Wigan North Western railway station

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

The North Union Railway opened between Wigan and Preston and connected with the line from Parkside on 31 October 1838. Wigan station was relocated to its present position.

The London and North Western Railway 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.

On 2 August 1873, a major accident occurred at the station. 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.[4]

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

It was renamed from "Wigan" to "Wigan North Western" on 2 June 1924.[5]

During 1971 and 1972, the run-down Victorian-era station buildings were demolished and the track layout re-modelled as a prelude to electrification. The re-built station was officially opened in July 1972.

On 1 October 1972, 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.

23 July 1973, Electric train services began between London Euston and Preston, via Wigan North Western. Express trains, formerly hauled by one or two Class 50 diesels, were now powered by Class 86 or new Class 87 electrics.

On 6 May 1974, the West Coast electrification project was complete and electric trains operated through to Glasgow by British Rail.

Withdrawn passenger services

Lines around Wigan in 1907

The station in 1957

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

• Blackburn via Chorley (passenger service a pre-Beeching withdrawal in January 1960: see Lancashire Union Railway)

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 (local stopping passenger service withdrawn 1962, with some remaining non-stopping local services withdrawn in January 1968: some expresses continuing until May 1969)

The line from Wigan to Manchester Exchange via Tyldesley and Eccles was the L&NWR'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. 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. In fact the timings of the non-stop express trains were such that trains between Manchester Exchange and Wigan could (and did) take the (longer) route via Lowton.

• Local trains along main line

Passenger services were provided to a number of smaller stations located along the main line. Except for Leyland and Balshaw Lane (which was reopened in 1998 as Euxton Balshaw Lane) these stations are now closed. Closure of some of these smaller stations started before the Beeching report (for example Boar's Head and Bamfurlong in 1949 and 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 re-open some of the closed local stations (e.g. Golborne), but none have been approved as of 2018.[6][7]

• Platform 1 is used for some services to Stalybridge via Bolton and Manchester Victoria on Sundays.
• Platform 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.
• Platform 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.
• Platform 4 is used for Avanti West Coast services to London Euston and Birmingham New Street and Northern Trains services to Manchester Airport and the express service to Liverpool Lime Street.
• Platform 5 is for northbound services to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley. It is also used for services to Blackpool North and Barrow-in-Furness.
• Platform 6 is used to terminate Merseyrail's City Line services arriving from the Liverpool–Wigan line which is operated by Northern Trains and also rarely used 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 the station's cafe.

The Northern Electrics Class 319 service operating the Merseyrail City Line from Liverpool, introduced in May 2015

The station is served currently by Avanti West Coast. There is an hourly service on the West Coast Main Line from London Euston, which continues northwards to Glasgow Central, with additional peak services terminating at Preston, Lancaster and Carlisle. The journey time from London is less than two hours (1 hour and 55 minutes).[9] There is also an hourly service in the opposite direction calling at Warrington Bank Quay and London Euston. It is also served by Avanti West Coast's services from London Euston via Birmingham New Street to Blackpool North, Edinburgh and Glasgow Central (alternate hours). The single London Midland service from Birmingham New Street to Preston that used to call in the evening was withdrawn at the end of the 2007-8 timetable.

With completion of the first stage of the North West electrification programme, most TransPennine Express services between Manchester and Scotland were re-routed via Wigan instead of Bolton by connecting with the West Coast Main Line near Newton-le-Willows. TransPennine Express now operates services between Manchester Airport and Scotland. These services no longer call at Wigan North Western and have been re-routed via Bolton now that the line is electrified (work finally being completed in early 2019 ahead of the spring timetable update).

Northern Trains operates a half-hourly local stopping service from Liverpool Lime Street, along the Liverpool-Wigan Line via St Helens Central with a handful of services running to Liverpool via the Lowton Chord and Newton-le-Willows.[10] There is also an hourly service from Liverpool which continues north along the West Coast Main Line to Blackpool North. On Sundays, the Liverpool - Wigan services do not run with the hourly Blackpool North - Liverpool Lime Street services calling at the smaller intermediate stations on the route to Liverpool.

Northern also operated one electric hourly service per hour each way between Blackpool North and Manchester Airport between May 2018 & May 2019.[11] Between May 2019 and December 2022, this was replaced by an hourly diesel service between Manchester Airport and Lancaster, with most trains continuing on to either Barrow-in-Furness or Windermere. In December 2022, the Manchester Airport to Lancaster services reverted to their previous route via Chorley thus ceasing to serve Wigan. These services were replaced by limited weekday peak-only fast services to Manchester Victoria calling only at Eccles.[12] These were mainly operated by new Class 195 Civity units, whilst the electric variants (Class 331s) have started to appear on Liverpool services since the summer of 2019.

In the May 2018 timetable change, two trains per hour were introduced to/from Bolton - one to Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge, the other to Manchester Piccadilly and thence Alderley Edge via Stockport. These ran on weekdays only - weekend trains were replaced by buses until November 2018 due to ongoing electrification work on the Manchester to Preston Line through Bolton and Salford Crescent. From the December 2019 timetable change, most weekday services to/from Manchester via Hindley reverted to their previous route via Wallgate, with just a few trains starting or finishing here in the morning and both peak periods. From December 2020 until December 2022 however, the hourly service from Leeds started & terminated here once more throughout the day (save for a few peak period services). Most services via Hindley towards Manchester now run from Wigan Wallgate station. An hourly service operates on Sundays to Stalybridge via Manchester Victoria.

From the timetable change on 17 May 2015, Northern Rail introduced Class 319 electric services[13] to Liverpool and Manchester, Avanti West Coast services southwards to London Euston and northwards to Glasgow are always operated by electric Class 390 Pendolino trains. Services southwards to London Euston via Birmingham New Street and northwards to Glasgow and Edinburgh are operated by either electric Pendolino trains or diesel Class 221 Super Voyager units.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Preston		Avanti West Coast West Coast Main Line Blackpool North/Glasgow Central/Edinburgh Waverley - London Euston		Warrington Bank Quay
		Northern Trains Barrow-in-Furness/Windermere - Manchester Airport		Manchester Oxford Road
Euxton Balshaw Lane		Northern Trains Blackpool North - Liverpool Lime Street		St Helens Central
Terminus		Northern Trains Wigan North Western - Liverpool Lime Street		Bryn
		Northern Trains Wigan North Western - Leeds (Limited service)		Daisy Hill
				Hindley
		Northern Trains Wigan North Western - Manchester Victoria (Limited service)		Eccles
Preston		TransPennine Express Glasgow Central - Liverpool Lime Street (Limited service)		St Helens Central
				Lea Green
				Liverpool Lime Street
	Disused railways
Bryn		London and North Western Railway Lancashire Union Railway		Boar's Head

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

• 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wigan North Western railway station.

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