Appley Bridge railway station serves the villages of Appley Bridge and Shevington, both in Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester in England. The station is 4.4 miles (7 km) north-west of Wigan Wallgate on the Manchester-Southport Line. The station is in Lancashire, but it is supported by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive and as such within the TfGM ticketing zone. It is operated by Northern Trains.

Appley Bridge
Appley Bridge station in 2015, with a Northern Rail Class 150 at the Southport-bound platform, seen from the Appley Lane North road bridge.
General information
Location	Appley Bridge, West Lancashire England
Grid reference	SD524093
Managed by	Northern Trains
Transit authority	Greater Manchester
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	APB
Classification	DfT category F1
Key dates
9 April 1855	Station opens
Passengers
2016/17	0.246 million
2017/18	0.231 million
2018/19	0.224 million
2019/20	0.227 million
2020/21	39,006
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The main stone-built station building survives adjacent to the Wigan-bound platform, but is now a public house; there are modest shelters on both platforms for rail travellers.

History

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

A Greater Manchester Council landfill site and transfer terminal was formerly located a short distance west of the station, served by a siding connection from the up (eastbound) line. This received regular trainloads of domestic waste from terminals in and around Manchester from the early 1980s until 1995, when the site reached capacity and was closed. The defunct siding is still intact and is visible from passing trains.

Facilities

The station is unmanned, but there is a ticket machine provided to allow passengers to buy prior to travel or collect pre-paid tickets. Train running information can be obtained by phone and timetable posters. There is step-free access to both platforms from the nearby road bridge via ramps.[1]

Services

On Monday to Saturday daytimes, there are two trains an hour westbound to Southport and eastbound to Wigan. Beyond here, services run via Bolton alternately to Stalybridge via Manchester Victoria and to Stockport and Alderley Edge via Manchester Piccadilly. Only a limited number now run via Atherton, mainly at peak times and late evenings (travellers to these destinations and for stations along the Calder Valley line now need to change at Wigan).[2]

On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Southport and Blackburn via Manchester Victoria.

See also

• Listed buildings in Wrightington

References

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Appley Bridge railway station.

• Train times and station information for Appley Bridge railway station from National Rail
• Station on navigable O.S. map.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Parbold		Northern Trains Manchester-Southport Line or Manchester Airport-Southport		Gathurst
				Wigan Wallgate