Woodlands Road tram stop

Legend

0:00 Bury Bolton Street East Lancashire Railway River Irwell 0:05 Radcliffe River Irwell 0:07 Whitefield 0:09 Besses o' th' Barn  M60  0:11 Prestwich 0:12 Heaton Park 0:14 Bowker Vale 0:15 Crumpsall 0:17 Abraham Moss to Queens Road Depot 0:19 Queens Road to Monsall River Irk Calder Valley Line 0:23 Victoria  to Exchange Square to Shudehill

This diagram: view talk edit

Location

Woodlands Road was a tram stop on the Bury Line of the Metrolink system in the Cheetham Hill area of north Manchester, England. It opened in 1913 as a heavy rail station and closed for conversion to light rail in 1991, opening with the new Metrolink system in 1992.

Woodlands Road was the closest station to the Manchester Museum of Transport on Boyle Street. Two new stations opened nearby, (Abraham Moss and Queens Road), which led to the closure of the stop on 16 December 2013.^[1]

History

The original railway line was opened in 1879 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway between Manchester Victoria and Bury.^[2] Woodlands Road, Bowker Vale and Besses o' th' Barn stations were added to the line in 1913, in an attempt to fend off growing electric tramway competition in the Cheetham Hill area. The original halt had wooden platforms. The site is near the vanished junction of a former branch line to the chemical works in Blackley.

Closure

The UK Government announced that £4 million from the Community Infrastructure Fund was awarded to build two new stops on the Bury Metrolink line. This was part of £30 million allocated to transport projects to support thousands of extra homes being built across the country over the coming months. The Chairman of the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority, Councillor Keith Whitmore, stated that the funding would help realise a long-held ambition to open new Metrolink stops in the area.

The two new stops were:

• Abraham Moss (opened 2011), situated close to the Abraham Moss Centre, the library and leisure centre and the City College Manchester; it is located approximately 0.18 miles (0.29 km) as the crow flies from Woodlands Road station.
• Queens Road (opened 2013), providing a closer stop to the Museum of Transport. The site is close to the Queens Road tram depot and there was a small tram halt there for Metrolink staff only, which was replaced by a full passenger station. The station opened on 16 December 2013.^[3][4]

These two new tram stops replaced Woodlands Road station, which was closed on 16 December 2013, despite receiving some opposition from local residents who had campaigned to retain the station.

Services

Woodlands Road was located on the Bury Line with trams towards Bury stopping every 6 minutes between 9:59 am and 4 pm, Mondays to Fridays.^[5] with no weekend or evening service. This was due to the opening of the nearby Abraham Moss Metrolink station further north along the Bury line.^[6]

Connecting bus routes

Woodlands Road was a Metrolink station that was not served by any bus service. The nearest bus services were the 151, 156 and 165 on Hazelbottom Road or Smedley Road and the 88, 89 and 135 on Cheetham Hill Road.^[7]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Woodlands Road Metrolink station.