Heaton Chapel Railway Station

Heaton Chapel Railway Station is a little two platform station serving the Four Heaton’s area on Heaton Moor Road.
The first thing to note is that the station itself is below street level, so access is primarily via stairs. The two staircases to the platforms both come out on to Heaton Moor Road, however the stairs to the Manchester platform are only usable when the ticket office is open.
That’s not to say that the station is inaccessible for those who are unable to take the stairs. There are ramps down to Platform 1 and 2 which come out on Egerton Road North and Tatton Road South respectively.
The platforms themselves are fairly standard, though thanks to the Friends of Heaton Chapel Station there’s some nice planters and some artwork on both now to brighten the station a bit. (More so in summer when the plants are out!)
For getting into Manchester, your journey from Heaton Chapel should take no more than 10 – 15 minutes and given that an off-​peak day return is only £2.60* it’s cheaper and quicker than either the bus or tram.
The only downside to Heaton Chapel station is that the ticket office doesn’t have the longest hours: they’re only open until 13:00 during the week, but on a Saturday they’re open until 14:00 or 16:00 on a Sunday. Seems weird to me. If you need a ticket and the office is closed, there’s a ticket machine on Platform 2 (towards Manchester) but no such machine on Platform 1. Northern Rail, who operate the station, have recently started deploying their «Customer Support & Revenue Team» staff to the station though.
All in all, it’s a nice little station to wait at for your brief — and cheap — journey into Manchester.
(* Prices correct at time of writing, January 2016.)