Acton Bridge
General information
Location	Acton Bridge, Borough of Cheshire West and Chester England
Coordinates	53°15′59″N 2°36′10″W / 53.2664°N 2.6029°W / 53.2664; -2.6029
Grid reference	SJ598745
Managed by	London Northwestern Railway
Platforms	3
Other information
Station code	ACB
Classification	DfT category F2
Key dates
4 July 1837	Station opens as Acton
1 July 1870	Station renamed Acton Bridge
Passengers
2018/19	22,578
2019/20	27,976
2020/21	8,482
2021/22	30,838
2022/23	33,040
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Acton Bridge railway station serves the nearby villages of Acton Bridge and Weaverham, Cheshire, in the northwest of England. It is situated on the West Coast Main Line between Hartford and Warrington, and also sees trains between Liverpool and Birmingham.

History

Acton Bridge opened as Acton by the Grand Junction Railway in 1837,^[1]: 58 but was renamed Acton Bridge in 1870. After merging into the London and North Western Railway, the company became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923.

The line then passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railways upon nationalisation in 1948. In addition to its main line calls, the station also served as the terminus of a local service from Crewe via Sandbach and Northwich until 1942. This used a connecting curve that diverged from the main line just north of Hartford to join the Cheshire Lines Committee line from Altrincham to Chester Northgate near Greenbank, which remains in use, but for freight traffic only.

When sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Regional Railways until the privatisation of British Rail. Trains of the Intercity Sector passed through on express services along the West Coast Main Line.

When British Rail was privatised, Acton Bridge was served by Central Trains until 2007 and then served by London Midland until 2017, before going most recently onto London Northwestern. The latter briefly provided services beyond Birmingham all the way to London Euston until the drop in demand caused by the Covid-19 pandemic meant that this was unviable and so the service was cut once more to Birmingham New Street via Crewe, and Wolverhampton.

Facilities

Acton Bridge is un-staffed, although tickets can be purchased from a self-service ticket machine, which is connected to the national network, located inside the booking hall. There is no wheelchair access, as all platforms can only be accessed by steps from the footbridge. The station has limited bus connections, and a small car park which can hold around 25 vehicles. Each platform has rudimentary waiting shelters and help points. There is a toilet underneath the road bridge, but it has been closed for many years and is in an unusable condition.

The station, and its gardens, are maintained by volunteers from Acton Bridge Women's Institute, and won a Commendation in the 2003 JPD 'Best Kept Station' competition.

Services

Acton Bridge has one train per hour on a weekday all operated by London Northwestern Class 350 trains running between Liverpool Lime Street and Birmingham New Street. These services start later on Sundays and run once an hour from mid morning. Most trains, particularly southbound, use the centre platforms on the main line, but when a train is delayed or there is disruption, some southbound services towards Birmingham may use the relief line platform instead.^[2]

Just south of the station, the line goes from double track to four lines, with two being not only relief lines but also providing connections onto the Chester to Manchester line via Greenbank and Northwich. This link is used primarily by freight, although it could be used as an additional link between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly.

Trains by Avanti West Coast pass through on services between London, Liverpool and Scotland, but don't stop, although there have been incidents where these trains have paused on the relief line during disruption. It's also been thought that London Northwestern Railway would like to introduce additional services north to Preston, in addition to their route to Liverpool Lime Street, although there's been no solid commitment to this yet. It's additionally something that London Midland initially proposed, but didn't successfully introduce.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Hartford		London Northwestern Railway West Coast Main Line		Runcorn
	Historical railways
Hartford		London and North Western Railway Grand Junction Railway		Preston Brook