The northern part of the route, from Guide Bridge to Stalybridge, is now used by the re-routed express services between Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly.

The scarcity of services on the line has led to it becoming popular with rail enthusiasts, as well as real ale connoisseurs visiting the station buffet at Stalybridge.

[5][6] Network Rail, in their Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) for the North West, proposed closure of Reddish South and Denton stations and withdrawal of the remaining passenger service.

[7] The threat was withdrawn in May 2007, possibly temporarily,[8] when GMPTE suggested it was to support three trains per hour between Stockport and Manchester Victoria.

These proposals were withdrawn in August 2008, with a service later introduced from Bradford Interchange to London King's Cross via the East Coast Main Line instead.

[10] In March 2020, a bid was made to the Restoring Your Railway fund to pay for a feasibility study into reinstating services on the Stockport to Ashton via Denton Junction section of the line.

[11] In October 2021, it was announced by the UK government that a further bid to the third round of the Restoring Your Railway fund was successful, seeing up to £50,000 contributed towards developing early stage proposals.