Rufford railway station

Rufford National Rail
Location
Place Rufford
Local authority West Lancashire
Grid reference SD466156
Operations
Station code RUF
Managed by Northern
Number of platforms 2
DfT category F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13 Increase 19,978
2013/14 Decrease 19,150
2014/15 Decrease 17,470
2015/16 Decrease 16,674
2016/17 Increase 18,286
History
Key dates Opened 1849 (1849)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Rufford from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Rufford railway station, opened on 2 April 1849, serves the village of Rufford in Lancashire, England. The station is (9½ miles) south west of Preston on the Preston-Ormskirk branch service. The line was formerly the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway, which was quickly merged into the East Lancashire Railway on 3 August 1846; this in turn was merged into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in May 1859.

The level crossing runs across the B5246, the aptly named "Station Road". This is supervised from the nearby signal box, which also controls the only passing loop on the otherwise single track branch line.

History

Direct trains to Liverpool via Ormskirk (and also to Blackburn and East Lancashire) were withdrawn from Rufford station in October 1969, though Liverpool trains continued to run through non-stop until May of the following year. From July 1970, Rufford became the only passing point on the truncated Preston-Ormskirk branch line after the Midge Hall to Ormskirk section was singled. Over that same summer the station was rebuilt, with its wooden platforms and substantial station building demolished and replaced with more functional and basic facilities.

Until the late 1980s, peak-hour trains on the Preston-Ormskirk line continued to cross at Rufford station.[1] Thereafter the timetable was further reduced, leaving the branch line to be operated by a single DMU running essentially along a long siding. Rufford's Victorian signal box was demolished in October 1988 and replaced with a portakabin like structure on the site of the former station building.

Over the past twenty five years, changes in the station's layout and traction have been minimal. The portakabin signal box is due to close, along with that at Midge Hall, in 2017.[2] Network Rail plans to automate the crossing here, remove the loop and raise the line speed to 75mph to allow a more frequent timetable to operate.

Service

On Mondays to Saturdays there is a service westbound to Ormskirk to connect with the Merseyrail service to Liverpool Central and eastbound to Preston and Blackpool South roughly every hour. This is an improvement on the former irregular frequency (twelve per day each way) operated under the previous timetable.

There is no Sunday service. A normal service operates on Bank holidays.[3]

References

  1. ↑ GB National Rail Timetable May 1987 Edition, Table 99
  2. ↑ "Section C - 2017". Signalbox.org. Retrieved 2012-08-25.
  3. ↑ GB eNRT May 2018 Edition, Table 99
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Croston   Northern
Ormskirk Branch Line
Mondays-Saturdays only		   Burscough Junction
Disused railways
Terminus   Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Burscough Curves North		   Burscough Bridge

Coordinates: 53°38′06″N 2°48′25″W / 53.635°N 2.807°W / 53.635; -2.807

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.