St Luke's railway station was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

History

It opened by the

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) was a major History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company before the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It was Incorporation (business)#Incorporation in the United Kingdom, incorpo ...

on 2 July 1883 as Barton Street, serving the route from Southport Chapel Street to

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

. It was then renamed three months later as Southport St Luke's Road. On 1 March 1902, the station was renamed again as Southport St Luke's, and in June of that year it began serving the Preston line, absorbing the adjacent

Southport Ash Street railway station Southport Ash Street was a railway station in Southport, Lancashire, England. History It opened as Southport Windsor Road on 10 June 1878 as the temporary terminus of the West Lancashire Railway from Preston. On 5 September 1882 a permanent ...

. The two platforms were almost at right angles to each other, both separated by a road named Hart Street. They did, however, share the same ticket office, located on the street at St Luke's Road. On 22 March 1904 the Preston line was electrified all the way up to

Crossens Crossens is the northernmost district of the town of Southport, Merseyside, England. Historically part of the ancient parish of North Meols and entirely in Lancashire, most of Crossens was transferred to Merseyside on 1 April 1974, when local ...

, and enabled a regular service to stop at St Luke's. In May 1914, the station was finally named St Luke's.

Decline and closure

Trains to Preston (including the Crossens electric shuttle) ended when the line was closed on 7 September 1964, a victim of the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

.Marshall, p.152 However the station did not close as some trains bound for Wigan still used part of the route. The direct line to Wigan then closed on 14 June 1965 with trains being diverted via

Meols Cop Meols Cop () is a small area within the Blowick suburb, in the coastal town of Southport, Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the ...

and a section of the old branch line to Altcar to allow the closure of the busy level crossing at

Blowick Blowick is a suburb on the east side of the town of Southport, Merseyside, England. History and etymology Blowick is part of the ancient parish of North Meols and was formerly a detached settlement, on the northern fringe of what is now Southp ...

. The end of St Luke's station came when the Preston platform, still serving a number of trains, finally closed on 9 September 1968. Today, the site of the Wigan platforms have been built over with a modern housing development, but the tracks widen at a point where the Preston platform used to stand and can be clearly seen by passing trains.

References

* Gell, Rob (1986). ''An Illustrated Survey of Railway Stations Between Southport & Liverpool 1848-1986''. Heyday Publishing Company, . * Marshall, John (1981) ''Forgotten Railways North-West England'', David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott. .

External links

Disused Stations Site Record - St. Lukes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Lukes Railway Station Disused railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1883 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1968 Buildings and structures in Southport