Ashton-under-Lyne Interchange

Ashton-under-Lyne Interchange is a transport hub in Ashton-under-Lyne town centre, Tameside, consisting of a Manchester Metrolink tram stop opened on 9 October 2013 on the East Manchester Line,^[1][2] and a new bus station, opened on 30 August 2020 after being moved from its previous site near Arcades Shopping Centre and rebuilt closer to the Metrolink stop. The interchange is a short walk away from Ashton-under-Lyne railway station.

In the midst of slum clearance in Ashton-under-Lyne, convenient space was left open and vacant for a new bus station right between the railway station and the town centre shops. Construction on the new bus station cost £80,000 to build (£1.48 million in 2026) and began in early 1963. The bus station facilities officially opened on 6 November of that year, with the present Mayor driving the first bus. On 10 November 1963, the station opened to passenger service. By the end of the 1960s, most bus routes and services were altered to run through the new bus station.^[3][4]

As the bus station began to age, it was refurbished and some parts rebuilt starting 1982. On 18 March 1985 at 11:30am, the refurbished bus station was reopened (the second incarnation), now with 21 stands.^[3]

A new shopping centre was to be constructed in Ashton-under-Lyne near to the bus station called The Arcades, and its construction required the space from the current bus station as well as some other sites in the area. A few flats near Wellington Road were demolished for this third rebuild of Ashton's bus station, which would open in summer 1994, this time with only 15 stands. The Arcades shopping centre itself opened in the next year.^[3][5]

In May 2009, a special fund of £1.5 billion was agreed for 15 transport schemes in Greater Manchester. These included a further 2.1-mile (3.4 km) extension of the Metrolink's current East Manchester Line – which had already been set to open between Piccadilly and Droylsden in February 2013 – from Droylsden to Ashton-under-Lyne. Plans for the extension were fully approved by the Department for Transport in March 2010 whereupon MPact-Thales was appointed as the main contractor.^[6]

The originally publicised schedule of opening was winter 2013-2014, however the extension opened fully on 9 October 2013, a few months early, along with the new terminus at Ashton-under-Lyne, currently surrounded by some green space which would later become bus-only roads and stands for the fourth incarnation of the bus station to be opened soon.^[7]

On 7 July 2014, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that development of a new multi-modal interchange facility within Ashton town centre was to start as part of Greater Manchester's wider Local Growth Deal package. It would replace the current "island" style waiting shelters with a single high-quality building, which would bring the bus station closer to the Metrolink stop, which itself had opened recently.^[8]

Around £1.8 million was spent demolishing the previous bus station, and following a public consultation between August and September 2015, work commenced on the £32.7 million interchange in June 2018, funded with support from the central government's Local Growth Deal programme and constructed by Vinci Construction UK. The new bus station opened on 30 August 2020 with capacity for up to 145 bus departures an hour, redirecting 90% of bus services running to Ashton-under-Lyne. It included a covered concourse and a ticket/passenger information desk, features not at the previous bus station.^[4][9][10]

The former site of the third incarnation of the bus station has been unused since 2020, and council chiefs agreed to buy the site for a possible future redevelopment in 2023.^[11]

Services from Ashton-under-Lyne Interchange are operated mostly by Metroline Manchester, and the remainder by Stagecoach Manchester, Go North West, and Diamond Bus North West. All of these bus services are under the new franchised Bee Network integrated system: Ashton-under-Lyne bus station was part of Tranche 3 (the final stage) of the Bee Network's franchising, which happened on 5 January 2025.^[12] As of 2026, 22 different Bee Network bus routes run through the interchange, plus two Bee Network school bus services.

Every route across the Manchester Metrolink network operates to a 12-minute headway (5 tph) Monday–Saturday, and to a 15-minute headway (4 tph) on Sundays and bank holidays. Sections served by a second "peak only" route (unlike this stop) will have a combined headway of 6 minutes during peak times.

Ashton-under-Lyne is located in Zone 3, and the stop itself has two platforms (island). Trams towards Manchester to Eccles operate from here. Both services can depart from either platform: there is no allocated platform for each destination.

When Ashton-under-Lyne first opened, all services ran to Bury via Victoria. Shortly after in 2014, all services were set to run to Eccles via MediaCityUK. From 26 June 2015, services were diverted to Rochdale via Victoria for the rebuild of St Peter's Square. The first full closure of the line through St Peter's Square lasted two months, then the line reopened with only single-track working through St Peter's Square as the tram stop was still being rebuilt. A new route was added between Etihad Campus and Altrincham at this time. After the works finished on 28 August 2016, trams from Ashton began running to Eccles again, with a small service change of the Etihad Campus service running to Bury via Victoria for a short time at the end of 2016. In 2018, the Etihad Campus service was changed to operate to MediaCityUK, and in 2019, it was extended further to operate from Ashton to MediaCityUK through Etihad Campus. In early 2021, the route was cut back to its original Etihad Campus to MediaCityUK, however. Multiple minor changes to services happened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[13][14]

There is a single weekly service from Ashton-under-Lyne to Trafford Bar departing every Saturday only at 09:53, returning to Trafford Depot after the peak service from Etihad Campus to MediaCityUK begins, which stops trams from Ashton running via MediaCityUK. This means the route becomes shorter and one tram needs to be taken out of service. This tram is re-entered after the peak service ends as the 18:37 departure from MediaCityUK to Ashton-under-Lyne.^[15]

The bus station and tram stop are at street-level, and the two are connected via a pedestrianised area.^[16]

Ashton-under-Lyne's bus station has 14 stands, lettered from A to P (leaving out I and O). Stands A to D aren't located adjacent to the main building, but instead surround the tram stop. There is an entrance gate for buses on Oldham Road and an exit onto Wellington Road.^[16]

Ashton-under-Lyne tram stop has two platforms (island), which aren't numbered. Most of the tram stop is covered by a canopy extending across the platforms. Two double-sided dot matrix passenger information displays stand serving one platform each, and show estimated arrival times for trams in minutes up to 30 minutes prior (up to three at a time) and number of carriages.^[16]

• 12 March 2019: At 22:55 BST, a person who was leaning on a tram fell onto the tracks after the tram departed.

• Ashton-under-Lyne railway station

• Ashton-under-Lyne tram stop - Live departures
• Ashton-under-Lyne tram stop - Area map
• Light Rail Transit Association