Drone footage released of Guide Bridge track upgrades with more next week

Monday 10 Aug 2026

Drone footage released of Guide Bridge track upgrades with more next week

Region & Route:: North West & Central; | North West & Central: North West

Drone footage has been released following the first weekend of major track upgrades between Manchester and the Peak District.

Network Rail is investing £700,000 renewing a section of track at Guide Bridge which joins the Glossop line to Denton.

This weekend the old track was removed, new track foundation stone (ballast) was laid and new track panels lifted into position during a 54-hour railway closure.

Video released today (Monday 10 August) shows the scale of the work carried out on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August - the first of two consecutive weekend railway closures stopping all trains between Manchester Piccadilly to Glossop/Hadfield and Rose Hill Marple.

Both routes reopened this morning to passenger and freight services but will close again next weekend for engineers to complete the job over another 54-hour railway closure.

On Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August, teams will weld the new rails together where they join, for smoother passenger journeys, and machines called tampers will stabilise the new track foundations.

Rail replacement buses will once again be in place to keep passengers on the move*, with people advised to check www.nationalrail.co.uk to plan their journeys in advance.

Haider Saeed, Network Rail project manager, said: “We’ve made great progress with our essential upgrades at Guide Bridge this weekend and worked around the clock to get the railway reopened today.

“I’d like to thank local people for their patience and support as we appreciate that this is noisy work. I’d also like to thank passengers whose journeys have been impacted. We’ll be back to finish the job next weekend, and I’d advise people to please plan ahead by using National Rail Enquiries and to allow extra time to make their journeys.”

Passengers should visit www.nationalrail.co.uk to plan their journeys in advance.

To learn more about how Network Rail maintains and upgrades the railway, people can visit: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/our-work/looking-after-the-railway/

Notes to Editors

*Alternative travel arrangements on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August

No trains will run between Manchester Piccadilly and Rose Hill Marple, with a rail replacement bus service running between these two stations.

No trains will run between Manchester Piccadilly and Hadfield or Glossop.

A rail replacement bus service will run between Manchester Piccadilly and Hadfield, not calling at Hattersley or Broadbottom.

Additionally, a minibus service will run between Godley and Hadfield, calling at all stations.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
North West and Central Media Relations
Press Office
Network Rail
NWCmediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.