Guide Bridge railway station
Guide Bridge 
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Guide Bridge railway station, with a TransPennine Express Class 185 Desiro unit passing through.
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| Location | |
| Place | Guide Bridge |
| Local authority | Tameside |
| Grid reference | SJ925975 |
| Operations | |
| Station code | GUI |
| Managed by | Northern |
| Number of platforms | 2 |
| DfT category | E |
| Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries |
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| Annual rail passenger usage* | |
| 2011/12 |
 275,246 |
| 2012/13 |
 254,200 |
| 2013/14 |
275,970 |
| 2014/15 |
280,584 |
| 2015/16 |
297,324 |
| History | |
| Key dates | Opened 1841 |
| National Rail – UK railway stations | |
| * Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Guide Bridge from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year. | |
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Guide Bridge railway station serves Guide Bridge in Audenshaw, Greater Manchester, England, and is operated by Northern. The station is 4¾ miles east of Manchester Piccadilly on the Glossop Line.
It was built by the Sheffield, Ashton-Under-Lyne and Manchester Railway on its new line from Ardwick Junction, near to the Manchester and Birmingham Railway's terminus at Store Street, (now Piccadilly) to Sheffield and opened as Ashton and Hooley Hill on 11 November 1841 when the line opened as far as Godley Toll Bar. It was renamed Ashton in February 1842 and became Guide Bridge on 14 July 1845 when the line was extended to Sheffield.
The station originally had a 4 platform configuration with a large office on the southern side. However, the southern (former fast line) platforms were decommissioned and the tracks lifted in 1984-5 as part of layout alterations associated with the changeover from 1500V DC to 25KV AC working on the Hadfield line, with demolition of the buildings following a few years later. The area has been covered and used as access for the southern platform, but some evidence remains of the previous two tracks. The junction at the country end of the station was also remodelled in 2011 to allow Stalybridge line trains to cross the junction at 30 mph (max) rather than 15 mph as previously.
Tickets can be obtained at the ticket office on the south side.
With the electrification of the Manchester–Sheffield (via Woodhead) line in the early 1950s, Guide Bridge, already a major centre of railway operations, increased in importance. Express trains called here, as well as EMU trains between Manchester London Road and the north Derbyshire towns of Glossop and Hadfield. There were also Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) services from Manchester London Road (Piccadilly) to Macclesfield (via Rose Hill Marple - closed in January 1970), Stockport Edgeley to Stalybridge and to Oldham (via the Oldham, Ashton & Guide Bridge Railway, which closed to passengers in 1959). The station was also where Express Trains to and from Manchester Central on the London Marylebone route, changed locomotive. Drawn by a Bo-Bo or Co-Co Electric Locomotive from Sheffield, a steam or in later years diesel Locomotive would take the train the final few miles to Manchester Central and vice versa. The Woodhead Line was busy with freight traffic, especially with coal traffic from South Yorkshire to Lancashire power stations. The station also accepted freight under British Railways "Passenger" freight service and had a licensed Buffet.
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