Marple Station

[Heritage]

I was chatting to a couple of the contractors the other day. They've installed these bridges at various stations over the past 6 months across the UK. One guy told me that they are using stone cladding on the Marple bridge in view of its location. He also mentioned that they had exposed the old track beds from when we had a mainline station [with through trains to London!] which is interesting, and they have of course uncovered the old tiled flooring which can be seen from the Manchester platform behind the fence at the Romiley end. But no skulls or secret rooms!

[Chris78]

The planning application (DC/047839) can be found on Stockport MBC websites although there are no plans. However it would appear that Spencers did a similar scheme at Cheadle Hulme Station in which the link below has a photo and references the improvements planned at Marple. The article states about Marple -

"Work is due to start on site this winter and will take around nine months to complete. When finished, the old footbridge will have been removed and new lifts installed on both platforms, linked by a new single span footbridge.

The existing toilets will be demolished and the ticket office building will be extended to accommodate new accessible toilet facilities.

The station will have new automatic entrance doors and the area of car park adjacent to the ticket office will be resurfaced to provide designated disabled parking, with unobstructed step-free access."

http://www.rail.co/2011/08/03/improvements-at-cheadle-hulme-station/

As above it looks like the car park is getting resurfaced so that quashes any rumours of a multi-storey. I'm not overly struck by the design of the new bridge/lifts, especially being on the boundary but not in the Conservation Area, however that aside I'm all for the improvements at the station. As can been seen on-site they are clearing the land and toilets a little further up from the existing bridge, so no doubt this is were its going. The existing bridge will probably remain in-situ whilst the new one is being built meaning there will be no major disturbance to commuters.

I hope that clarifies some of the issues and is of interest to people

[HWL1973]

If Rose Hill were to shut can I suggest that the land taken up by the track is gifted to the houses backing onto it? I of course have no vested interest in this 

[rsh]

Ecologically sound housing for the car-less world. My friend, I  give you the future

Wonderful! What a shame those car-less properties would be lacking such a vital public transport amenity as, say, a railway station...

The fact is, there is simply no need to sell an arm to support a leg in this case. As evidenced by the current expensive bridge and lift works, if Marple station needs funding for something it will be found from regular transport budgets. Has the need for improved parking ever actually been raised anywhere?

[Duke Fame]

In fairness, if Rose hill was shut and Marple had a free multi-story car park & a train every 25 mins, would it be a more difficult commute.

Selling off Rose hill and building houses on the track bed will raise a lot of cash to improve Marple

Building houses on the trackbed As most of the line is in steep cutting they would be narrow, miserable places to live with no access except on foot.
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Ecologically sound housing for the car-less world. My friend, I  give you the future

[Belly]

In fairness, if Rose hill was shut and Marple had a free multi-story car park & a train every 25 mins, would it be a more difficult commute.

Selling off Rose hill and building houses on the track bed will raise a lot of cash to improve Marple
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Building houses on the trackbed As most of the line is in steep cutting they would be narrow, miserable places to live with no access except on foot.

[Duke Fame]

I have to say I quite like Rose Hill station. My morning routine is to park up at Rose Hill Station, grab a Metro, get a seat, Plug in a the iPod. Get to work comfortable and ready. The train could be better, but all Northern Rail trains are pretty crap.

Unless I'm going on a train before 0730 Marple the service is gnarly, crowded and stressy.

The trains home could do with another one after 18:36 from Piccadilly, but I like it. Bear in mind too that by the time the train has gone round the Hyde loop the train fills up nicely.

And Tony Tweedy does a great job keeping the place going - a real local hero.

In fairness, if Rose hill was shut and Marple had a free multi-story car park & a train every 25 mins, would it be a more difficult commute.

Selling off Rose hill and building houses on the track bed will raise a lot of cash to improve Marple

[marpleleaf]

I have to say I quite like Rose Hill station. My morning routine is to park up at Rose Hill Station, grab a Metro, get a seat, Plug in a the iPod. Get to work comfortable and ready. The train could be better, but all Northern Rail trains are pretty crap.

