Chorley railway station

Chorley
Location
Place	Chorley
Local authority	Chorley
Grid reference	SD586175
Operations
Station code	CRL
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	D
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.637 million
2005/06	0.671 million
2006/07	0.704 million
2007/08	0.730 million
2008/09	0.689 million
2009/10	0.740 million
2010/11	0.820 million
2011/12	0.836 million
2012/13	0.841 million
History
Key dates	Opened 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.
UK Railways portal

Chorley railway station serves the town of Chorley in Lancashire, England. Since 2004 it has been linked with Chorley Interchange bus and coach station.

History of the station

The railway station is a modern 1980s built on top of the original station, the level of which can be seen under the existing station's two platforms 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 Passenger trains over this route (between Blackburn & Wigan) were however withdrawn in January 1960.

Current station facilities

A level crossing, no longer in use, is still in place at the station entrance as well as a pedestrian subway which emerges at the foot of the Railway Pub. 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.

The small villages which form part of the borough of Chorley, such as Buckshaw, Adlington and Euxton all have railway stations.

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 ^[1] which should reduce journey times to Manchester by up to ten minutes.

Services

Chorley is well served by both TransPennine Express and Northern services between Manchester Piccadilly and Preston and beyond.^[2] Northern services meanwhile run hourly to Blackpool and Manchester Victoria and also hourly from Blackpool to York via Manchester Victoria and Hazel Grove via Manchester Piccadilly ^[3][4]).

On Sundays there are two trains an hour to Blackpool and a limited service to Barrow northbound whilst southbound there are hourly services to Manchester Victoria and Manchester Airport (with a few additional Airport trains).

From 26 July to 7 September 2008 however, 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 using the newly electrified line over Chat Moss.^[5] A small number of peak services still operated via Chorley using Class 185 units thereafter, but these ceased at the December 2014 timetable change.^[6]

Notes

1. "Rail Electrification Gets Green Light" The Guardian news article 9 December 2009
2. GB National Rail Timetable 2013-14, Tables 65 & 82
3. Northern Rail timetable slots ORR website Retrieved 2008-11-11
4. GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 82
5. Network Rail - WCML Route Utilisation StrategyNetwork Rail
6. GB eNRT December 2014 Edition, Table 82

External links

• Train times and station information for Chorley railway station from National Rail

Coordinates: 53°39′11″N 2°37′37″W / 53.653°N 2.627°W