Burscough Junction railway station


Burscough Junction pronounced is one of two railway stations serving the town of Burscough in Lancashire, England. It is sited on the Ormskirk Branch Line, north of and is served by Northern Trains. The station was the scene of the Burscough Junction rail accident in 1880.

Service

The line sees a Monday–Saturday service of approximately every hour each way, with northbound services running through to . There is no Sunday service.

History

The station opened in April 1849, and enjoyed a regular service to numerous destinations, including Preston, Blackburn, Southport and Liverpool.
A serious railway accident occurred near the station in 1880. After the locomotive swapped ends of the train at Burscough Junction it should have swapped line on departure for Liverpool, but the points had not been set to swap tracks, and so it proceeded straight on and it met the express from Liverpool, head on, at some distance down the line.
From the autumn of 1968, stopping express services to Scotland and the Lake District were withdrawn. In October of the following year, through trains to also ceased and the remaining Blackpool to Liverpool stopping service was cut back to Ormskirk, leaving only local services and a few non-stop expresses; the line was severed entirely at Ormskirk from 4 May 1970. Singling followed at the end of June 1970. Unlike the other stations at Croston and Rufford, Burscough Junction retained its station buildings for a few years. These were demolished at the end of 1973, and replaced with the current, extremely basic, arrangement.

Interchange

The other station in Burscough is Burscough Bridge, and is only ten minutes away by foot. The name "Junction" is an anachronism: similar to Dalston Junction in London, the station no longer serves such a purpose.

Facilities

Only one platform remains in use, with basic shelters and a long-line public address system. There are ticket machines which require card, so passengers paying cash will need to pay on the train. The platform is fully DDA-compliant, with step free access from the main entrance on Station Lane.