Mills Hill railway station


Mills Hill railway station is in the Mills Hill area of Middleton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. The station is 5¾ miles north of Manchester Victoria on the Caldervale Line. Mills Hill lies on Middleton's common boundary with Chadderton, and thus serves both communities.
During the temporary closure of the Oldham Loop line for its conversion to Metrolink light rail the station acted as an informal railhead for much of the borough of Oldham.
With an annual patronage of 314,000 entries and exits per year Mills Hill station is the second busiest unstaffed railway station within Transport for Greater Manchester's area. It is due to this fact that TfGM are pushing for funding to be made available to improve accessibility at the station for disabled passengers. The station is second only to Greenfield Railway Station on the prioritized list for this funding.

History

The original station opened on 4 July 1839 before the completion of the branches to Middleton and Oldham, and closed on 11 August 1842 when these were opened. The current station opened on 25 March 1985 by British Rail at the same point as the original.

Services

Since the May 2018 timetable change, the service pattern here has been completely revamped. All trains run to/from Rochdale only, with passengers for destinations further north having to change there. Southbound trains still run to Manchester Victoria, with most continuing on to and / via.
On Sundays, an hourly service operates with trains running to via southbound and to Blackburn via Todmorden and northbound.
As part of the Great North Rail Project by Network Rail a ramp and lift will be installed for disabled access to the station.