Appley Bridge railway station

Appley Bridge
Appley Bridge station in 2015, with a Northern Rail Class 150 at the Southport-bound platform, seen from the Appley Lane North road bridge.
General information
Location	Appley Bridge, West Lancashire England
Grid reference	SD524093
Managed by	Northern Trains
Transit authority	Greater Manchester
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	APB
Classification	DfT category F1
History
Opened	9 April 1855 (1855-04-09)
Original company	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
Passengers
2019/20	0.227 million
2020/21	39,006
2021/22	0.128 million
2022/23	0.131 million
2023/24	0.129 million
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Appley Bridge railway station serves the villages of Appley Bridge and Shevington, both in Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester in England. The station is 4.4 miles (7 km) north-west of Wigan Wallgate on the Manchester-Southport Line. The station is in Lancashire, but it is supported by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive and as such within the TfGM ticketing zone. It is operated by Northern Trains.

The main stone-built station building survives adjacent to the Wigan-bound platform, but is now a public house; there are modest shelters on both platforms for rail travellers.

The station opened on 9 April 1855 when the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) opened the line from Wigan Wallgate to Southport London Street, the line and station had been planned, authorised and construction started by the Manchester and Southport Railway before it was acquired by the L&YR on 3 July 1854.^[1][2] The main stone-built station building (no longer in use) was built during this time, in the standard L&YR style which had been described as "solid, substantial, well built of stone in the Elizabethan style, neat without undue ornament".^[3] The L&YR amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922, and this, in turn, was grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923. Nationalisation followed in 1948. When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Regional Railways until the privatisation of British Rail.

A Greater Manchester Council landfill site and transfer terminal was formerly located a short distance west of the station, served by a siding connection from the up (eastbound) line. This received regular trainloads of domestic waste from terminals in and around Manchester from the early 1980s until 1995, when the site reached capacity and was closed. The defunct siding is still intact and is visible from passing trains.

The station is unmanned, but there is a ticket machine provided to allow passengers to buy prior to travel or collect pre-paid tickets. Train running information can be obtained by phone and timetable posters. There is step-free access to both platforms from the nearby road bridge via ramps.^[4]

On Monday to Saturday daytimes, there are two trains an hour westbound to Southport and eastbound to Wigan. Beyond here, services run via Bolton to either Stalybridge via Manchester Victoria or Manchester Oxford Road (services beyond there towards Manchester Piccadilly and points south ended at the winter 2022 timetable change).^[5]

On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Southport and Blackburn via Manchester Victoria.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Parbold		Northern Trains Southport to Manchester Line		Gathurst

• Listed buildings in Wrightington

• Grant, Donald J. (2017). Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain (1st ed.). Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78803-768-6.
• Marshall, John (1969). The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Vol. 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4352-4.
• Quick, Michael (2023) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF). version 5.05. Railway & Canal Historical Society.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Appley Bridge railway station.

• Train times and station information for Appley Bridge railway station from National Rail
• Station on navigable O.S. map.

53°34′44″N 2°43′08″W / 53.579°N 2.719°W / 53.579; -2.719