Chorley railway station

Chorley railway station serves the town of Chorley in Lancashire, England. Since 2004 it has been linked with Chorley Interchange bus and coach station. It is on the Manchester–Preston line.

Chorley
Location
PlaceChorley
Local authorityChorley
Grid referenceSD586175
Operations
Station codeCRL
Managed byNorthern Trains
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryD
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.720 million
2015/16 0.650 million
2016/17 0.695 million
2017/18 0.663 million
2018/19 0.567 million
History
Key datesOpened 1841 (1841)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Chorley from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

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 Passenger trains over this route (between Blackburn & Wigan) were however withdrawn in January 1960. Further work was done in 2016 and 2017 in connection with the electrification of the line between Euxton Junction and Manchester.

A level crossing at the south end of the station has been removed. The signal box has been moved to Ribble Steam Railway at Preston .[1]

Current station facilities

Platform to platform connection is via a stepped subway. Wheelchair users may exit the station and use the sloped public footpath subway (Chorley FP 32) immediately to the south, this emerges at the foot of the Railway Pub, access is then via an entry off Friday Street.

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.

A chargeable railway car park is available to the south of the station.

Ticket purchase & collection machines are available, one on Platform 2 (Manchester bound), and two in the ticket office. The ticket office is manned approximately 0630 - 1900.

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 [2] which should reduce journey times to Manchester by up to ten minutes. Timetabled electric services began with the May 2019 timetable, training and introductory services had been running from February 2019.

Services

All trains provided by Northern Trains[3]

Northbound

Sunday service is reduced to 2tph supplemented by occasional additional services to Barrow-in-Furness

Southbound

From 26 July to 7 September 2008 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 to join the newly electrified line over Chat Moss.[4] A small number of peak services still operated via Chorley using Class 185 units thereafter, but these ceased at the December 2014 timetable change.[5]

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 1 April 2016.

Saturday and Sunday services were replaced by buses most weekends from May 2015 until November 2018 due to the late-running electrification work on the route.[6] Weekend services resumed on Sunday 11 November 2018 after the completion of the electrification engineering work.

Renovation and Electrification
Chorley Railway Station 27 August 2018 undergoing electrification work
Chorley Railway Station undergoing electrification work 27 August 2018

From June to October 2016, as part of the Manchester - Preston electrification scheme, the station has been renovated and the trackbed lowered slightly to accommodate the overhead wires. The subways roofs were also replaced, and both platforms have been rebuilt and extended to accommodate longer trains when the line opens to electric trains. During the rebuild, a temporary platform 1 was installed south of the former level crossing with access from the car park and no passenger trains called at weekends (services again diverted via Wigan).

The badly delayed electrification work on the route (now running two years late) has seen further timetable alterations and rail replacement buses at weekends since the May 2018 timetable change. Some northbound trains now terminate at either Buckshaw Parkway or Preston instead of running through to Blackpool, whilst weekend engineering possessions saw buses replacing trains until November 2018.[6] Electric service commenced on 11 February 2019 utilising Class 319 electric multiple units. The first electric running was a Virgin Pendolino on a test run during the night of 13 December 2018[7]

Notes
  1. Ingy The Wingy (9 August 2009), Chorley Level Crossing Frame, retrieved 28 February 2020
  2. "Rail Electrification Gets Green Light" The Guardian news article 9 December 2009
  3. Table 82 National Rail timetable, May 2019
  4. Network Rail - WCML Route Utilisation Strategy Archived 1 October 2012 at the Wayback MachineNetwork Rail
  5. GB eNRT December 2014 Edition, Table 82
  6. Manchester - Bolton - Preston route improvement works Archived 30 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Northern website news article; Retrieved 2 August 2018
  7. MCIJ, Nigel Wordsworth BSc(Hons). "Pendolino is first electric train through Bolton". Retrieved 3 March 2020.
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Construction of flying arches on YouTube

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Preston or Buckshaw Parkway   Northern Trains
Manchester to Preston line		   Adlington or Blackrod
Buckshaw Parkway   Northern Trains
Blackpool North - Hazel Grove 		  Blackrod or Horwich Parkway
Buckshaw Parkway   Northern Connect
Blackpool North - Manchester Airport
   Blackrod (limited service)
    Horwich Parkway
Preston   Northern Connect
Barrow-in-Furness - Manchester Airport
(Very limited service)
   Bolton
Disused railways
Euxton Junction
Line open, station closed		   Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire Union Railway		   Adlington
Line and station open
Heapey
Line and station closed		   London and North Western Railway
Lancashire Union Railway		   White Bear
Line and station closed

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