The increasing number of passenger and goods trains on the route required a second single-bore tunnel to be built, opening in February 1871.
Micklehurst was closed to passengers on 1 May 1907; Staley and Millbrook on 1 November 1909; and Uppermill and Friezland stations on 1 January 1917.
[6] The loop had easier gradients than the original line through Mossley and Greenfield and this caused most of the heavy goods trains to use it.
The track was lifted soon after the line's closure in the 1960s although the vast majority of the original trackbed is now part of the Pennine Bridleway.
Royal George tunnel between Greenfield and Micklehurst was buried with both portals landscaped soon after the line closure.