Rawtenstall railway station serves the town of

Rawtenstall Rawtenstall () is a town in the borough of Rossendale, Lancashire, England. The town lies 15 miles/24 km north of Manchester, 22 miles/35 km east of Preston and 45 miles/70 km south east of the county town of Lancaster. The town is at the cen ...

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 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 ...

, and is the northern terminus of the

East Lancashire Railway East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street railway station, Bury Bolton Street, ...

. It was formerly on the national railway network on the line to

Bacup Bacup ( , ) is a town in the Rossendale Borough in Lancashire, England, in the South Pennines close to Lancashire's boundaries with West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. The town is in the Rossendale Valley and the upper Irwell Valley, east of ...

as well as

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

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 t ...

. The

Association of Train Operating Companies The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), previously the Association of Train Operating Companies, is the British rail industry membership body that brings together passenger and freight rail companies, Network Rail and High Speed 2. History From 24 Oc ...

have identified that the community of

on the

Heritage Railway could benefit from services connecting the station to the National Network.

History

The current railway station opened in 1846 as part of a line from Clifton Junction built by the

(later incorporated into 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 ...

). The line reached Waterfoot in 1848 and

in 1852. For most of its life the station was on a through route for passenger services between

and Bacup via

. After being listed for closure under the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

passenger and goods services to Bacup were withdrawn on 3 December 1966 (up to the last day services were regular at least every half an hour, every fifteen minutes at peak times and on Saturdays) and passenger services to

on 3 June 1972. Freight services to the British Fuel Company's coal concentration depot continued until 4 December 1980 when

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

abruptly discontinued them, stating that the 14,000 tonnes of coal handled was far less than when the depot had been opened and the decline was mainly due to householders switching to other types of fuel. Closure came as a surprise to local councils which had been planning to transform Fernhill depot, alongside the Bury line, into a rail-served waste disposal facility capable of dealing with 600 tonnes per day by 1984. The coal depot at Rawtenstall would remain open to be served by road from rail-linked depots at Blackburn, Burnley and Chadderton. The station was subsequently rescued and saved in 1987 by the then newly re-opened

The railway station today

The station has been extensively rebuilt by the East Lancashire Railway, as nothing was left of the original buildings at closure. Part of the current station building lies across the former route on towards Bacup. The station has a ticket office and waiting room in the main building. The waiting room contains replicas of an original fireplace and original seats. The waiting room recently went through a restoration project, to make the station as original as possible. The ticket office is in the centre of the station. Along the platform there is also a small wooden waiting shelter. There are two platform faces, however only the main one is available for regular passenger services owing to the limitations of the signalling currently provided. The East Lancashire Railway operates every weekend throughout the year and Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays between Easter and the end of September. It offers a "local residents discount card" but does not claim to offer a true public transport facility.

Services

References

*Lost Railways of Lancashire by Gordon Suggitt () {{Coord, 53.69883, -2.29228, type:railwaystation_region:GB_source:npemap.org.uk-enwiki, display=title Heritage railway stations in the Borough of Rossendale Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1846 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1972 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1991 1846 establishments in England Beeching closures in England