Sandbach railway station

For the former North Staffordshire Railway station, see Wheelock & Sandbach railway station.

Sandbach
View of platforms 2 and 3 from the old bridge in December 2007, which was recently replaced
General information
Location	Sandbach, Cheshire East England
Grid reference	SJ737615
Managed by	Northern Trains
Platforms	3
Other information
Station code	SDB
Classification	DfT category E
Key dates
1998	Refurbished[1]
Passengers
2019/20	0.282 million
2020/21	63,840
2021/22	0.193 million
2022/23	0.231 million
2023/24	0.261 million
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Sandbach railway station serves the town of Sandbach in Cheshire, England. The station is sited 4+3⁄4 miles (8 km) north-east of Crewe, on the Crewe to Manchester Line. Although the station is named Sandbach, it is located in the local residential suburb of Elworth on the A533 road, which links the town with Middlewich and Northwich.

History

Sandbach was a double junction on the LNWR and later London Midland and Scottish Railway line from Crewe to Manchester.

For many years, Sandbach was a junction for the single line branch to Middlewich and Northwich; it opened on 1 July 1868,[2] and closed for passenger service in January 1960, but it still carries freight on a daily basis.

Earlier, the North Staffordshire Railway branch from Kidsgrove to Sandbach, via Lawton Junction, ceased passenger service in July 1930 and closed to freight traffic in 1964.

In 1998, the station underwent a £750,000 refurbishment by North Western Trains.[1]

Facilities

The station has a ticket office on platform 1; this is staffed part-time on Mondays to Saturdays only (Monday - Friday 06:30 - 13:00, Saturday 07:20 - 13:50).[3] Outside these times, tickets must be purchased prior to travel, on-line or on board the train.

A waiting room on platforms 2 and 3 is open at the times the station is staffed, whilst there are shelters on both sides. Train running details are offered via timetable posters, digital CIS displays and by telephone. No step-free access is available, as the footbridge to platforms 2 and 3 does not have ramps and the Crewe platform has steps from the car park.

The station has three platforms:

• Platform 1 for southbound trains to Crewe.
• Platform 2 for northbound services to Manchester Piccadilly
• Platform 3 is bidirectional, which used on weekday mornings and as required.

Services

During the daytime on Mondays to Saturdays, there are two trains per hour in each direction between Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly:[4]

• One via Stockport, calling at all intermediate stations
• One along the Styal line via Manchester Airport, omitting some stops.

On evenings and Sundays, there is an hourly service in each direction between Crewe and Manchester Piccadilly, via Stockport.

All stopping services are operated by Northern Trains.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Crewe		Northern Trains Crewe-Manchester Line		Holmes Chapel
	Historical railways
Cledford Bridge Halt		London and North Western Railway Northwich to Sandbach Branch		Terminus

53.150°N 2.394°W / 53.150; -2.394

References

1. "Extracts from the Chronicle Files "25 years ago"". Glancing Back. Congleton Chronicle. 25 May 2023. p. 6.
2. Herapath's Railway Journal, Punl. Aug 15, 1868, page 829.
3. "National Rail Enquiries - Station facilities for Sandbach". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
4. "Timetables and engineering information for travel with Northern". Northern Railway. 10 December 2023. Retrieved 23 March 2024.

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2014). Crewe to Manchester. Middleton Press. figs. 10-14. ISBN 9781908174574. OCLC 892047119.

External links

• Train times and station information for Sandbach railway station from National Rail
• Crewe-Manchester Community Rail Partnership