Accrington railway station serves the town of Accrington, in Lancashire, England. It lies on the East Lancashire line, from Farington Curve Junction (where the line meets the West Coast Main Line), and is also served by the Calder Valley Line. Geographically, it is located between Church & Oswaldtwistle and Huncoat.
History
The station was opened on 10 June 1848 by the East Lancashire Railway, which amalgamated with the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1859.
The station was formerly a major junction on the ELR, with the line to and diverging southwards from that towards Blackburn and at the western end of the station, just before the viaduct that carries the line over the town centre. For many years, this was a busy commuter route carrying regular trains from and to , but it fell victim to the Beeching cuts in the 1960s and was closed to passengers on 5 December 1966.Marshall, J. (1981): pp. 40
Facilities The station has two side platforms, either side of the twin-tracked railway line. Other than three small shelters (two on platform 2 and one on platform 1), there is no protection from the elements. It offers disabled access via ramps adjacent to the platforms. There is a ticket office and ticket machine, a car park, bicycle spaces and an accessible toilet.
In 2011, the station underwent a major rebuild, as part of a project to create a model of sustainable energy use for a railway station. This redevelopment cost £2 million, of which £500,000 was funded by the European Union's Interreg IVB programme. The previous ticket office was demolished, and was replaced by a new build and constructed, where possible, with local materials including recycled stone. The building uses a rainwater harvesting system, photovoltaic cells and solar hot water generation panels on the new tower.
Passenger volume +Passenger Volume at Accrington2002–032004–052005–062006–072007–082008–092009–102010–112011–122012–132013–142014–152015–162016–172017–182018–192019–202020–212021–222022–23Entries and exits179,836216,059224,452236,668259,944275,652279,442313,382345,666363,546369,726382,678433,618460,472459,408422,806465,758119,210385,604459,616 The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.
Services After a gap of almost fifty years, direct services to Manchester Victoria resumed from May 2015, with the reopening of the Curve. These start at Blackburn and continue onwards through Burnley Manchester Road, using the Caldervale Line south of Todmorden, to reach and Manchester. An hourly service each way operates on this route throughout the week. Most of these trains continue beyond Manchester, to and or Southport (Sundays only)
As of May 2025, the weekday off-peak service pattern in trains per hour (tph) is as follows:
1 tph to , via Blackburn, Preston and 1 tph to , via , Blackburn and 1 tph to 1 tph to , via , and 1 tph to , via , and 1 tph to , via , and .
The service between Blackpool North and York has operated hourly on Sundays since the May 2009 timetable change.
References
Bibliography
Marshall, J. (1981) Forgotten Railways: North-West England, David & Charles, Newton Abbott.
External links
Interactive plan of the station The station on a navigable O.S. map