Darwen railway station serves

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the sout ...

, a town in

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 Lancashi ...

, England. It was opened in 1847 by the ''Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe & West Yorkshire Railway'', which was subsequently taken over by the

Lancashire and 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 ...

twelve years later. It is now served by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a State-owned enterprises of the United Kingdom, publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT) ...

services on the Ribble Valley Line from

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

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 ...

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 ...

and into

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 ...

. Darwen is set amongst the hills of East Lancashire. Arriving from or departing towards Bolton involves journeying through the long Sough Tunnel, some in length.

History

The railway line between Blackburn (Bolton Road) and was built by the Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway, but it had amalgamated with the Blackburn, Clitheroe and North Western Junction Railway to form the Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe and West Yorkshire Railway by the time that the first section, from Blackburn to , including the station at ''Over Darwen'', from Blackburn, was opened on 3 August 1847. The station was renamed ''Darwen'' on 1 December 1883. The neighbouring stations either side which also served the area, at

Lower Darwen Lower Darwen is a village in the unitary borough of Blackburn with Darwen, contiguous with the town of Darwen, in the county of Lancashire. It is located between the towns of Blackburn and Darwen. Nearby places include Ewood and Blackamoor. ...

and

Spring Vale Spring Vale is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council, West Midlands, England. It is situated SSE of the city centre, on the city's border with the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 12,243. Ge ...

, were both closed in 1958 and the nearest surviving station to the south is now .

Facilities

The station has two platforms. It is one of only two passing points on the otherwise single track Blackburn to Bolton part of the route, but trains normally cross here only in the morning and evening peak periods. The loop was extended in length by a mile (1.6 km) either side of the station during a six-week-long engineering blockade in July & August 2015 to increase capacity on the line and eventually allow a half-hourly service to operate (as specified in the new

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 ...

franchise agreement, due to come into effect in April 2016). The station is currently unstaffed, with waiting shelters on each platform; step-free access is available to both. Ticket machines are available, along with a long-line P.A system and passenger information screens to convey train running information.

Services

Since the December 2017 timetable change, the weekdays and Saturday service to Blackburn northbound and to and

southbound is now half-hourly all day.GB eNRT May 2018 Edition, Table 94 Alternate northbound trains continue through to , whilst nearly all southbound trains continue beyond Manchester to . On Sundays the service is usually hourly to both Clitheroe and Manchester.

References

External links

{{Blackburn with Darwen culture Railway stations in Blackburn with Darwen DfT Category F1 stations Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1847 Northern franchise railway stations Darwen 1847 establishments in England