Ardwick to get new footbridge

[Bletchleyite]

So, it turns out I was right that Ardwick's footbridge has rusted away to the point of getting unsafe.

However, it turns out I was wrong that they would just close it when this happened (or put on a once-a-week on-demand taxi or something to avoid closure proceedings). A new footbridge is to be installed, closing the station from mid December to early January.

I guess this must be forward-looking to an extent, as it's likely the city centre (both residential and commercial) will have extended out to there in the next 10 years or so and it be surrounded by tower blocks to replace the post-industrial decay, and it'd be near impossible to reopen the station once it had closed due to the curved, narrow platform and lack of space for lifts which necessitate grandfather rights? But it is odd how this station has survived when similar ones like Miles Platting haven't.

No RRB is to be provided for the approximately one passenger per day that uses it (even a taxi might be overkill ).

Ardwick Station | National Rail

Discover Ardwick railway station. Getting to & from, buying & collecting train tickets, staffing, facilities, accessibility, & mobility access.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

A new footbridge for Ardwick station
Ardwick station will be temporarily closed from Saturday 9 December 2023 until early January 2024 as work is taking place to install a new footbridge.
During this time, no trains will stop at this station and customers should use Ashburys or Manchester Piccadilly stations.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

It survived initially because of the adjacent Great Universal Stores office complex , which generated some custom. These are now multiple-tenant offices - not all of which are taken. The whole area is in flux now - whither HS2/NPR?

 

[XCTurbostar]

For those interested, the accepted Planning Application Documents can be found here: https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online...s.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=RXXN59BC0CT00
It includes a pack of drawings of what the new footbridge will look like. Design work was carried out by JBA Consulting.
TLDR - Its a like-for-like replacement.

 

[Russel]

Acording to Wikipedia, Ardwick saw 404 passengers last year, with a peak of 1520 in the year 2019/20...

How many hundred thousand pound is this footbridge going to cost?

Just close the station, why do we have this aversion to closing pointless stations in this country?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

But it is odd how this station has survived when similar ones like Miles Platting haven't.

Miles Platting and Park stations were in a similar situation to Ardwick: edge-of-centre city stations surrounded by industrial decay and/or abandoned housing. As you say, it's odd that Ardwick survived that round of late 80s closures. Would short-faring have artificially boosted Ardwick's numbers back then, or is that a more modern phenomenon?

 

[AlastairFraser]

Acording to Wikipedia, Ardwick saw 404 passengers last year, with a peak of 1520 in the year 2019/20...

How many hundred thousand pound is this footbridge going to cost?

Just close the station, why do we have this aversion to closing pointless stations in this country?

This station is in the middle of an area where significant commercial and residential redevelopment are ongoing; with a better service and a higher residential population in this area, usage will grow significantly.

 

[The exile]

Acording to Wikipedia, Ardwick saw 404 passengers last year, with a peak of 1520 in the year 2019/20...

How many hundred thousand pound is this footbridge going to cost?

Just close the station, why do we have this aversion to closing pointless stations in this country?

However much the new footbridge costs, it (+ the ongoing maintenance costs) will be peanuts compared with the costs of closure and subsequent reopening. We’ve suffered far too long from short-termism - whether of the “I want it NOW” or the “I don’t need it now, so I’ll bin it” variety.

 

[The Planner]

Always been on the cards to happen.

IBM, Redcar British Steel, Stanlow & Thornton and Teeside Airport... which station will be next?

over the last few years a few stations have had their service 'temporarily' removed, seemingly all because of low passenger numbers. I am trying to tick off as many stations as I can, but these 'closures' have prevented me from ticking these ones off. The closures have (at lease to my knowledge)...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Bletchleyite]

However much the new footbridge costs, it (+ the ongoing maintenance costs) will be peanuts compared with the costs of closure and subsequent reopening. We’ve suffered far too long from short-termism - whether of the “I want it NOW” or the “I don’t need it now, so I’ll bin it” variety.

It probably couldn't reopen as it would be near impossible to make it accessible and the platform is narrow and curved. I reckon the best bet to make it accessible would be to run a Deansgate like bridge across from one of the new towers on about the 4th or 5th floor.

This station is in the middle of an area where significant commercial and residential redevelopment are ongoing; with a better service and a higher residential population in this area, usage will grow significantly.

Indeed. See Kempston Hardwick, at which usage is (or was) slowly growing due to new housing estates nearby from being the lowest used station in the country.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Acording to Wikipedia, Ardwick saw 404 passengers last year, with a peak of 1520 in the year 2019/20...

How many hundred thousand pound is this footbridge going to cost?

Just close the station, why do we have this aversion to closing pointless stations in this country?

It costs far much more money to close a station than to put in a new footbridge and provide a limited service.

 

[Deafdoggie]

For those that don't know Ardwick station, if you were going to kill someone and couldn't be bothered to hide the body, this would be the ideal place! It could possibly be years before anyone discovered it-indeed, who knows what they’ll find when they come to do the bridge! Just don't plan your escape by train!
In many ways it reminds me of Etruia, you're very remote and alone and can't be seen from the road. And the changing landscape changed demand and usage of both stations. Etruia (quite rightly) didn't survive. Ardwick lives to fight another day.

