Ormskirk railway station is situated in the town of Ormskirk, Lancashire, England. The station is an interchange between Merseyrail services from Liverpool Central and Northern Rail services from Preston. The station building and three arch road bridge are both Grade II listed structures.
The station was built by the East Lancashire Railway, Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston section, and opened on 2 April 1849. From 13 May 1859, the station was owned by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. From 1 January 1923 the station was owned by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. British Railways nationalised all railways on 1 January 1948 and the station became part of the London Midland Region.
The current station consists of a single platform. An interesting characteristic is how the electric Merseyrail trains and diesel Northern Rail trains are separated on arrival by a large buffer, so passengers wishing to go from one to another walk a dozen yards or so along the platform to move between trains. (A similar layout exists at Kirkby.) Prior to the restructuring of the railways in the 1960s and 1970s, there were two platforms. The EMU commuter trains would pull into a bay platform (with buffers) as can be seen on the 1915 photograph (to the right of the picture). This practice ended following the withdrawal of through trains between Liverpool and Preston via this route (the last through trains ran on 3 May 1970) and all trains now use the former Liverpool platform (the Preston-bound Up platform remains but is disused). The bay platform is now a footpath leading to the bus station.
Services to Liverpool Central operate frequently, running every 15 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes at other times. Services to Preston are irregular, with a total of 12 services in each direction Monday–Saturday, and no service on Sundays.
The former link between Ormskirk and Southport, via the Burscough Curves, was closed in 1962. The Skelmersdale Branch has also been lost, having closed to passengers in 1956 and to all traffic seven years later. It was lifted in 1968, though the Burscough curves remained extant until the mid 1980s.
Read more about Ormskirk Railway Station: Refurbishment
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