main Line services to Manchester.
The line was completely closed between Crewe and Stockport for route reconstruction in December 2005 and originally destined to be reopened in March 2006. After many problems with the new signalling, it finally reopened on June 26 [1], albeit with all points locked out of use. The work is unlikely to be fully completed until December 2006.
