Littleborough railway station serves the town of
Littleborough in the
Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. It is named after its largest town, Rochdale, The borough covers other outlying towns and villages with a population of 206,500 at the ...
,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
It lies on the
Caldervale Line
The Calder Valley line (also previously known as the Caldervale line) is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool. It is the slower of the two main rail routes ...
13¾ miles (22 km) north of
Manchester Victoria
Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England is a combined mainline railway station and Metrolink tram stop. Situated to the north of the city centre on Hunts Bank, close to Manchester Cathedral, it adjoins Manchester Arena which was ...
towards
Halifax,
Bradford Interchange
Bradford Interchange is a transport interchange in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, which consists of a railway station and combined bus and coach station adjacent. The Interchange, which was designed in 1962, was hailed as a showpiece of Eur ...
and
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
.
This is the last station on the Caldervale Line in the Greater Manchester area. It was one of the original
Manchester and Leeds Railway
The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access Leeds. The line followed the ...
station sites and for the first year of operation following its opening in July 1839, it was the temporary terminus of the line from Manchester (the section on through the
Summit Tunnel
Summit Tunnel in England is one of the world's oldest railway tunnels. It was constructed between 1838 and 1841 by the Manchester and Leeds Railway Company to provide a direct line between Leeds and Manchester. When built, Summit Tunnel was the ...
towards
Mirfield
Mirfield () is a town and civil parish in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury. At the 2011 census it had a population of 19,563. Mirfield f ...
not being completed until 1841). It did so again for some eight months after the December 1984
Summit Tunnel fire - passengers transferring between the trains to/from Manchester and a rail-replacement bus service onwards to
Todmorden
Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Hal ...
until repairs to the tunnel could be completed and the line reopened.
Facilities
The station's two platforms are staggered, with the Manchester-bound one (platform 1) the more southerly. Both have ramps & step-free access for disabled travellers. The station is staffed on a part-time basis (six days per week, mornings & early afternoons only), with the ticket office & waiting room on platform 2 open at these times. There are also shelters on both platforms & ticket vending machines available, so travellers can purchase tickets when the booking office is closed.
Services
![Northern Rail 144007 at Littleborough](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Northern_Rail_144007_at_Littleborough.jpg)
Monday to Saturday daytimes, there is a half-hourly service from Littleborough to Manchester Victoria westbound and to Todmorden eastbound, with trains running alternately to Leeds via
Dewsbury
Dewsbury is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, east of Hudder ...
and to Blackburn via (the latter beginning at the May 2015 timetable change). Westbound trains continue beyond Manchester via Atherton to since the May 2018 timetable change.
In the early morning, late evening and on Sundays, trains to Leeds operate via
Halifax rather than Dewsbury; the basic service pattern remains the same though.
[GB National Rail Timetable December 2019 Edition, Table 41 (Network Rail)]
References
External links
Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
DfT Category F2 stations
Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1839
Northern franchise railway stations
Littleborough, Greater Manchester
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