 

[Paul’s]

Is it being renovated,due to the closing of the container yard nearby. and the thinking is it will be developed in residential complex, if so is they a standards the station area needs to comply with. Also if area becomes a residential complex, how do they workout the volume of passengers, and the new tiimetable…

 

[The Planner]

Is it being renovated,due to the closing of the container yard nearby. and the thinking is it will be developed in residential complex, if so is they a standards the station area needs to comply with. Also if area becomes a residential complex, how do they workout the volume of passengers, and the new tiimetable…

You make assumptions off previous data and modelling. The timetable bit is arguably easy.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It costs far much more money to close a station than to put in a new footbridge and provide a limited service.

This line of reasoning always gets trotted out, but is it actually correct?

Just how much ££££ does it cost to 'close' a station?

 

[Lewisham2221]

For those that don't know Ardwick station, if you were going to kill someone and couldn't be bothered to hide the body, this would be the ideal place! It could possibly be years before anyone discovered it-indeed, who knows what they’ll find when they come to do the bridge! Just don't plan your escape by train!
In many ways it reminds me of Etruia, you're very remote and alone and can't be seen from the road. And the changing landscape changed demand and usage of both stations. Etruia (quite rightly) didn't survive. Ardwick lives to fight another day.

I'm still not 100% convinced that closing Etruria was the right decision, but I guess that's a discussion for a different thread.

It's nice to see some apparent forward thinking going on in the case of Ardwick.

 

[The Planner]

This line of reasoning always gets trotted out, but is it actually correct?

Just how much ££££ does it cost to 'close' a station?

Depends on how you are costing peoples time and the cost of the consultations etc that go with it.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I'm still not 100% convinced that closing Etruria was the right decision, but I guess that's a discussion for a different thread.

Re-opening of Etruria has of course been mooted since its closure in the mid 2000's, but, as you say, this location, and stations other than Ardwick, are probably best discussed in another thread.

 

[YorkRailFan]

This line of reasoning always gets trotted out, but is it actually correct?

Just how much ££££ does it cost to 'close' a station?

Depends on the service, consultations, passenger usage, rail line, etc.

 

[td97]

as it's likely the city centre (both residential and commercial) will have extended out to there in the next 10 years or so and it be surrounded by tower blocks to replace the post-industrial decay,

There is a Salford Central type opportunity for Ardwick.
SFD is popular with city dwellers who commute to Greater Manchester suburban towns on the route (Rochdale, Salford, Bolton, Wigan), and also picks up passengers who travel 1 stop and change at Victoria for Leeds/NE or Liverpool.
No reason why this can't be replicated.
Well located for the Apollo too.

 

[telstarbox]

It's not much closer than Piccadilly for anyone who is coming from outside Greater Manchester though.

 

[PaulHarding150]

It's not much closer than Piccadilly for anyone who is coming from outside Greater Manchester though.

15/20 minute walk.

I think criticism could be accepted if this was a new station, but improving an existing one ahead of nearby redevelopment does in my book at least seem sensible.

I suppose the reason it's happening now and not alongside/after the development is because the bridge is unsafe.

Also having a railway station next to land increases demand and use for it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

15/20 minute walk.

Not dissimilar, provided it gets a decent service when stuff has been built, to popping over to Oxford Road from Picc which plenty do.

 

[Travelmonkey]

For those that don't know Ardwick station, if you were going to kill someone and couldn't be bothered to hide the body, this would be the ideal place! It could possibly be years before anyone discovered it-indeed, who knows what they’ll find when they come to do the bridge! Just don't plan your escape by train!
In many ways it reminds me of Etruia, you're very remote and alone and can't be seen from the road. And the changing landscape changed demand and usage of both stations. Etruia (quite rightly) didn't survive. Ardwick lives to fight another day.

Etruria was closed but they left Wedgewood & Barlaston as zombies, Ardwick is a strange one though similar to Mannors in Newcastle well connected by other means,

 

[Geeves]

You cannot really judge the station on the number of passengers seeing as it currently only has two trains day... "Oh they should close it because no one uses it and its pointless", yes maybe provide a service first and when no one presents themselves then close it. That's a B**ching trick.

Good news on the investment and long may it continue

 

[The exile]

Etruria was closed but they left Wedgewood & Barlaston as zombies, Ardwick is a strange one though similar to Mannors in Newcastle well connected by other means,

Wasn’t Etruria’s platform in the way of a realignment - thus massively increasing the costs of keeping the station open?

 

[Travelmonkey]

Wasn’t Etruria’s platform in the way of a realignment - thus massively increasing the costs of keeping the station open?

Similar to Norton Bridge a desolate island sacrificed,

 

[Bletchleyite]

Similar to Norton Bridge a desolate island sacrificed,

Norton Bridge was a bit different in that the slow lines, which served it, had been relocated 500m to the west, which wasn't a particularly useful location for a station as they were in the middle of a field with no road access.

 

[Djgr]

Eventually the area around Ardwick will regenerate and traffic will develop as Salford (Central)'s has. However any significant increase in traffic will require a brand new station.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Wasn’t Etruria’s platform in the way of a realignment - thus massively increasing the costs of keeping the station open?

Yes. It was a tight curve through the platform at speed! The whole area is gone now and I suspect many local people don't know where "Etruia" is anymore.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Eventually the area around Ardwick will regenerate and traffic will develop as Salford (Central)'s has. However any significant increase in traffic will require a brand new station.

I think it's likely to be interim anyway, as some of the options under consideration for Metrolink might result in both it and Ashburys closing anyway in favour of a ground level Metrolink line towards Hadfield and Rose Hill Marple. But I doubt it'll ever be that busy because of the proximity to Piccadilly and the limited range of destinations. But with plenty around it it shouldn't be a basket case.