Manchester Exchange railway station

Manchester Exchange
Victoria platform 11
5 May 1969	Closed
Location

Manchester Exchange was a railway station in

From 16 April 1929, Exchange had a platform link with the adjacent Victoria, when an eastward extension of platform 3 over the Irwell bridge was opened, meeting Victoria's platform 11, thus creating Europe's longest platform at 2,238 feet (682 m); it could accommodate three trains at once.[4]^[5]

Services

Exchange station served trains to Liverpool Lime Street, Huddersfield, Leeds, Hull Paragon and Newcastle Central; also Warrington Bank Quay, Chester and North Wales. Local LNWR passenger trains operated via Walkden to Bolton Great Moor Street and via Tyldesley to Wigan North Western.

The station originally provided alternative services from Manchester to

The station suffered hits by several German incendiary bombs during the Christmas 1940 Manchester Blitz. On 22 December, the station roof was severely damaged, portions of which were never replaced. Fires took extensive hold on the building which could not be re-opened for passengers until 13 January 1941.^[6]

Closure

The railway station was closed on 5 May 1969^[7] and all remaining services were redirected to Manchester Victoria.

Despite closure, the station remained operational for newspaper trains until the 1980s. Manchester produced several 'northern editions' until the newspaper revolution. The nighttime operation was very busy with several trains being loaded and readied for departure to various trans-Pennine destinations (Halifax / Huddersfield / Leeds / York etc.).

After many years of remaining relatively intact (with trains still running beneath the train shed until the track layout was redesigned), it continued to operate as a

In July 2017, Q-Park opened a brand new car park called Deansgate North, restoring the original red brickwork of the Exchange Station.

Location maps

• 
  1889 Ordnance Survey map showing the Manchester Exchange and Victoria station complex (note the platform link over the River Irwell)
• 
  Railway Clearing House 1910 map of central Manchester showing the railway system at that date and the position of Exchange station at the end of the LNWR line from Liverpool via Eccles (marked in red)

References

Notes

Bibliography

• A leaflet from the late 1920s, advertising period excursions to North Wales from Manchester Exchange
• History page, including photographs, at Disused-stations.org.uk

v t e Manchester railways
Legend
City Centre and North Past, present and future
Manchester Metrolink Main line services to Rochdale to Oldham Moston Newton Heath to Bury Newton Heath and Moston Bowker Vale to Tameside Crumpsall Clayton Bridge Abraham Moss Park Woodlands Road to Tameside Queens Road Central Park Monsall Edge Lane Miles Platting Clayton Hall Velopark Oldham Road Holt Town Manchester Victoria Etihad Campus Exchange New Islington to Ordsall Chord and to Salford Ardwick Shudehill Ashburys Piccadilly				Mayfield
Market Street │ Piccadilly Gardens					to South Manchester
Exchange Square					Gorton
Mosley Street					Manchester Oxford Road
St Peter's Square					to Belle Vue
Manchester Central │ Deansgate- Castlefield					Deansgate
Liverpool Road					to Hyde Road
to Ordsall Chord and to Salford					to Tameside
Cornbrook					Cornbrook
Pomona
to Eccles					Trafford Bar
to Trafford
to Trafford					Firswood
to Altrincham					to Chorlton

53°29′10″N 2°14′47″W / 53.4861°N 2.2463°W / 53.4861; -2.2463