Castleton railway station serves Castleton in the

Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. It is named after its largest town, Rochdale, The borough covers other outlying towns and villages with a population of 206,500 at ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tamesid ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It is 8¾ miles (14 km) north of

Manchester Victoria Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England is a combined mainline railway station and Metrolink tram stop. Situated to the north of the city centre on Hunts Bank, close to Manchester Cathedral, it adjoins Manchester Arena which was co ...

on the

Caldervale Line The Calder Valley line (also previously known as the Caldervale line) is a railway route in Northern England between the cities of Leeds and Manchester as well as the seaside resort of Blackpool. It is the slower of the two main rail routes ...

operated and managed by Northern.

History

The original station opened in 1839, at Blue Pits on the western side of the Rochdale-Manchester Road bridge. It was originally called ''Blue Pits for Heywood''. The current station opened on 1 November 1875. The

Liverpool and Bury Railway The Liverpool and Bury Railway was formed in 1845 and opened on 28 November 1848. The line ran from Liverpool Exchange first using a joint line with Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway before branching off to proceed via Kirkby then Wigan ...

from

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ce ...

(extended through from Bolton and beyond in 1848 to join the earlier M&L Heywood branch previously opened in 1841, which was worked by horses) used to join the main line at a triangular junction a short distance south of the station. This was at one time a busy passenger and freight route often used by trains avoiding the busy Manchester area, but was closed to passengers on 5 October 1970.
The station was also part of the

Oldham Loop Line The Oldham Loop Line was a local railway route in Greater Manchester, England, used by trains that ran from Manchester Victoria to Rochdale via Oldham Mumps. Services on the line at the time of its closure were operated by Northern Rail. The ...

on which there were through services to

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, w ...

via

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

. This route was closed in 2009 and has now been converted for light rail use by

Manchester Metrolink Manchester Metrolink (branded locally simply as Metrolink) is a tram/ light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network has 99 stops along of standard-gauge route, making it the most extensive light rail system in the United Ki ...

Services

On Monday to Saturday daytimes, there is a half-hourly service in each direction. From 4 June 2018, apart from a handful of peak hour/later evening and Sunday services, the basic pattern is for trains to start at Rochdale then stop at all stations including Castleton to Manchester Victoria, and continue via Salford Central, Salford Crescent, and to Blackburn, with alternate trains continuing to . On Sundays, the service pattern is hourly between Manchester Victoria - Castleton - Rochdale - Todmorden - Burnley - Accrington and Blackburn. Southbound trains continue beyond Victoria to and via Atherton.

Facilities

The station is not staffed, but a ticket machine is available. Shelters and passenger information screens are located on each platform and both have step-free access from the street (there are also staircases from Manchester Road bridge to both platforms).

East Lancashire Railway future

The eastern portion of this line was retained for freight traffic after passenger trains ceased (serving the coal depot at Rawtenstall until 1980, and subsequently to the Powell Duffryn wagon works) and it now forms the link with the

East Lancashire Railway East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street, , Summerseat and Ramsbottom, with ...

heritage route at Heywood. The heritage line plans to extend its services along and towards a possible new bay platform adjacent to the main station in the future,Minister steams in for talks on new line
'Bury Times'' news article; Retrieved 2013-08-22 subject to permission being granted by Network Rail. The bay platform (named Castleton Village) will be adjacent to the main station at Castleton, from where passengers could alight and change station sides directly to Northern Rail services on the national network. Rochdale Council commissioned a study by transport consultants Mouchel in conjunction with the ELR regarding the proposals in 2010; their report which covers the tourism and regeneration aspects of any such future development can be downloaded from the ELR website.

Notes

References

*The Manchester and Leeds Railway by Martin Bairstow (1983), () *Forgotten Railways: North-West England by John Marshall (1981), David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott. ()

External links

The Castleton and Heywood Masterplan 2010
Moucel report on potential ELR extension through to Castleton station. {{DEFAULTSORT:Castleton Railway Station Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale DfT Category F1 stations Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations Northern franchise railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1875