Wigan North Western railway station

Wigan North Western is one of two railway stations that serve the town centre of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England; the other is Wigan Wallgate, 110 yards (100 m) away. It lies on the West Coast Main Line, with services operated by Avanti West Coast, Northern Trains and TransPennine Express.

The station is suffixed North Western because it formerly belonged to the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). In 2009, it was identified as one of the ten worst category B interchange stations for mystery shopper assessment of fabric and environment^[2] and was set to receive a share of £50m funding for improvements.^[3]

The Wigan Branch Railway opened on 3 September 1832 between the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at Parkside Junction, in Newton-le-Willows, and Wigan. The original station in the town was located close to Chapel Lane, with three trains per day connecting with the Liverpool and Manchester trains at Parkside.^[4]

The North Union Railway opened between Wigan and Preston; it connected with the line from Parkside on 31 October 1838. Wigan station was relocated to its present position. The LNWR was formed as a result of the progressive amalgamation of various earlier lines, including the Grand Junction Railway in 1846. In collaboration with the Caledonian Railway, through trains were introduced between London Euston and Glasgow Central.

The Wigan rail crash occurred on 2 August 1873. An overnight express from London to Scotland derailed while passing through the station at high speed; 13 people died and 30 were badly injured. The subsequent inquiry into the accident resulted in the introduction of facing point locks to passenger-carrying lines throughout the UK.^[5]

The station was substantially enlarged between 1888 and 1894. The LNWR's Manchester and Wigan Railway connected with the North Union Railway at Springs Branch; services to Manchester Exchange via Tyldesley which began in September 1864, terminated at the enlarged station. This line closed in 1969.

During 1971 and 1972, the run-down Victorian-era station buildings were demolished and the track layout remodelled as a prelude to electrification. The rebuilt station was opened officially in July 1972. On 1 October, all signalling through Wigan North Western and adjacent sections of the West Coast Main Line came under the control of the new Warrington Power Signal Box. Two large signal boxes were closed: Wigan No.1 and Wigan No.2, which had controlled train movements at the south and north ends of station respectively.

Electric train services began on 23 July 1973 between London Euston and Preston. Express trains, formerly hauled by one or two Class 50 diesel locomotives, were now powered by Class 86 or new Class 87 electric locomotives. The West Coast Electrification project was completed on 6 May 1974 and electric trains through to Glasgow began.

Wigan North Western has retained regular trains to a wide range of destinations, given that it lies on the West Coast Main Line. However, there were several local passenger services from the station which fell under the Beeching Axe and earlier; these lines have since been closed:

• Blackburn via Chorley: Lancashire Union Railway; the passenger service was withdrawn in January 1960:

Trains departed northwards before diverging from the main line at Boar's Head Junction, 2+1⁄4 miles (3.6 km) north of Wigan. From Boar's Head, a line ran to Adlington where it joined the Manchester to Preston Line as far as Chorley. From Chorley another branch line ran to Cherry Tree station and joined the existing line from Preston to Blackburn. In addition to the local service, this route was also occasionally used by long distance trains when these were diverted over the Settle and Carlisle line. Until at least 1963, a private non-advertised return passenger service was operated for workers at the Royal Ordnance Factory at Euxton.^{[note 1]}

• Manchester Exchange via Tyldesley: a local stopping passenger service withdrawn in 1962, with some remaining non-stopping local services withdrawn in January 1968; some expresses continued until May 1969.

The line from Wigan to Manchester Exchange via Tyldesley and Eccles was the LNWR's route from Manchester to the north and Scotland. Before closure, this route was used both by local trains and by long-distance expresses between Manchester and destinations such as Windermere and Glasgow Central. Trains from Wigan North Western to Manchester Exchange travelled south for 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) along the main line before diverging onto the Tyldesley line at Springs Branch Junction. The timings of the non-stop expresses were such that trains between Manchester Exchange and Wigan could (and did) take the longer route via Lowton.

• Local trains along the main line:

Passenger services were provided to a number of smaller stations located along the main line. These stations are now closed, except for Leyland and Balshaw Lane (which was reopened in 1998 as Euxton Balshaw Lane. Closure of some of these smaller stations started before the Beeching report (for example, Boar's Head and Bamfurlong in 1949, with Golborne in 1962), and was completed in the late 1960s.

Local trains called at:

Northwards	Southwards
Boar's Head	Bamfurlong
Standish Junction	Golborne
Coppull	Lowton
Balshaw Lane & Euxton	Newton-le-Willows
Leyland	Earlestown
Farington	Vulcan Halt
Preston	Warrington Bank Quay

There are proposals to reopen some of the closed local stations, such as Golborne, but none have been approved as of 2018.^[6][7]

The town also had a third station: Wigan Central. It was closed to passengers in November 1964 and subsequently demolished.

The station platforms are generally used for the following purposes:

1. is used for some services to Stalybridge via Bolton and Manchester Victoria on Sundays.
2. was a bay platform but is no longer in use after platform 3 was extended at the end of 2020.^[8] The track serving it has been lifted and the face fenced off.
3. is a bay platform, used by early morning and late evening Northern services to Manchester Victoria and Leeds, via Walkden and the Calder Valley (as the December 2022 timetable rerouted Wigan to Leeds services to operate from Wigan Wallgate); Sunday services to Manchester Victoria, via Bolton; and as a reversing siding allowing trains and locomotives for Springs Branch depot to approach from and leave south of the depot as it can only be entered from the north.
4. is used for Avanti West Coast services to London Euston and Birmingham New Street and Northern Trains services to Liverpool Lime Street.
5. is for northbound services to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley. It is also used for services to Blackpool North
6. is used to terminate Merseyrail's City Line services arriving from the Liverpool–Wigan line, which is operated by Northern Trains, and also used rarely for Avanti services if no other platforms are available.

The platforms have heated waiting rooms. The British Transport Police have an office on platform 4, near to the station's cafe.

Wigan North Western is served by three train operating companies; they run the following off-peak services in trains per hour/day:

• 1tph to Glasgow Central (having used the Trent Valley line)
• 1tp2h to Glasgow Central (having used the Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line)
• 1tp2h to Edinburgh Waverley

• 1tph to London Euston, via Warrington Bank Quay
• 1tph to London Euston, via Wolverhampton, Birmingham New Street and Coventry
• 2tpd to London Euston (from Blackpool North)

• 2tpd to Blackpool North. ^[9]

• 2tph to Liverpool Lime Street, via St Helens Central; 1tp2h on Sunday
• 1tph to Blackpool North.^[10]

• 4tpd to Liverpool Lime Street
• 3tpd to Glasgow Central
• 1tpd to Oxenholme Lake District.^[11]

• West Coast Main Line route modernisation
• Wigan Central railway station
• Wigan Wallgate railway station

• Holt, G.O. (1986). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain – vol.10 The North West. David & Charles. ISBN 0-946537-34-8.
• Nock, O.S. (1974). Electric Euston to Glasgow. Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0530-3.
• Sweeney, D.J. (1996). A Lancashire Triangle – Part 1. Triangle Publishing. ISBN 0-9529333-0-6.

• Train times and station information for Wigan North Western railway station from National Rail