Burscough Junction railway station

Burscough Junction pronounced (Burs/co Junction) is one of two railway stations serving the town of Burscough in Lancashire, England. It is sited on the Ormskirk Branch Line, 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) north of Ormskirk and is served by Northern Trains. The station was the scene of the Burscough Junction rail accident in 1880.^[1]

Burscough Junction
General information
Location	Burscough, West Lancashire England
Grid reference	SD444115
Managed by	Northern Trains
Platforms	1
Other information
Station code	BCJ
Classification	DfT category F2
History
Opened	1849
Passengers
2019/20	47,908
2020/21	11,590
2021/22	40,584
2022/23	40,270
2023/24	47,946
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Service

A Northern class 158 stopping at Burscough Junction with a service from Ormskirk to Preston.

The line sees a Monday–Saturday service of approximately every hour each way (since the May 2018 timetable change), with northbound services running through to Blackpool South (though not advertised as such in the timetable). There is no Sunday service.^[2]

History

The station opened in April 1849, and enjoyed a regular service to numerous destinations, including Preston, Blackburn, Southport and Liverpool.

A serious railway accident occurred near the station in 1880 (for full details see Burscough Junction rail accident). After the locomotive swapped ends of the train at Burscough Junction it should have swapped line on departure for Liverpool, but the points had not been set to swap tracks, and so it proceeded straight on and it met the express from Liverpool, head on, at some distance down the line.

From the autumn of 1968, stopping express services to Scotland and the Lake District were withdrawn. In October of the following year, through trains to Blackburn also ceased and the remaining Blackpool to Liverpool stopping service was cut back to Ormskirk, leaving only local services and a few non-stop expresses; the line was severed entirely at Ormskirk from 4 May 1970. Singling followed at the end of June 1970. Unlike the other stations at Croston and Rufford, Burscough Junction retained its station buildings for a few years. These were demolished at the end of 1973, and replaced with the current, extremely basic, arrangement.

Interchange

The other station in Burscough is Burscough Bridge, and is only ten minutes away by foot. The name "Junction" is an anachronism: similar to Dalston Junction in London, the station no longer serves such a purpose.

The station in 1964

Facilities

Only one platform remains in use, with basic shelters and a long-line public address system. There are ticket machines which require card, so passengers paying cash will need to pay on the train. The platform is fully DDA-compliant, with step free access from the main entrance on Station Lane.^[3]