It closed decades ago
Tom Burnett Content Editor
17:10, 04 May 2026
The former Manchester Mayfield Railway Station(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
Ask passengers who change trains frequently at Manchester Piccadilly for their most hated platform to change to and many will answer with either Platform 13 or 14.
Sitting a fair distance from the other platforms at the colossal station, the platforms – which serve trains to Lancashire, Scotland and Manchester Airport amongst other destinations – have received almost cult status for the sheer inconvenience of changing trains to and from them – something the Manchester Evening News covered earlier this week when journalist James Holt chronicled his journey back from the airport.
However, for many years passengers may have found themselves having to walk even further to change trains at a now largely forgotten railway station sitting across the road from the much-loathed Platform 14.
(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
It goes without saying that Manchester Piccadilly these days is a busy station. But that is not a new situation, and it was recognised more than a century ago.
Manchester Mayfield Station opened in 1910 to help handle the increasing number of trains arriving in the city.
For many years it was considered a ‘relief station’, with passengers arriving and departing at its four platforms from destinations including Stockport, Chelford and Buxton.
Not that it was all plain sailing for the station while it was in use. In World War 2 it was damaged after being hit by a parachute mine.
It was not to enjoy a long life as a passenger station however, as it closed its doors in 1960, half a century after opening.
The former Manchester Mayfield Railway Station GV taken on April 29 2026(Image: Tom Burnett/Manchester Evening News)
TV star
The station continued functioning as a parcel depot until 1986, with the tracks to it finally removed in 1989.
However that was far from the end of the line for the station, which found itself being used as a set for TV shows.
It made an appearance as a drug dealer’s lair in the long-running series Prime Suspect. However it’s more prominent role was perhaps as Sheffield Railway Station in the post-apocalyptic 1999 ITV series The Last Train, which chronicled the struggles of survivors of a devastating asteroid strike who were accidentally frozen for 50 years in a railway carriage.
Regeneration
Being a massive building in Manchester city centre, there have been numerous plans to do something new with the site.
There were plans to reopen it as a railway station earlier this century, however those went nowhere. Neither did a scheme to reopen it as a National Express Depot.
For now, parts of the site have been redeveloped as the Freight Yard, and a new coffee shop is set open soon, according to signs at the venue.
The trains may have stopped. But this seems like it is far from the end of the line for Mayfield.