Wigan North Western railway station


Wigan North Western railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town centre of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England.

It is a moderately-sized station on the West Coast Main Line. It is operated by Avanti West Coast, and is also served by Northern Trains.
Wigan's other station is Wigan Wallgate, which is about away, on the opposite side of the street named Wallgate, for services to Manchester, Southport and Kirkby. Both stations are centrally located on the southern fringe of Wigan town centre. The station is named North Western, not because of its location but because it formerly belonged to the London and North Western Railway. The drop in usage figures for Wigan North Western in 2006/07 was due to the adjustment of the allocation between the town's two stations. In 2009 North Western station was identified as one of the ten worst category B interchange stations for mystery shopper assessment of fabric and environment and was set to receive a share of £50m funding for improvements.

Description

The station was rebuilt in the early 1970s to a contemporary functional style. The tracks are above street level and access to the six platforms is via a subway and stairs. Recently the goods lifts were modified to allow public use.
The platforms have heated waiting rooms. The British Transport Police have an office on platform 4 near the station's cafe.

Services

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. 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 Glasgow Central and Edinburgh. The single London Midland service from Birmingham New Street to Preston that used to call in the evening was withdrawn at the end of the 2007-8 timetable.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.
Northern Trains operates a half-hourly 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. There is also an hourly service from Liverpool which continues north along the West Coast Main Line to Blackpool North. Northern also operated one electric hourly service per hour each way between Blackpool North and Manchester Airport between May 2018 & May 2019. Since May 2019, this has been replaced by an hourly diesel service between the Airport and Preston, with most trains continuing on to either or. These are mainly operated by new Class 195 Civity units, whilst the electric variants have started to appear on Liverpool services since the summer of 2019.
Northern Trains services are operated by a mix of Pacer and Sprinter units on the line to and Manchester. Since the May 2018 timetable change, there are now two trains per hour to/from Bolton - one to Manchester Victoria and Stalybridge, the other to Manchester Piccadilly and thence via Stockport. These run 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 2109 timetable change, most weekday services to/from Manchester via Hindley will revert to their previous route via Wallgate, with just a few trains starting or finishing here in the morning and both peak periods.
City Line from Liverpool, introduced in May 2015
From the timetable change on 17 May 2015, Northern Rail introduced Class 319 electric services 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.

Future train services

Under HS2 and government proposals' high-speed trains would stop at the station from Glasgow before joining the new HS2 line to Birmingham and London.
Post electrification service proposals include an additional hourly fast to Liverpool Lime Street and two new hourly fast services between Wigan and Manchester via parts of the WCML and Manchester–Liverpool line after electrification of the Manchester to Liverpool line; the rerouting of Scotland services achieves half of this target.

History

Key dates

Withdrawn passenger services

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:
There are proposals to re-open some of the closed local stations, but none has been approved as of 2018.

Wigan Central

Wigan had a third station: Wigan Central which has been demolished.
Wigan Central was located in Station Road, still in the town centre but some way away from the two main stations. It was a terminal station on the branch line to Glazebrook and on to Manchester Central.
Wigan Central was opened by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in October 1892 and was closed to passengers in November 1964.