Manchester–Preston line

The line was opened as far as Bolton in 1838 by the Manchester and Bolton Railway, then extended in 1841 by the Bolton and Preston Railway. These were amalgamated, via the East Lancashire Railway, as part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

The route now has 2 starting points in Manchester:

• Manchester Piccadilly, which offers rail links to most large cities in the country. Trains using the route will call at the through platforms 13 and 14 on the west side of the station. It then follows the route of the Manchester, South Junction and Altrincham Railway as far as Deansgate, where it uses the Windsor link to reach Salford Crescent and joins the line from Manchester Victoria.
• Manchester Victoria was the original starting point before the Windsor Link was created. It goes through Salford Central, after which it then joins the line from the Windsor Link and enters Salford Crescent.

The route then continues to Clifton, and then passes through Kearsley, Farnworth and Moses Gate following the Irwell Valley for much of the route. The first major town is Bolton. Just after Bolton station there is a junction to the right where the Ribble Valley line, a single track line, heads off to Blackburn and Clitheroe. The line cuts through the western suburbs of Bolton including Lostock, where trains to Wigan Wallgate via Westhoughton, branch off. Next is Horwich Parkway opened in 1999 and Blackrod (where the former Horwich Branch diverged). It then proceeds through the town of Adlington and on to Chorley, passing through Buckshaw Parkway, which opened in 2011 and finally joins the West Coast Main Line at Euxton Junction before continuing via Leyland to Preston.

Northern Trains operate local services over the full length of the line. These include limited stop workings from Manchester Airport and Hazel Grove via Manchester Piccadilly to Blackpool North, along with Manchester Victoria to Preston services and a limited number of Manchester Airport to Barrow-in-Furness and Windermere trains. Other workings use part of the line only - e.g. Manchester Victoria to Wigan Wallgate and Kirkby via Walkden (which diverge at Salford Crescent), Manchester Victoria to Blackburn and Clitheroe (diverge at Bolton) and Stalybridge/Alderley Edge to Southport via Westhoughton (diverge at Lostock Junction).[6]

TransPennine Express (TPX) used to operate the semi-fast Manchester Airport to Blackpool North, Barrow-in-Furness and Windermere services prior to the 2016 franchise change. TPX now only operate express trains to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley. These were temporarily diverted to via Wigan North Western and Chat Moss but resumed in May 2019 after the completion of the electrification of this line.[4]

Avanti West Coast, and formerly Virgin Trains West Coast, services occasionally use this line (non-stop) when the West Coast Main Line is closed via Wigan North Western on their main Scotland to London route via Manchester Piccadilly.

Other TOCs operate along the southern section of the route to Ordsall Lane Jn and go on to Warrington:

• Transport for Wales Rail operate services en route to Llandudno via Warrington Bank Quay and Chester.
• East Midlands Railway also operate services between Norwich and Liverpool Lime Street

The line is an important diversionary route at weekends, used in conjunction with the Crewe–Manchester line to divert away from a large section of the West Coast Main Line if required. The convenience is that this only adds 35–40 minutes to a journey and negates the need for costly bus replacement services. Some freight still uses this line (such as stone trains from the Peak District to a distribution terminal at Hope St., Salford and "Bin-liner" refuse trains from Pendleton to Scunthorpe), especially during the peak periods during the day. It is, however, a primary passenger route in the North West of England.

Class 185 trains were the most frequent units on the line: working for First TransPennine Express to Blackpool North, Barrow-in-Furness and Windermere. In the other direction, they all worked to Manchester Airport although engineering works resulted in some services working to Manchester Victoria instead. Prior to 2007, Class 175 trains worked the majority of these services before the 185s took over. Between May 2001 and December 2006, they worked all Barrow-in-Furness and Windermere services and the majority of the Blackpool North services. However, they never worked to Scotland due to this being a Virgin CrossCountry service until December 2007.

TransPennine Express use mainly newer Class 397 Civitys on the line having replaced the older Class 350 units. Class 185 units still appear occasionally when the Class 397 Civity units are unavailable.

Northern Trains operate a variety of rolling stock for their services, with Class 331s, Class 323s and Class 319. Northern also use Class 195s, Class 158s, Class 156s, Class 153s, Class 150s on the line. Most of the diesel services only use the line south of Bolton as these diverge onto the unelectrified lines, notably the Ribble Valley line to Blackburn and Clitheroe and the Manchester–Southport line to Southport.

Since December 2019, services between Hazel Grove/Manchester Airport and Blackpool North have been run using Class 331 units. Some Sunday services between Manchester Victoria and Blackpool North also use Class 331 units.

Work on 25 kV OHL electrification of the line began in May 2015 and has included numerous bridgeworks plus the major undertaking of the re-boring of Farnworth Tunnel.[1] Its high profile resulted in a visit from Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, shortly after work started,[7] and from Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin in August 2015 during the reboring work.[8] Breakthrough was achieved in late, rather than early October, due to loose sand delaying the work in August; the first trains running through the new twin track bore on Monday 14 December 2015. Electrification of the line was due for completion by December 2016, then delayed until December 2017 and then further delayed until May 2018. In January 2018 yet another delay was announced.[9] This was attributed to difficult ground conditions including hard rock and running sand resulting from old mine workings.[10][4] Test trains (Virgin Pendolino) finally ran between Preston and Manchester in December 2018.[5] The first scheduled passenger-carrying electric services began on 11 February 2019, running to Blackpool North, Buckshaw Parkway, Manchester Victoria and Manchester Airport using Class 319 EMUs.[11]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manchester to Preston Line.

• Manchester and Bolton Railway