Heywood railway station
Heywood railway station serves the town of Heywood, in Greater Manchester, England. Formerly a stop on the national railway network, it is now the southern terminus of heritage East Lancashire Railway services.
History
The original station was opened in 1841 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway. It was resited in 1848 when the line was extended to Bury. The station closed on 5 October 1970.It was reopened on 6 September 2003 as an extension of the heritage East Lancashire Railway from. The boundary between the ELR and the national rail network is located a short distance east of the station, at Hopwood.
A pledge of £300 million was made to link Heywood back to the National Rail network in 2009, which would have seen direct services to, via ; however, this scheme was subsequently shelved due to lack of funding. The ELR still has ambitions to run trains through to Castleton though to allow direct interchange with National Rail services there. This would form part of a larger scheme to regenerate the area and create additional tourist attractions such as a proposed Heywood Culture Park.
The original station was situated immediately opposite the terminal wharf of the Heywood Branch Canal. The ELR station is situated slightly further to the east, nearer to the former Heywood railway wagon works.