" 
 :I remember it being built - I lived in Bolton at the time, and all our Manchester services had been to/from Victoria. As an experiment in the mid-1980s, they extended one train an hour to Hazel Grove - from Victoria it ran via Miles Platting, Ashton Moss South Junction, and Denton, calling only at Stockport. This gave passengers from the south the ability to change at Stockport for Bolton, Chorley etc. The route between Ordsall Lane Junction and Castlefield Junction (near Deansgate) was at that time used only for freight trains, the passenger services along the old L&M; (Newton-le-Willows, Eccles etc.) running to/from Victoria just as they had done since the closure of Exchange in 1969. 
 :With the construction of the Windsor Link (between Windsor Bridge Junction and Ordsall Lane Junction), the section between Ordsall Lane Junction and Castlefield Junction was brought back into use for passenger trains, and the Blackpool-Hazel Grove service was rerouted over these lines, calling at Oxford Road, Piccadilly and Stockport. Curiously, it was not for some years that L&M; trains began to run to Oxford Road, instead of Victoria, although in theory they could have done so previously.   "