It formed part of the historic Great Central Main Line between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield Victoria.

These two stations, along with Ryder Brow on the Hope Valley line, were built to a minimum standard, using hollow wooden structures compared the more grandiose stonework of original stations, like Newton for Hyde or Glossop.

Network Rail plans to further lengthen platforms to support six carriage Class 331/0 units by 2043.

[3] After Manchester Piccadilly, the busiest station on the line is Glossop, followed by Hadfield and Guide Bridge.

[3] The following table summarises the line's thirteen stations, their distance measured from Manchester Piccadilly and estimated number of passenger entries/exits in 2019/20: The same train serves Glossop and Hadfield via one of three routings: During the autumn "leaf fall" timetable, this pattern is modified so that the morning rush hour pattern is extended to about midday and the evening rush hour pattern starts as soon as the morning rush hour pattern finishes.

In November 2013 the Greater Manchester Combined Authority approved a recommended strategy for reconfiguring existing commuter services into tram-train operation; identifying the Glossop line as potentially suitable for conversion within Phase 2 of the tram-train strategy.