On Friday 31st July, I travelled to Manchester for what was originally planned as a video challenge to see how many different train operators I could ride across Greater Manchester, including Northern, Transport for Wales and East Midlands Railway, among others. I began my day at Manchester Oxford Road station, where I caught my first service with Northern, travelling aboard a Class 323. From there, the challenge took me around the Manchester area, giving me the opportunity to experience a fantastic variety of trains, routes and operators that I don’t normally get the chance to travel with. It turned into such a fun and enjoyable day out, exploring different parts of Greater Manchester by rail, trying out different rolling stock and making the most of the opportunity to ride operators that are usually outside of my regular journeys.

From Manchester Oxford Road, I took my first train of the day just one stop along the line to Manchester Piccadilly. Although it was only a short journey, Piccadilly was where the challenge really started to take shape, as I would be changing operators once again. From here, I boarded a TransPennine Express service, or TPE, heading towards Manchester Airport. It was great to be able to experience another operator so early into the challenge, and the journey towards the airport gave me a chance to sit back and enjoy the changing scenery as we travelled south out of Manchester.

After arriving at Manchester Airport, it was time to make my next move, catching another Class 323 towards Wilmslow. Wilmslow is a lovely station and one that I really enjoyed visiting, with its position on the busy Manchester–Crewe route making it an interesting place to watch the railway in action. This journey also gave me a little preview of a part of the network I’m hoping to explore much more in the future, as I look forward to visiting the stations between Manchester Piccadilly and Crewe as part of my ongoing Every Single Station challenge.

As I mentioned earlier, once I arrived at Manchester Airport, I caught my next train towards Wilmslow, where I would make another change and board an Avanti West Coast service for the short journey towards Stockport and Manchester Piccadilly. I decided to get off at Stockport, where I had a short break from the challenge and took the opportunity to have a look around Stockport Interchange bus station. There was a great variety of buses to see, including several different types of vehicles and operators, making it a worthwhile little detour during the day. I’ve also recently shared a separate blog post from my visit to Stockport Interchange, so if you haven’t already seen that, it’s another part of the day worth checking out before I continued with my train operator challenge.

Once I had finished my short break at Stockport, it was time to get back to the challenge and continue making my way around the different operators. I took the next train from Stockport back towards Manchester Piccadilly, where I would make another change for my penultimate journey of the day. This time, I would be travelling with Transport for Wales, giving me another opportunity to experience some different rolling stock as I boarded the TfW service formed of a Class 67 and Mk4 coaches. It was a really enjoyable journey, and another operator ticked off the list as I made my way back towards Stockport once again.

After arriving back at Stockport, it was then time for the final train of my challenge. I boarded an East Midlands Railway Class 170 for the journey back towards Manchester Piccadilly, bringing my day of travelling with different operators around Greater Manchester to an end. Arriving back into Manchester Piccadilly, this time on Platforms 13/14, marked the conclusion of what had been a brilliant day out. I managed to experience several different operators and a great variety of trains, making this a really enjoyable challenge and one I’d definitely like to do again in the future.

This took me to my penultimate station of the day, Stockport, which I had already visited several times throughout this adventure as I made my way around the different operators and routes. I’m hoping to get back out again this week to visit another bunch of stations, with my next planned post taking me from Warrington Central through to Manchester Oxford Road, including some of the more awkward stations to reach, such as Glazebrook. But, getting back to the main challenge, from Stockport I boarded my final train of the day, an East Midlands Railway Class 170 working the service from Nottingham through to Manchester Piccadilly. The train was rather busy by this point, so I decided to get off at Manchester Piccadilly, bringing my operator challenge to an end after a really enjoyable day of travelling around Greater Manchester and experiencing a fantastic variety of trains that I don’t normally get the opportunity to ride.

Arriving back at Manchester Piccadilly, this is where my challenge finally came to an end after a brilliant day of travelling around Greater Manchester and experiencing a fantastic variety of operators and trains that I don’t normally get the chance to ride. It was great to see just how many different operators I could experience in one day, and it made for a really enjoyable adventure around the region. I’d love to know what you think, so let me know in the comments if you’ve ever travelled with any of the operators featured in this challenge, and which one is your favourite. Thanks for following along with this adventure, and I’ll see you in the next post!