Appley Bridge
Appley Bridge station in 2015, with a Northern Rail Class 150 at the Southport-bound platform, seen from the Appley Lane North road bridge.
General information
Location	Appley Bridge, West Lancashire England
Grid reference	SD524093
Managed by	Northern Trains
Transit authority	Greater Manchester
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	APB
Classification	DfT category F1
Key dates
9 April 1855	Station opens
Passengers
2018/19	0.224 million
2019/20	0.227 million
2020/21	39,006
2021/22	0.128 million
2022/23	0.131 million
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Appley Bridge railway station serves the villages of Appley Bridge and Shevington, both in Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester in England. The station is 4.4 miles (7 km) north-west of Wigan Wallgate on the Manchester-Southport Line. The station is in Lancashire, but it is supported by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive and as such within the TfGM ticketing zone. It is operated by Northern Trains.

The main stone-built station building survives adjacent to the Wigan-bound platform, but is now a public house; there are modest shelters on both platforms for rail travellers.

History

The station was built by the Manchester and Southport Railway and opened on 9 April 1855. From January 1885 it was part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR). The main stone-built station building (no longer in use) was built during that time, in the standard L&YR style. The L&YR amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922, and this, in turn, was grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923. Nationalisation followed in 1948. When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Regional Railways until the privatisation of British Rail.

A Greater Manchester Council landfill site and transfer terminal was formerly located a short distance west of the station, served by a siding connection from the up (eastbound) line. This received regular trainloads of domestic waste from terminals in and around Manchester from the early 1980s until 1995, when the site reached capacity and was closed. The defunct siding is still intact and is visible from passing trains.

Facilities

The station is unmanned, but there is a ticket machine provided to allow passengers to buy prior to travel or collect pre-paid tickets. Train running information can be obtained by phone and timetable posters. There is step-free access to both platforms from the nearby road bridge via ramps.^[1]

Services

On Monday to Saturday daytimes, there are two trains an hour westbound to Southport and eastbound to Wigan. Beyond here, services run via Bolton to either Stalybridge via Manchester Victoria or Manchester Oxford Road (services beyond there towards Manchester Piccadilly and points south ended at the winter 2022 timetable change).^[2]

On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Southport and Blackburn via Manchester Victoria.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Parbold		Northern Trains Southport to Manchester Line		Gathurst