Unless I'm going on a train before 0730 Marple the service is gnarly, crowded and stressy.

The trains home could do with another one after 18:36 from Piccadilly, but I like it. Bear in mind too that by the time the train has gone round the Hyde loop the train fills up nicely.

And Tony Tweedy does a great job keeping the place going - a real local hero.

[Duke Fame]

i agree what a shame another old piece of our history/heritage is going.destroying the marple we love,for a new type concreate (no doubt) eyesore....and using the excuse that the old bridge needs repairs etc a good sand blast and new paint

We are talking about Marple station here which with perhaps the exception of Euston has to be the dullest station I've ever used.

We can sometimes forget, the desire for preserving even the deserving heritage stops us from getting on. The station needs to be able to accommodate as many trains and passengers as possible. IMHO the answer is very simple, increase the car park capacity, increase the number of trains to & from, improve access by way of a Marple shuttle bus and we make the use of the station to the max.

[amazon]

By comparison with other stations on the same line and in the general area Marple Station actually has a huge amount of free parking in its vicinity. The hard area near the ticket office is indeed limited and full by very early in the morning - but there is also a large overflow car park on the opposite side of the road and a car park in Marple Bridge only 200 yards away. Other people park on the side roads just above the canal. This is far more capacity than New Mills, Romiley etc.

I think the emphasis should be on campaigning for more and longer train services, not more spaces to dump a lump of metal that is going to do nothing all day - but then I prefer to walk to the station and keep my options open for which Marple terminus I return to in the evening.

One of the problems people come from new mills shrines because it's cheaper        someone will say but they use the car to get hear It's still cheaper .

[amazon]

i agree what a shame another old piece of our history/heritage is going.destroying the marple we love,for a new type concreate (no doubt) eyesore....and using the excuse that the old bridge needs repairs etc a good sand blast and new paint

So how do you  transport disabled people from this side to that side .dont say they get on the train this side go up to the loop back on the other side .the train goes out of service at marple comes back in service when it comes into the other side .allso drivers break time if they are not running late .

[rotten john]

i agree what a shame another old piece of our history/heritage is going.destroying the marple we love,for a new type concreate (no doubt) eyesore....and using the excuse that the old bridge needs repairs etc a good sand blast and new paint

[hollins]

By comparison with other stations on the same line and in the general area Marple Station actually has a huge amount of free parking in its vicinity. The hard area near the ticket office is indeed limited and full by very early in the morning - but there is also a large overflow car park on the opposite side of the road and a car park in Marple Bridge only 200 yards away. Other people park on the side roads just above the canal. This is far more capacity than New Mills, Romiley etc.

I think the emphasis should be on campaigning for more and longer train services, not more spaces to dump a lump of metal that is going to do nothing all day - but then I prefer to walk to the station and keep my options open for which Marple terminus I return to in the evening.

[Belly]

Also the lack of a 9:30 train from Rose Hill and no parking at Marple by that time.

Agree with the 9.30 train point - that stumped me last week when I had a meeting in Manchester. All the parking at Marple was full, as was Romiley. I ended up driving in. Not very sustainable.
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[ringi]

Also the lack of a 9:30 train from Rose Hill and no parking at Marple by that time.

If Rose Hill was renamed Marple Rose Hill and Marple was renamed Marple Canal, then it would be a lot easy to people to pick the best station for them.  At present the trains are not even listed next to each other on the Manchester departure board.

Speaking as an ex-regular rail commuter to Manchester (not working there anymore) until GMPTE sort out the poor evening service at Rose Hill, it will never be an attractive option, except for prople who live close to tehe station. Any service that effectively shuts down at 6.30pm  is never going to convince people to take a risk on using it, in case they get stuck at work and stranded car-less at their destination.