
The Ardwick train depot is a passenger multiple unit maintenance depot in
Ardwick
Ardwick is an area of Manchester, England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 19,250.
Historically in Lancashire, by the mid-nineteenth century Ardwick had grown from being a village into a pleasant and wealt ...
,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
. The depot was opened in 2006 for the servicing of
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
-built
Class 185 DMUs, which are used on the
TransPennine Express
TransPennine Trains Limited, trading as TransPennine Express (TPE), is a British train operating company that has operated passenger services in the TransPennine Express franchise area since May 2023. It runs regional and inter-city rail ser ...
franchise. It was electrified in 2012–13 to allow the servicing of Siemens
Class 350/4 EMU
The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...
s.
Location
Ardwick depot is located approximately east of
Ardwick railway station, beside the
Hope Valley line
The Hope Valley line is a trans-Pennine railway line in Northern England, linking Manchester with Sheffield. It was completed in 1894.
Passenger services on the line are operated by Northern Trains, East Midlands Railway and TransPennine ...
and south of the
A635 road
The A635 is a main road that runs between Manchester and Doncaster running east–west through Stalybridge, Saddleworth Moor, Holmfirth, Barnsley and the Dearne Valley.
The section forming the eastern part of the Mancunian Way is a motorwa ...
.
The depot code is ''AK''.
History

In the 1840s, the
Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway
The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway was an early British railway company which opened in stages between 1841 and 1845 between Sheffield and Manchester via Ashton-under-Lyne. The Peak District formed a formidable barrier, and ...
was constructed between Manchester Store Street station (now known as
Manchester Piccadilly
Manchester Piccadilly is the main railway station of the city of Manchester, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. Opened originally as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchest ...
) and
Sheffield Victoria railway station
Sheffield Victoria was the main railway station in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on the Great Central Railway,
History
Early history
Engineered by Joseph Locke, the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway linking Manchester ...
. Initially, the site of the depot was just outside the urban spread of Manchester; the area was used for brick manufacture. Subsequently, the area east of Ardwick station and north of the line was used for railway sidings, including goods sheds; the wider area became known as ''Ardwick West Goods Depot and Mineral Yard'', later ''Ardwick West Freight Terminal''.
[Ordnance Survey. 1:2500. 1893, 1908, 1922, 1950-1, 1963-7; 1:10000, 1972-81, 1980-87, 1993-4] The site remained in railway use through most of the 20th century,
but became disused by 1990.
Siemens train maintenance depot
In 2003, Siemens was announced as the preferred bidder to supply and maintain a fleet of diesel multiple units for use on the TransPennine Express franchise. The £260 million contract included the provision and supply of maintenance facilities, with the primary facility in Manchester, along with a
secondary depot in York. In 2004, Siemens applied to construct sidings, train facilities and offices on the Ardwick site.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place in March 2005. The depot was constructed on the site over 13 months, being completed on 3 April 2006, at a cost of about £30m. The designers were Burks Green;
Taylor Woodrow
Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest housebuilding and general construction companies in Britain. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until its merger with rival housebuilder George Wimpey ...
were the main contractors; and NG Bailey and Atkins Rail were subcontractors. The main shed was a building capable of holding eight trains – a four-road shed with two three-car trains per road
[ Ardwick depot electrified (Modern Railway supp. Mar. 2013, p.6] – with facilities including wheel lathe, train jacks, and bogie and engine drops.
The depot was officially opened on 16 May 2006 by Transport Secretary
Douglas Alexander
Douglas Garven Alexander (born 26 October 1967) is a British politician who has served as Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security since 2024, having previously held the role from 2004 to 2005. He has also served as Minister o ...
.
In February 2012, Siemens obtained a contract to build and maintain twenty Class 350 ''Desiro'' 25 kV
AC electric multiple units, including ten Class 350/4 units for
First TransPennine Express
First TransPennine Express was a British train operating company jointly owned by FirstGroup and Keolis which operated the TransPennine Express franchise. First TransPennine Express ran regular Express regional railway services between the maj ...
. The contract required the overhead electrification of the depot. Work to modify the depot began in September 2012, with Spencer Rail (Spencer Group) as the main contractor. The depot was extended at the western end by to allow four -long car units to be accommodated, with one shed road and all of the outside track electrified. The estimated cost of the project was £5 million.
The depot's electrification was ceremonially opened by local
MP,
Lucy Powell
Lucy Maria Powell (born 10 October 1974) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since July 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she has been the Member of Pa ...
, on 27 September 2013. The first of the Class 350/4 trains arrived at the depot on 28 November 2013.
References
Notes
Sources
*
*
*{{citation, journal = Modern Railways, publisher = Modern Railways / Siemens , title = Siemens Rail Systems (supplement), date =March 2013, volume=70, issue = 774 , at=Ardwick depot electrified, pp.6-7, url=http://w3.siemens.com/topics/global/en/tube150/Documents/PDF/Siemens-Rail-Systems-UK-Supplement.pdf , ref=srs
Railway depots in England
Rail transport in Greater Manchester
Siemens Mobility projects