The line was electrified, at 25 kV AC overhead, between Manchester and Hazel Grove in 1981. A chord just south of Hazel Grove was built in 1986, allowing trains to change from the Hope Valley Line and thus faster running into Manchester Piccadilly. Colour light signalling, controlled from LNWR-built boxes at Edgeley Junction and , cover the line as far as Norbury crossing, which itself has a small hut controlling two semaphore signals in the Middlewood area. Further south, signalling is mostly semaphore and is controlled from signal-boxes at , Chapel-en-le-Frith and Buxton.