Saturday 8th February 2025
Wigan’s two stations are both located on Wallgate just 100 metres apart.
Tessa Sanderson could easily throw a javelin from one entrance to the other (assuming no pedestrians were about for obvious Health & Safety issues).
Wigan North Western came first, opening in 1838 as plain Wigan with a renaming to add ‘North Western’ in 1924.
The station, run by Avanti West Coast, is located on the West Coast Main Line between Euston and Glasgow and won’t win any prizes for architectural merit, although it was refurbished as recently as 2012 with a plaque on display commemorating the great occasion.
A claim to visual historic fame North Western does have is the retention of some classic British Rail typeface signs on both the platforms…
… making for a contrast with the more modern contemporary version also on display.
Over the road, Wigan Wallgate is run by Northern and sits on the Southport to Salford/Manchester lines. It dates back to 1848 albeit being originally sited further east and even closer to North Western before relocating and now enjoying a rather attractive frontage facade. Oddly, the station lacks a National Rail double arrow symbol on a totem pole – one of the few to do so, although coincidentally one of the next station pair to feature in this series also lacks one, so perhaps it’s not as uncommon as I first thought.
The station sees four trains an hour (including one starting from the station) to Salford and Manchester with two going via Atherton and two via Bolton. One journey an hour terminates at each of Manchester Oxford Road, Stalybridge, Blackburn or Leeds both via Todmorden with the latter the Wigan Wallgate starter.
In the other direction the Leeds originating journey terminates at Wigan Wallgate each hour, the Blackburn continues to Headbolt Lane and the Oxford Road and Stalybridge go to Southport. It sees a variety of train types including the unusual Class 769 which were formerly Class 319 in the Thameslink fleet.
The station has a minimal entrance area with a five bay gateline. There’s a two window ticket office and two mega-size ticket machines one of which takes cash.
Some rather steep stairs take you down to platform level…
…with a former goods lift to the left of the stairs, upgraded to take passengers which has a separate access to and from the street separate from the gateline.
The directional signs above the stairs still thinks trains can be taken to Kirkby, whereas this was cut back to the new Headbolt Lane in 2023.
The island platform (1 and 2)…
… offers toilets…
… and a waiting room…
… as well as a water point.
Platform 1 has minimal seating compared to platform 2 but is probably the lesser used by passengers boarding trains.
At the far end there’s a bay platform 3 for terminating trains from the Southport/Headbolt lane direction…
… but ironically trains from those destinations operate through towards Manchester. The hourly terminating train comes from the Manchester direction so sets down passengers on platform 1 before proceeding to sidings and returning just over an hour later to depart from platform 2.
A new building has been erected between some foliage and the bay platform 3…
…. which is to be used for driver training of Northern staff.
Heading north out of Wigan Wallgate, trains pass under the main line going through neighbouring North Western…
… while south of Wallgate tracks to the two stations run in parallel for a short distance with a northbound connection across to North Western which used to be used by at least one train a day as an unusual working.
Over at Wigan North Western station there’s another minimalist entrance foyer but this time with no gateline.
A two window ticket office is supplemented by a large size ticket machine…
… a water point and sugary snacks and drinks vending machine.
Toilets are just round the corner…
… and round another corner is the subway under the tracks with stairs and lifts up to the two island platforms above.
Although there are platforms numbered as high as 6, platform 1 is rarely, if ever, used…
… and there is no (bay) platform 2 as the interface with the tracks has a barrier to prevent access to any train stabling there.
The bay platform 3 does see occasional use with trains terminating and starting from/to sidings or the Manchester direction leaving platforms 4, 5 and 6 as the three in constant use.
Platform 4 sees the hourly Avanti West Coast departure to Euston (originating in Glasgow) as well as the hourly to Euston via Birmingham (originating in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Blackpool). It also sees Northern’s hourly Blackpool North to Liverpool Lime Street and the occasional (four hourly) TransPennine Express Glasgow to Liverpool Lime Street.
Island platforms 5 and 6 have the latter seeing the hourly terminating Northern stopping service between Liverpool Lime Street and Wigan North Western while the former sees the opposite direction of southbound trains calling at platform 4.
There’s a cafe on platforms 5/6 …
… and a waiting room…
… while platform 4 also has a waiting room to a rather novel octagon style shape.
Platforms 5 and 6 have a Customer Information door…
… but on the other island platform, Customer Services is boarded up.
… with a shutter firmly down on what may have been a retail outlet.
Buses stop right outside Wigan North Western towards Skelmersdale, St Helens, Leigh, Pemberton, Appley Bridge and other destinations and both stations are very close to the town centre and a short walk to the bus station.
Two very different stations in character offering journeys to very different destinations. Very Wigan.
Roger French
Did you catch the two previous blogs in this series? 1: Hertford; 2: Canterbury.
Blogging timetable 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
One fairly recent addition to North Western’s facilities is a digital indicator displaying the next bus departures from outside the station. It is sited almost below the train departures screen, but to one side. You’ll have missed it as it’s presently out of action and its screen is covered with a large paper apology. It appears to be just visible in your interior photo of the entrance hall, to the right of the water dispenser. However, even if working it is of limited/no value to passengers arriving by train as it is invisible to them, mounted as it is in a corner facing the entrance door. A grudging recognition of the existence of valuable bus connections.
Robin Bence
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Thanks Robin; yes I did miss that.
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I remember Wigan from one of my All Line Rover tours decades ago! I overslept the Oxenholme stop on my way from Scotland to Windermere so had no alternative but to walk the streets of Wigan for several hours waiting for the first northbound train, the following day. That café at North Western came in very handy before I made my way to the Lake District.
