Gathurst railway station

Gathurst
Gathurst railway station in 2015, the L&YR-era station building is now a public house.
Location
Place	Gathurst
Local authority	Wigan
Grid reference	SD541071
Operations
Station code	GST
Managed by	Northern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	34,989
2005/06	47,600
2006/07	50,625
2007/08	53,103
2008/09	71,762
2009/10	73,388
2010/11	82,306
2011/12	91,032
2012/13	92,622
2013/14	92,464
2014/15	86,050
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Greater Manchester
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Gathurst from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

On the outskirts of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, the semi-rural Gathurst is a two-platform station on the Southport line 2 ³⁄₄ miles (4.4 kilometres) north west of Wigan Wallgate station. The station also serves the nearby village of Shevington, indeed until 1973 (see British Rail Timetable of 1972) was named Gathurst for Shevington. It is currently operated by Northern.

The main stone-built station building survives adjacent to the Wigan-bound platform, but is now in use for non-railway purposes (as a public house), modest shelters now being provided on both platforms for rail travellers.

History

The station was built by the Manchester and Southport Railway and opened on 9 April 1855, and from January 1885 was part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR). The main stone-built station building (no longer in use) was built during this time, in the standard L&YR style. The L&YR amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922 and 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.

Services

There is generally an hourly service from Gathurst westbound to Southport and eastbound to Manchester Victoria via Atherton. Some Southport to Manchester Airport via Bolton services also call at Gathurst at peak times and late evenings, whilst the last eastbound train of the day terminates at Wigan Wallgate.^[1]

On Sundays, trains also call hourly but the eastbound service goes instead to Stockport via Manchester Piccadilly, with trains continuing to Hazel Grove & Chester via Altrincham on alternate hours.

References

1. Great Britain eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 82

External links

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

Coordinates: 53°33′34″N 2°41′37″W / 53.5594°N 2.6937°W