Chorley railway station

History of the station

The current railway station is a modern version from the 1980s that was built on top of the original station. The level of the old platforms can be seen under the existing station's two platforms which are connected by underpass. The initial station was opened on 22 December 1841 by the Bolton and Preston Railway (which later became part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway) and was subsequently served by the Lancashire Union Railway between St Helens, Wigan North Western and Blackburn from 1869. Passenger trains over this route (between Blackburn & Wigan) were however withdrawn in January 1960.

Current station facilities

A level crossing, no longer in use, is still in place at the station entrance as well as a pedestrian subway which emerges at the foot of the Railway Pub. There are no toilets on the station and the nearest ones are in the bus station across the road. Chorley's rail services provide a link for the commuters of Lancashire to Preston, Manchester and Bolton.

The small villages which form part of the borough of Chorley, such as Buckshaw, Adlington and Euxton all have railway stations.

It was announced by the Department for Transport in December 2009, the line between Preston and Manchester, on which Chorley is situated, will be electrified which should reduce journey times to Manchester by up to ten minutes.

Services

All trains provided by Northern

Northbound

Southbound

From 26 July to 7 September 2008 however, the service provision to and from the station was limited due to major engineering work taking place to the north (to improve drainage in a cutting and remove a long-standing speed restriction). A rail replacement bus service operated to and from Preston, whilst many trains were diverted via Wigan. This period of disruption was blamed for the decline in passenger usage shown in the figures right.

The direct Scottish service had been reduced at the December 2013 timetable change when most trains were diverted via Wigan using the newly electrified line over Chat Moss. A small number of peak services still operated via Chorley using Class 185 units thereafter, but these ceased at the December 2014 timetable change.

First TransPennine Express used to run the service from Manchester Airport to Blackpool North but this was passed on to the new Northern franchise on the 1 April 2016.

From June to October 2016, as part of the Electrification scheme, the station has been renovated and the trackbed lowered slightly to accommodate the overhead wires. The subways roofs were also replaced, and an elevator installed for use by disabled travellers. Both platforms have been rebuilt and extended to accommodate longer trains when the line opens to electric trains in December 2017. During the rebuild, no passenger trains called at weekends (services again diverted via Wigan).