Deansgate railway station

Deansgate
Location
Place	Manchester city centre
Local authority	City of Manchester
Coordinates	53°28′27″N 2°15′03″W / 53.4742°N 2.2508°WCoordinates: 53°28′27″N 2°15′03″W / 53.4742°N 2.2508°W
Grid reference	SJ834975
Operations
Station code	DGT
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	D
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	0.323 million
2011/12	0.347 million
2012/13	0.351 million
2013/14	0.371 million
2014/15	0.373 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Greater Manchester
History
Original company	Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway
Pre-grouping	Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway
Post-grouping	Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway London Midland Region of British Railways
20 July 1849	Opened as Knot Mill and Deansgate
?	Renamed Knott Mill and Deansgate
3 May 1971	Renamed Deansgate
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Deansgate from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Deansgate is a railway station in Manchester city centre, England, approximately 1,100 yards (1 km) west of Manchester Piccadilly in the Castlefield area, at the junction of Deansgate and Whitworth Street West. It is part of the Manchester station group.

It is linked to Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop and the Manchester Central Complex by a footbridge built in 1985; Deansgate Locks, The Great Northern Warehouse and the Museum of Science and Industry are also nearby.

The platforms are elevated, reached by lift or stairs, or by the walkway from the Manchester Central Complex. The ticket office, staffed full-time, is between street and platform levels. There are no ticket barriers, although manual ticket checks take place on a daily basis.

It is on the Manchester to Preston and the Liverpool to Manchester lines, both heavily used by commuters. Most tickets purchased by passengers to Deansgate are issued to Manchester Stations or Manchester Central Zone, therefore actual usage is not reflected in these statistics, due to the difficulty in splitting the ticket sales correctly between the four grouped stations (Piccadilly, Victoria, Oxford Road and Deansgate).

History

The station was opened as Knot Mill and Deansgate on 20 July 1849 by the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway^[1] (MSJAR) with wooden buildings near the site of the annual Knott Mill Fair, a decades-old event, which hosted acts such as Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal and George Wombwell's Menagerie.^[2][3] In 1884, Manchester Corporation approached the MSJAR about the station as it was an "eyesore and nuisance". Improvement plans were drawn up but it was not until 1891 that an Act was obtained to reconstruct the station and acquire the necessary land. The rebuilding was completed in 1896 and this date appears on a shield motif over the entrance. The station became Knott Mill and Deansgate^[1] around 1900 and Deansgate on 3 May 1971.^[4] Today it is sometimes known as Manchester Deansgate, and on many station information boards it is Deansgate G-Mex.

Services

Platform 2 in 2011.

Station concourse

Entrance from Whitworth St. West

There are regular trains eastbound to Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport. A number of through trains continue to/from Buxton and a number of trains which start or end here operate through to/from Stoke-on-Trent or Macclesfield.

First TransPennine Express used to run the service from Manchester Airport to Blackpool North but this was passed on to the new Northern franchise on the 1st April 2016.

Westbound there are regular trains to Liverpool Lime Street, Southport and Blackpool North.

Metrolink

Notes

1. Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. p. 137. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
2. Gretchen Holrook Gerzina, Editor, "Black Victorians-Black Victoriana" (Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ, 2003)
3. The Manchester Guardian (11 April 1850). "Knott Mill Fair, Manchester, 1850". The Fairground Heritage Trust. Retrieved 2011-09-07.
4. Butt 1995, pp. 137, 77

Further reading

• "Deansgate station refurbished". RAIL. No. 110. EMAP National Publications. 30 November – 13 December 1989. p. 9. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.

External links

• Train times and station information for Deansgate railway station from National Rail

Manchester Lines
Legend
City Centre and North: Past, Present and Future  Manchester Metrolink Main Line services   to Rochdale to Oldham Moston Newton Heath Newton Heath and Moston to Bury Bowker Vale Crumpsall to Tameside Abraham Moss Clayton Bridge Woodlands Road Park Queens Road Central Park Monsall to Tameside Miles Platting Edge Lane Clayton Hall Oldham Road Velopark Manchester Victoria Holt Town Exchange to Salford Etihad Campus New Islington Ardwick Shudehill Ashburys High Street; Manchester Piccadilly Mayfield Market Street; Piccadilly Gardens to South Manchester Exchange Square Gorton Mosley Street Oxford Road St Peter's Square to Belle Vue Manchester Central ; Deansgate- Castlefield Deansgate Liverpool Road to Hyde Road to Tameside Cornbrook Cornbrook to Salford Pomona to Eccles Trafford Bar to Trafford to Trafford Firswood to Altrincham to Chorlton