Styal railway station serves the village of Styal in Cheshire, England. It is a stop on the Styal Line, which links Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport and Wilmslow.

Styal
National Rail
Styal railway station in 2011
General information
LocationStyal, Cheshire,
England
Grid referenceSJ840835
Managed byNorthern Trains
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeSYA
ClassificationDfT category F1
Key dates
1909Opened
Passengers
2018/19Increase 13,980
2019/20Increase 21,670
2020/21Decrease 1,922
2021/22Increase 11,498
2022/23Increase 21,454
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

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The station was opened in 1909, with the construction of the line from Wilmslow to Manchester London Road (now Piccadilly).

It won numerous best-kept station garden awards in the 1940s and 1950s under stationmasters Mott, Hilton and Jackson.[1] The garden is long abandoned, but there were plans to uncover and restore some of it in spring 2011.

Styal enjoyed a half-hourly service in each direction until the mid-1990s. The construction of the airport rail link in 1993 saw services reduced, with only 8 trains per day in each direction on Monday to Saturday; on Sundays, there was a two hourly service in each direction. This was gradually reduced down to a skeletal Monday - Saturday service and no Sunday service.

A petition was created to seek a resumption of a morning commuter service to Manchester and daytime services to serve HMP Styal, National Trust Styal and local residents.[2]

Services were temporarily suspended in summer 2020 and again in early 2021, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic; they have since been reinstated.

Location

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Styal station is on Station Road, to the east of the main road in the centre of the village.

It is sited close to the edge of the National Trust's Quarry Bank Mill/Styal Estate and Styal Women's Prison and Young Offenders' Institute.

Facilities

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The station has the following facilities:[3]

  • A ticket machine
  • Customer information screens on both platforms
  • Step-free access to both platforms
  • A station car park, on the southbound platform

Services

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Since May 2018, a major timetable revamp has seen the station gain an hourly service 7 days a week in both directions.[4]

The current Monday-Saturday service pattern consists of one train per hour in each direction between Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly, via Manchester Airport.

On evenings and Sundays, there is an hourly service each way between Liverpool Lime Street and Wilmslow, via Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.[5]

All stopping services are operated by Northern Trains.

Preceding station     National Rail   Following station
Northern Trains

Further reading

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  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2014). Crewe to Manchester. Middleton Press. figs. 43-44. ISBN 9781908174574. OCLC 892047119.

References

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  1. ^ "History". Friends of Styal Station. 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  2. ^ "Styal station's single service". Manchester Evening News. 12 January 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  3. ^ "National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Styal". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  4. ^ Table 93 National Rail timetable, May 2018
  5. ^ "Timetables and engineering information for travel with Northern". Northern Railway. 10 December 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
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53°20′53″N 2°14′24″W / 53.348°N 2.240°W / 53.348; -2.240