The orientation of the line, running south-west to north-east, is a clue to its origin; it stands on the former mainline of the London & North Western Railway between Crewe and Leeds via Stockport.

The London & North Western Railway had already completed its line to Manchester via Stockport and now looked to expand to reach the woollen districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, building quadruple tracks all the way to Huddersfield and Leeds via the Standedge tunnel.

This route was opened in 1882 [3] by the LNWR to avoid the congested junction at Guide Bridge, but closed to passengers in 1950.

[citation needed] North of the station is Denton Junction where the line divides, with the mainline going to Guide Bridge and the little-used branch to Ashton Moss.

With 30 passenger entries and exits between April 2011 and March 2012, Denton was the third-least used station in Great Britain.

By 2015–16, the estimate of station usage had changed little, with 37 passenger journeys recorded for an entire year on the weekly train to Stalybridge.

[7] Network Rail, in their Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for the North West, were proposing closure of Reddish South and Denton stations and withdrawal of the remaining passenger service.[when?

[8] A more frequent service was considered for the 2008 timetable shakeup, which was designed to implement major changes to service patterns on the West Coast Main Line; however, because of the track layout and congestion at Heaton Norris, operational analysis suggests "Timetabling the move across Heaton Norris is very likely to be problematic.

"[9] "[Reddish South and] Denton receives a minimal (once a week) service because anticipated demand has not justified increasing it.

[11] In the 2012 North West Route Utilisation Strategy Final Recommendations it was reported that provision of W9 and W10 gauge clearance that will allow intermodal trains to/from Trafford Park to divert via Denton, thus improving performance when the primary route is disrupted or closed (when traffic can not run) had been implemented.