Mid-Cheshire Line
| Mid-Cheshire Line |
| Stations (from west to east)
Chester |
The Mid-Cheshire Line is a railway line in the north-west of England, between Chester and Manchester Piccadilly.
Route
The line is very rural, and takes in many small settlements in Cheshire before reaching Chester. Services follow the Crewe line from Manchester Piccadilly as far as Stockport, where the line diverges westwards. The line then curves around the South of Manchester until it meets the Metrolink line. Metrolink and Mainline services run parallel between Navigation Road railway station and Altrincham, where the Metrolink terminates. Much of the route is single track between Altrincham and Stockport. Beyond Altrincham, the route leaves Manchester's suburbs. Several of the rural stops on the line are request stops. There are no further passenger interchanges on the line until the service reaches Chester. There is a single track freight only branch, linking Northwich to Sandbach, to the west of Northwich railway station (There is a campaign for this line to be re-opened as a passenger line, to serve the town of Middlewich), and a curve to access the West Coast Main Line further west, but passenger services do not use this. The line joins up with the line from Chester to Warrington just east of Chester.
Formerly, the service from Altrincham into Manchester used a different route via Sale, but this was converted to light rail in the 1990s and is now used by the Metrolink. This makes the use of this line by heavy rail impossible and thus services must now take the alternative (and much slower) route via Stockport.
Services
All services on the line are operated by Northern Rail and operate every 60 minutes in each direction. The route is usually served by Class 142 Pacers, but Sprinter services are also used especially at peak times.
