Rail Minister Paul Maynard officially opens platform four at Rochdale Railway Station

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Mayor Ray Dutton and with Rail Minister Paul Maynard on the new platform at Rochdale Station

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Rail minister Paul Maynard officially opened the new 135m-long bay platform at Rochdale that allows trains travelling from Manchester to change direction without impacting on other services through the station. The additional capacity will allow diesel trains that usually station in Manchester Victoria to be rerouted to Rochdale, freeing up vital space for electric trains.

During five weekend closures of the Manchester Victoria to Littleborough line in April, engineers installed over 1,200m of new track around Rochdale station as well as remodelling existing track to connect the new platform to the network. Upgraded signals along the route will increase the speed that trains can travel on the line.

Paul Maynard, said: “This scheme is an important step towards delivering more capacity for people travelling in and out of Manchester and improve journey times along the Calder Valley.”

Chris Montgomery, programme director at Network Rail, said: “The new bay platform at Rochdale station is an essential piece of the jigsaw in our complex upgrade plan. Benefits are not only seen locally in Rochdale, but across the north – easing congestion for when the Ordsall Chord reroutes services from Manchester Piccadilly to Manchester Victoria and freeing up space for electric trains that run on a newly electrified railway in and out of Manchester Victoria from December 2017.”

Liam Sumpter, Regional Director at Northern said: “The new platform at Rochdale is vital to the service improvements we want to provide for our customers in the area.

“The flexibility the development will provide, alongside other ongoing projects, will eventually allow us to run six trains per hour between Rochdale and Manchester.

“The work at the station is a perfect example of a number of different organisations having listened to local people and then worked together to deliver improvements.”

The next phase of improvements on the Calder Valley line, between Todmorden and Bradford Interchange, will commence in March next year. Similar work to upgrade track and signalling to increase line speed will see faster journeys between Manchester Victoria and Leeds via Bradford from December 2018.