Place Tyldesley 1 September 1864 Station opens Platforms in use 3 | Area Wigan 5 May 1969 Station closes | |
Pre-grouping London and North Western Railway Post-grouping London Midland and Scottish Railway Original company London and North Western Railway Similar Astley railway station, Staley and Millbrook railway st, Darcy Lever railway st, Irlams o' th' Height railway st | ||
Tyldesley railway station is a closed railway station in Greater Manchester. It was situated within the historic county of Lancashire.
History
Tyldesley station, in common with other stations on the Manchester to Wigan Line, was opened by the London and North Western Railway on 1 September 1864. At a junction to the west of Tyldesley station, the line to Wigan North Western railway station headed north west and the branch to Bedford Leigh, Pennington and Kenyon Junction headed south west. The station joined the London Midland and Scottish Railway during the grouping in 1923. It passed to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. The station closed on 5 May 1969.
Coal mining was the chief motivation for building a railway in the area and the railway's supporters included many local colliery owners and industrialists. Collieries linked to the railway include Astley and Tyldesley Collieries' St George's, Nook and Gin Pit Collieries in Tyldesley connected at Jackson's sidings to the west of the station and the Shakerley, Green's Tyldesley Coal Company and Ramsden's Shakerley Collieries had connections at sidings approximately one mile to the east of Tyldesley station.
The Tyldesley Loopline closed following the Beeching Axe on 5 May 1969 and Tyldesley and all other stations along the line were closed.
The former trackbed within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan area was reserved in the Unitary Development Plan in case the rail route could be reinstated. The cutting in Tyldesley was filled in and the line of the railway was a footpath. The proposal for the Leigh-Tyldesley area, a guided bus along the former trackbed from Leigh to the A580 East Lancashire Road at Ellenbrook was approved in 2005. Construction of the Leigh-Salford-Manchester Bus Rapid Transit route through the site of the station was completed and opened in April 2016