Place Mouldsworth Station code MLD DfT category F2 Number of platforms 2 | Grid reference SJ512707 Managed by Northern 2011/12 31,552 | |
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Address Chester CH3 8AJ, United Kingdom Similar Mobberley railway station, Delamere railway station, Ashley railway station, Cuddington railway station, Stanlow and Thornton | ||
Mouldsworth railway station serves the village of Mouldsworth in Cheshire, England. It is managed by Northern.
Contents
Train services run between Manchester Piccadilly and Chester.
History
The station & railway here first opened in 1869 for goods and 1870 for passengers, on the line from Northwich to West Cheshire Junction (near Helsby); the extension line from here to Chester was added in November 1874 (1 May 1875 for passengers).
Services used to run to the CLC terminus at Chester Northgate, but this closed in October 1969. Trains henceforth used a connection onto the former Birkenhead Joint Railway main line at Mickle Trafford (where the two lines ran adjacent to each other) to reach Chester General. As part of this rationalisation work, the Mouldsworth to Mickle Trafford section was also reduced to a single line. In the opposite direction, the closure of Manchester Central earlier that year saw eastbound services diverted to start/terminate at Manchester Oxford Road.
The station used to be a request stop but this status was removed at the spring 2011 timetable change.
The signal box here was decommissioned and demolished in 2006, control of the line then passing to Mickle Trafford box. The West Cheshire Railway line from Helsby closed to passengers as long ago as May 1875 (following the opening of the Chester line), but once carried significant volumes of oil & petrochemical traffic from the refineries near Stanlow and Thornton towards Crewe and points south via Middlewich. A change in distribution methods at the refinery led to this all but disappearing by the end of 1990. A few months later, a major fire seriously damaged the signal box at Helsby West Cheshire Junction and this led to the immediate closure of the line on 14 September 1991. The disused track remained intact until 1995, when it was lifted. The old formation is still just visible at the western end of the station, but it is now heavily overgrown & inaccessible.
Services
There is a basic hourly service in each direction Monday to Saturday, with two additional weekday peak trains to and from Stockport. On Sundays there is a two-hourly service each way, with eastbound trains running through to Manchester, Wigan Wallgate and Southport.