Ince railway station

Ince railway station serves the Ince area of Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester. The station is on the Manchester-Southport Line 17¼ miles (28 km) north west of Manchester Victoria.

For the station in the Wirral also previously known as Ince, see Ince & Elton railway station.

Ince
Ince railway station in 2015
Location
Place	Ince-in-Makerfield
Local authority	Wigan
Grid reference	SD595048
Operations
Station code	INC
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2 faces (Central island)
DfT category	F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	19,684
2015/16	21,150
2016/17	24,536
2017/18	23,132
2018/19	20,856
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Greater Manchester
History
Original company	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
1888	Opened as Higher Ince
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Ince from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Until November 1964, Ince was also served by a station at Lower Ince on the line from Wigan Central to Glazebrook (to the now closed Manchester Central).

Ince suffered in the 1960s and 1970s from much house clearance and landscaping. This has resulted in low passenger usage for the station which served an area which was (until the 1960s) a bustling independent town. Ince (unlike Daisy Hill and Hindley, and other stations on the line) is not a commuter dormitory suburb and now the station is deserted even at peak times. Usage figures increased by around 10% in 2006/07 and recently by greater amounts (around 25% in 2007/08, and 29% in 2010-11) albeit from a relatively low base.

There are three seats, with a new shelter that contains benches. There is also a newly installed LED next train indicator sign (which the station did not previously have) and a payphone. A series of improvement works during June and July 2018 to the station added an array of CCTV cameras and a new Card-Only ticket machine.[1] The station is entirely unstaffed and customers must obtain tickets from the ticket machine on the platform. those wishing to pay for their ticket with cash must use the ticket machine to obtain a 'Promise to Pay' and pay the conductor on the train.

Services

The station is served by an hourly service in each direction to Manchester Victoria via Atherton and to Kirkby respectively. In the evenings, a few Southport to Manchester trains call here, as there are no trains to/from Kirkby after 19:30.

There is an hourly daytime Sunday service to Wigan and Manchester Victoria (via Atherton) in the current (summer 2018) timetable.[2]

Notes

1. NRE Stations - Ince (Manchester)National Rail Enquiries website; Retrieved 14 November 2016
2. Table 82 National Rail timetable, May 2018

External links

• Train times and station information for Ince railway station from National Rail
• Disused-stations.org (see Lower Ince)

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Wigan Wallgate		Northern Trains Kirby - Manchester Victoria		Hindley
		Northern Trains Southport - Alderley Edge (Limited service)
		Northern Trains Southport - Blackburn (Limited service)
Wigan North Western		Northern Trains Wigan North Western - Blackburn (Limited service)