Walkden railway station serves the town of Walkden in City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England on the Manchester to Southport Line. The station is located 8+1⁄4 miles (13.3 km) north-west of Manchester with regular Northern Trains services to these towns as well as the city of Salford, Swinton and Hindley. It was opened by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway

Walkden
General information
Location	Walkden, Salford England
Grid reference	SD738026
Managed by	Northern Trains
Transit authority	Greater Manchester
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	WKD
Classification	DfT category E
Key dates
1888	Opened
Passengers
2016/17	0.301 million
2017/18	0.284 million
2018/19	0.302 million
2019/20	0.374 million
2020/21	70,630
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

One of the busier stations on the line, the station used to be known as Walkden High Level to differentiate it from the London and North Western Railway's Walkden Low Level railway station (on the line from Manchester Exchange to Bolton Great Moor Street, which was closed to passengers in 1954).[1] It controlled a junction for the goods line to Ellesmere Colliery.[2] Latest figures indicate that over 300,000 passengers use the station annually.[3]

First opened in 1888 with the line, it has only ever had two platform faces - when the line was quadrupled at the turn of the century, the two additional tracks were laid to the south and were not provided with platforms. The fast lines were subsequently decommissioned in November 1965 and lifted.

In February 2007 the Friends of Walkden Station community volunteer group was founded to campaign for improvements to the station's facilities and services.

One of the line's two remaining signal boxes was formerly located here (it acted as the 'fringe' box to Manchester Piccadilly signalling centre), but it and neighbouring Atherton Goods Yard box were both closed in the spring of 2013 and their semaphore signals replaced by colour lights worked from Piccadilly SCC.[4]

Facilities

The station has a staffed ticket office, though this is only staffed part-time (06:10 to 12:40 weekdays, 07:10 to 13:40 Saturdays, closed Sundays). A ticket machine is also available. Train running information is provided by digital display screens, automated announcements and timetable posters. No step-free access is possible, as the station is above street level and is reached via two flights of stairs.[5]

Service

Monday to Saturday daytimes, two trains per hour go southbound to Manchester Victoria and two per hour towards Wigan - one each to Kirkby via Wigan Wallgate and to Wigan North Western northbound (down from three each way prior to the pandemic). Only a few trains now extend beyond Wigan through to Southport since the start of the winter 2019 timetable.

Most Manchester departures continue along the Caldervale Line to Todmorden, Burnley Manchester Road and Blackburn or to Leeds via Brighouse.[6]

In the evenings there is a half-hourly service in each direction to Manchester Victoria and Wigan N.W.

A normal Saturday service or modified Monday to Friday service operates on most Bank Holidays

On 18 December 2009 the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) voted to approve funding for a one-year trial of Sunday trains from Walkden, starting on 23 May 2010.[7] This proved successful and now runs twice per hour in each direction (one Blackburn to Southport train and a second between Wigan and Manchester Victoria).

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walkden railway station.

• Train times and station information for Walkden railway station from National Rail
• Photo by Keith Palin
• Friends of Walkden Station campaign website.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Atherton		Northern Trains Manchester-Southport Line or Manchester-Kirkby		Swinton or Moorside