Lostock railway station serves the suburbs of Heaton and Lostock in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

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. Built for the

Liverpool and Bury Railway The Liverpool and Bury Railway was formed in 1845 and opened on 28 November 1848. The line ran from Liverpool Exchange first using a joint line with Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway before branching off to proceed via Kirkby then Wigan a ...

in 1852, the station was closed in 1966, then reopened on a smaller scale in 1988 to serve commuters. According to large scale

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maps and local usage, the surrounding area is named Lostock Junction and the station is referred to as such by many local people.

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

's "location map" uses the same name. This is similar to the situation in London where

Clapham Junction railway station Clapham Junction railway station () is a major railway station and transport hub near St John's Hill in south-west Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is from and from ; it is on both the South West Main Line and Brighton Main L ...

is in fact in Battersea, and the surrounding area has taken the name of Clapham Junction. Lostock itself is over a mile to the west of the station.

History

The railway line between and had opened as far as (between Adlington and ) on 4 February 1841, and among the original stations on this route, the first station out of Bolton was at . On 20 November 1848, the

was opened giving a route between Bolton and

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

, and the point where it connected to the Bolton–Preston line was named Lostock Junction; the first station out of Bolton on this route was . Later, a station was constructed at the junction, also named ''Lostock Junction'', which opened around August 1852. The station gave its name to the village which grew around it. This station had platforms on both the Preston and Wigan routes.Lostock and Chew Moor - Railways
. Retrieved 6 December 2009. On 17 July 1920, four people were killed and 148 were injured in a near head-on collision between two

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways. It was the third-largest railway system based in northern ...

passenger trains at Lostock Junction due to a signal having erroneously been passed at danger. Lostock Junction Station closed on 7 November 1966 as part of the programme of cuts initiated by the

Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. Either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames' ...

of 1963. However, on 16 May 1988 the station was reopened, but now with platforms only on the Preston route and renamed ''Lostock Parkway'', a large car park for the use of park-and-ride commuters having been provided. The suffix "Parkway" was later dropped.

Services

The two-platform station is served by two

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

services per hour southbound to via and northbound to and . It is a popular commuter station. Saturday and Sunday services were replaced by buses most weekends from May 2015 until November 2018 due to the late-running electrification work on the route. Weekend services resumed on Sunday 11 November 2018 after the completion of the electrification engineering work. Electric service commenced on Monday 11 February 2019, operated by Class 319

electric multiple units An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

. Sunday services are reduced to 1 train per hour, with 4 services on Sunday mornings terminating at . All services are operated using electric units.

Station improvements

Most recently in early 2009, the station has had a passenger information display system installed, giving waiting passengers on the platforms information about trains that are due to arrive. Fully computer automated, it is also equipped with an audio speaker system, giving the benefit of announcements of train arrivals and delays. During December 2008 - Spring 2009 the car park facilities were greatly improved by extending and resurfacing the land surrounding the railway, with the addition of floodlighting and CCTV.

Facilities

The station has a ticket office, which is staffed from start of service until 19:35, six days per week (closed Sundays). A ticket vending machine is in place for purchase of tickets or promise to pay coupons when the ticket office is closed and for the collection of pre-paid tickets. Shelters are located on each platform and both have step-free access (via ramps northbound).Lostock station facilities
''National Rail Enquiries''; Retrieved 9 December 2016

References

External links

Local information
{{Buildings and structures in Bolton Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton DfT Category E stations Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1852 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1988 Reopened railway stations in Great Britain Northern franchise railway stations 1920 disasters in the United Kingdom 1852 establishments in England Beeching closures in England