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Last Monday Wigan North Western provided the gateway for a weeks travel on Greater Manchesters Bee Network of buses and trams using my Bee network smartcard.
It has recently been announced that the Bee Network of co ordinated transport is coming to rail at both Wigan stations before the end of the decade.
Transport for Greater Manchester has excellent where to catch your bus posters at interchange points where I can find my stop at a glance. They also have local area maps at many bus stops with most importantly you are here on them. Streetview allows readers to see those in the bus shelters outside Wigan North Western station.
They put Avanti Onward Travel touch screens in light blue on dark blue to shame and existed long before franchising. Clarity in use of colour in displays has long been the poor relation of accessible travel.
Avanti have been introducing Onward Travel touch screens at their stations replacing Network Rail’s straight forward clear Onward Travel posters of bus destinations with maps, that are available as PDF by searching on google.
The Wigan NW Avanti screen was working last September, however the map displayed Perry Island in northern Alaska and only Arriva bus departures were shown.
Wigans stations will “say Yellow” to the Bee Network and I look forward to topping up my Bee network smartcard as I have topped up my Walrus for years as I use Liverpool South Parkway as a gateway to Merseyside, where Andy Burnham’s vision of a yellow revolution of integrated buses is also becoming a reality.
On my next visit to the Bee network later in a couple of weeks, I’ll leave Wigan North Western via the Booking Hall rather than the more convenient sidegate most regular travellers use to check the screen and report it to Avanti customer services.
John Nicholas
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The lack of a double-arrow totem outside Wigan Wallgate is interesting.
I believe it used to be a requirement in franchise agreements that the double-arrow sign was clearly displayed outside every station. What I don’t know is whether that requirement has been dropped (or whether DfT is holding its own operations, of which Northern is one, to the same standard)
Malc M
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it had one 12 years ago. My guess is it last an argument with the weather, a bus or a drunk at some point
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3285606
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An interesting report, thank you Roger.
Some reasons why platform 1 (at North Western) is rarely used: very low speed restriction over the sharply-curved points at the north end (10 mph, I think); and the curvature along the platform resulting in increased stepping distance and poor visibility for safe dispatch of a long train.
Platform 2 might be used by train movements (reversing at NW) between the Manchester / Bolton line and Warrington or Liverpool, e.g. empty stock, track maintenance machines, light engines.
I can understand the closure of the customer services and retail outlets on platform 4. They would not want people congregating outside close to the edge of the platform where trains can pass at high speed.
John M.
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Interesting to compare the differing gate line setups at the two stations. I wonder what the policy (if one exists) is about gate lines. Here (Harrogate) my local station has a gate line, despite only being served by trains between Leeds & York via Knaresborough (plus a handful of direct London trains). York, by contrast, has no gate line despite having trains to many parts of the country. My logic (which could well be faulty) suggests that the reverse situation would make more sense.
John
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Historically the InterCity sector was against gatelines and that attitude made its way to the successor TOCs, whereas Provincial/Regional Railways and NSE were generally in favour.
Mergers and DfT pressure have meant that some IC TOCs, such as GWR, have changed their tune but West Coast and East Coast are still strongly against gatelines, with East Coast going so far as to remove them during the Virgin era.
Of course, there’s still a fantasy amongst elements of the IC TOCs that all passengers are prebooked and so no form of revenue protection is needed. Anyone who’s ever checked tickets on trains or even listened to fellow passengers openly discussing how rarely they bother buying tickets will know that it is a fantasy.
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There have been several attempts to install barriers at York including 2009 (NXEC) and 2019 (LNER). The Council have rejected them justifying their decision under listed building rules. There have also been some confusing statements that one of the bridges in the station is a public footpath, although no one seems to be able to prove this or otherwise.
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I live in GWR land, and yes my station, Chippenham, has a gateline as does Bath Spa. These are locked open late at night though, so the hoards catching the last inter city train from Bath back to Chippenham after a night out probably don’t pay or just buy a single for their outward journey. Perhaps with the railway’s crazy fare structure this situation doesn’t result in a significant loss of revenue though.
Peter Brown
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That closed retail unit on platform 4 (Wigan North Western) was a useful victualling point in the past.
Steven Saunders
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The retail unit on platform 4 closed very recently. It was open last year up until early December (the last time I got a train from there)
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I have only been there once, at Wigan North Western. At the time it was part of a combination of trains that combined to be the last potential journey of the day from Liverpool Lime Street to Euston. It felt somewhat odd to be travelling northwards to get to a southern destination, but it worked
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The older pictures on Google Streetview show that Wallgate did have a BR totem attached to one of the canopy (porte cochere?) pillars. It is still visible in the April 2017 picture, when the station was covered in scaffolding, but is no longer there in September 2018.
The BR arrow on the fascia disappeared at the same time.
KCC
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Some trains will divert from Wallgate to North Western later this year after electrification of the line from Bolton.
Paul B
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There is one ECS working between Wallgate and North Western at 22.14 each weekday. It includes two reversals and takes 18 minutes! Nothing the other way though.
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Sorry – it’s North Western to Wallgate.
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At the right of the photograph of the North Western subway is a predominantly grey machine that looks to be a card reader with keypad plus a slot for either dispensing a ticket or validating a ticket / card.
What is the purpose? Public or rail staff only?
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I think it is the ticket machine for the car park.
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Ahhh … thank you. I did wonder but it seemed an odd place although Roger states that there is not a gateline.
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Wigan Wallgate has at least 1 bridge problem – low height from railhead to bridge underside currently precluding 25kv overhead wires and no easy solution. I think it is the road bridge at the entrance. Cannot raise the bridge due to buildings on it and services in the roadway and also cannot lower the trackbed (but I forget the last reason I read for the trackbed issue)
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