The station was built in 1845 and opened by the London and North Western Railway, originally named Newton Bridge. It was renamed Newton-le-Willows on 14 June 1888. When first opened, it was also on the main LNWR line from London to and Scotland thanks to a number of company mergers & acquisitions - the former North Union Railway's branch from Parkside Junction to had opened back in 1832 and the completion of a north to west curve round to on 1 January 1847 by the Grand Junction Railway had allowed through running to commence from London Euston and Birmingham New Street via the original Newton Junction, then over the L&M and onwards to Wigan and the north from that date. Within three years however, the heavily congested section of the L&M through the station was bypassed for north-south traffic with the opening of a cut-off line from Winwick Junction to Golborne, though local stopping trains between and Wigan continued to call thereafter. The station was also well served by trains between and Liverpool Lime Street and also to General via Warrington and the Birkenhead Joint Railway. The connections to the WCML also provided a useful diversionary route for trains to Preston & beyond from both Manchester & Liverpool - these were utilised by British Rail when they set up a Motorail terminal at the station in the 1960s, which offered through trains to Stirling & Inverness and to. The station avoided the Beeching Axe in the 1960s, though the Warrington to Wigan local trains along the WCML ended in 1969 along with services via Leigh. The Motorail terminal closed in the early 1980s as British Rail cut back the number of routes on offer across the network, though the sidings into it were not finally removed until August 2013.
Redevelopment
Merseytravel put forward proposals in December 2015 for the station to be developed as an interchange station. The proposals were later approved with the work scheduled to be completed by March 2018. Work on the new facilities started on 28 November 2016 and included:
New South side entrance
New ticket office at south entrance
Bus Interchange adjacent to the new ticket office
400+ space car park
Electric vehicle charging points
New toilet facilities
Improved passenger waiting facilities
Step free access to and between the platforms via a new subway and lifts
Following some delays, the work was completed and the redeveloped station officially opened on Sunday 13 January 2019.
Electrification
The line through the station was electrified by British Rail in 1973 as part of the West Coast Main Line electrification scheme, and the station was served by electrically hauled mail trains, but no regularly scheduled electric passenger trains called here. This finally changed over forty years later when the Liverpool to Manchester line via Chat Moss was electrified by Network Rail as part of the North West Electrification Programme. Commuter services which call at Newton-le-Willows have been operated by four car Class 319electric multiple units since March 2015, with 3-car Class 323 units also now appearing on many services.
Facilities
Like most Merseytravel stations, it is staffed from start of service until the last train has left. There are also self-service ticket machines provided. There are shelters on both platforms, along with digital information screens and timetable poster boards.
Services
The May 2018 timetable change has seen a major upgrade of services here. TransPennine Express now operate an hourly fast Liverpool to via Manchester Victoria, and York that calls here, whilst Northern's service between Liverpool and now runs to and calls at all intermediate stations between Liverpool and the Airport. At peak times there is also a limited local service to Manchester Victoria and a single evening train to via the Parkside West curve. Transport for Wales also serves the station once per hour each way on its Manchester Airport/Manchester Piccadilly to and route, though a few trains run to and from . On Sundays the service frequency remains the same on all routes, though TfW trains only run to and from Chester. East Midland Trains services between Liverpool and Nottingham/Norwich services sometimes call here if their usual route via is closed for engineering work, with Warrington-bound passengers changing here for a rail-replacement bus connection. The new "Northern Connect" services from Chester to Leeds via Manchester Victoria and Bradford Interchange also stops at Newton-le-Willows following its introduction in May 2019. This runs hourly each way Mondays to Saturdays, with two trains running to/from rather than Chester at weekday peak times.
