Widnes railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Widnes
code = WID


manager = Northern Rail
locale = Widnes
borough = Halton
start = 1 August 1873
platforms = 2
lowusage0405 = 217,409
lowusage0506 = 250,801
lowusage0607 = 264,634
latitude = 53.37867
longitude = -2.73374

Widnes railway station (formerly known as "Widnes North") is a railway station in the town of Widnes, in the Halton unitary authority, in the county of Cheshire in the north west of England. It is a Grade II listed building. [http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=1&id=56060 Images of England] , accessed 17 July 2007] The station is operated by Northern Rail.

The station is of the standard Cheshire Lines Committee style. A footbridge connects the two platforms. The station is staffed, but only until 14:00 . There is a car park outside.

History

The station, opened in 1873, was originally known as Farnworth, which was at the time a village north of Widnes, but is now a northern suburb of the town. The station was later renamed Widnes North and finally Widnes (Widnes Central and Widnes South, on other lines, having closed in the 1960's).

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/ ("see alphabetical list under "Widnes")

ervice

There are generally two local trains (operated by Northern Rail) per hour in each direction, to Manchester Oxford Road to the east and Liverpool Lime Street to the west. Journey times from Widnes to Mancheter on these local trains are around 45-50 minutes, depending on the number of stops. Journey time to Liverpool is around 25-30 minutes, again depending on stops.

An express service also operates hourly in each direction (run by East Midlands Trains), continuing beyond Manchester Piccadilly towards Nottingham and East Anglia. The journey time on these trains from Widnes to Manchester in one direction and Liverpool in the other is around the 20 minute mark.

However as the express trains run for such a long distance, Liverpool to Norwich in many cases, these services suffer from reliability problems. Passengers are often annoyed to find that the express train they are there to catch simply does not appear. The delay or cancellation of the train is often not announced outside of ticket office hours (06:00 to 14:00 Mon-Sat), as there is no working PA system ot information boards at the station. Services are less frequent in evenings and on Sundays.

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Trivia

Paul Simon is supposed to have been inspired to write the song "Homeward Bound" while waiting at this station on a tour of the United Kingdom. A plaque commemorating this claim to fame was once situated on the Liverpool bound platform of the station. The song, however, was actually written at the now disused Ditton station.

Notes

External links