Place Clitheroe Station code CLH DfT category F2 Phone +44 800 200 6060 | Grid reference SD741419 Managed by Northern 2011/12 0.339 million Number of platforms 2 | |
 | ||
Address Station Rd, Clitheroe BB7 2ED, UK Similar Blackburn railway station, Accrington railway station, Whalley railway station, Colne railway station, Burnley Central railway st | ||
Clitheroe railway station on the hellifield to blackburn line
Clitheroe railway station serves the town of Clitheroe in Lancashire, England. The station is the northern terminus of the Ribble Valley Line operated by Northern and is 10 miles (16 km) north of Blackburn. The station forms part of Clitheroe Interchange, which has won a number of awards.
Contents
Clitheroe railway station featuring lms royal scot 46115 scots guardsman
History
The original station opened on 22 June 1850. It was replaced in 1893/4 by another approximately 220 yards (200 m) to the north. The station closed to normal services on 10 September 1962 (that is, before the Beeching cuts) but remained in use for special services until 7 February 1971. The special services resumed on 14 May 1990, and the station was fully reopened on 29 May 1994, when passenger services began again from Blackburn. The line continues from here northwards towards Hellifield, but this section is normally used only by freight and engineering trains on weekdays - passenger services are limited to a pair of Sundays-only Dalesrail charter trains and occasional railtours. The line also forms part of a valuable strategic diversionary route between Preston and Carlisle, which is utilised if planned engineering work blocks the West Coast Main Line over Shap.
The station has since become an award-winning bus and train transport interchange. The bus station, known as the Clitheroe Interchange, is the terminus for bus connections bringing passengers from towns and villages in the Ribble Valley area to the train service to Blackburn and Manchester.
The Ribble Valley Line is a community railway line and is supervised by the Ribble Valley Rail group, which includes the train operator: Northern Rail.
Services
There is generally an hourly service daily from Clitheroe to Blackburn and Manchester Victoria with some extra trains during peak hours. There is also one peak service from Hazel Grove and Buxton via Manchester Piccadilly (but no corresponding southbound train), whilst the last train of the day terminates at Blackburn.
On Sundays, one or two trains operate from Preston along the Ribble Valley Line via Clitheroe to Hellifield and onwards towards Carlisle via the Settle-Carlisle Line. This improves on the previous service that only ran in the summer.
Due to overcrowding at certain times, there are plans from the Department for Transport to increase services from 1 tph to 2 tph; however, the funding for this may not be available.