Clitheroe railway station serves the town of

Clitheroe Clitheroe () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists visiting the area. In 2018, the Cl ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

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 ...

. The station is the northern terminus of the Ribble Valley Line / Clitheroe Line operated by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

and is north of

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

. The station forms part of Clitheroe Interchange, which has won a number of awards.

History

The original station opened on 22 June 1850. It was replaced in 1893–4 by another approximately to the north. The station closed to normal services on 10 September 1962 (that is, before the Beeching cuts) but remained in use for special services until 7 February 1971. The special services resumed on 14 May 1990, and the station was fully reopened on 29 May 1994, when passenger services began again from Blackburn. The line from here continues northwards towards , but this section is normally used only by freight and engineering trains on weekdays; passenger services are limited to a pair of Sundays only ''Dalesrail'' charter trains and occasional railtours. The line also forms part of a valuable strategic diversionary route between and , which is utilised if planned engineering work blocks the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

over Shap. It has also been used in emergency for unplanned work between these locations. Terminating trains from the Blackburn direction run empty up to Horrocksford Junction to the north (where the former Ribble Cement (now Hansons) factory branch diverges from the main line) and use the crossover there to reverse and change lines prior to returning to the station. The station has since become an award-winning bus and train transport interchange. The bus station, known as the Clitheroe Interchange, is the terminus for bus connections bringing passengers from towns and villages in the

Ribble Valley Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clith ...

area to the train service to and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

. The Ribble Valley Line is a community railway line and is supervised by the Ribble Valley Rail group, which includes the train operator Northern.

Facilities

The station had a ticket office, which was next to the old station building (which is used as an art gallery). The ticket office, operated by Lancashire County Council rather than operator Northern permanently closed from February 2020. It was staffed Monday to Friday. All tickets must now be purchased via mobile device or from the ticket machine on Platform 1. There are waiting shelters on both platforms (which are offset from each other) and train running details are provided via digital screens, signage, customer help points and automatic announcements. Step-free access is available on both sides.

Services

All train services are operated by

. There is generally an hourly service daily from Clitheroe to via

and

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 co ...

with some extra trains during weekday peak hours. Northern used to operate a variety of train types on the route, including Class 142 units but now Northern only operate a variety of Sprinter trains, including Class 150, Class 153, Class 156, Class 158 units. For much of 2017 and 2018, Saturday and Sunday services to Manchester have either been partially replaced by buses south of Bolton or diverted via and due to the

Manchester to Preston Line Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

being closed for electrification work. On Sundays, one or two trains operate from Preston along the Ribble Valley Line via Clitheroe to Hellifield and onwards towards via the Settle-Carlisle Line. This improves on the previous service that only ran in the summer. Due to overcrowding at certain times, there are plans from the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

to increase services from 1 tph to 2 tph; however, the funding for this may not be available. Image:Clitheroe railway station 2.JPG, The old station building, now converted into the Platform Gallery. Image:Clitheroe railway station 3.JPG, A view of platform 2 from the Platform Gallery. Image:Clitheroe railway station 4.JPG, A view of the old goods depot, now

Booths Booths is a chain of high-end supermarkets in Northern England. Most of its branches are in Lancashire, but there are also branches in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. It has been described as the "Wait ...

supermarket.

Notes

References

* * Welch, M.S. (2004) ''Lancashire Steam Finale'', Runpast Publishing, Cheltenham,

External links

Clitheroe Interchange - Lancashire County Council Environmental Directorate

Ribble Valley Rail official websiteVideo of Clitheroe Railway Station
{{Coord, 53, 52, 26, N, 2, 23, 39, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Clitheroe Railway stations in Ribble Valley DfT Category F2 stations Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1850 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1962 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1994 Reopened railway stations in Great Britain Northern franchise railway stations