Greenbank railway station


Greenbank railway station serves the village of Hartford, Cheshire as well as the Greenbank and Castle areas of Northwich, Cheshire, England. The station is situated on the A559 road from Northwich to Chester.

History

The station was built by the West Cheshire Railway, a constituent of the Cheshire Lines Committee and opened to passengers on 22 June 1870. The CLC continued to operate both goods and passenger services from the station, unaffected by the railway grouping of 1923, until the railway nationalisation of 1948. The station name was Hartford and Greenbank until 7 May 1973 when British Railways renamed the station Greenbank, to avoid confusion with the nearby station on the West Coast Main Line. Greenbank was served by CLC trains from Manchester Central via Northwich to. From the closure of Manchester Central on 5 May 1969 & Chester Northgate on 6 October that year, trains from Greenbank were diverted to and the LNWR & GWR Joint Chester station, previously Chester General.
CLC trains were headed by locomotives in LNER livery. A link to LMS service was made by a shuttle service to using LMS stock. This service was nicknamed "The Dodger", but was withdrawn in 1942.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed and has a free car park. There is a public phone box opposite the station and a row of shops nearby. The Greenbank public house is next to the station and Mid Cheshire College is about away, with a Sainsbury's store opposite the college. The main station buildings are on the north-west side of the line and are presently used as a Christian church. Waiting shelters are provided on each side and train running details are offered via digital CIS displays, telephone and timetable posters. Step-free access is provided to both platforms.
The signal box is situated to the north of the station - this supervises the line from Cuddington through to and the various branches & siding connections from it.
Hartford's main station is about one mile to the west along the main A559 road - a 20-minute journey on foot or 5 minutes by car or taxi. Trains are available from there to Liverpool Lime Street,, Winsford, and Birmingham New Street.

Services

The service to and from Manchester Piccadilly and Chester on weekdays and Saturdays is basically hourly.
On Sundays, the trains run every two hours each way and the eastbound service runs through to Southport via Bolton & Wigan Wallgate.
The majority of trains used on the line are Class 142 or Class 150, together with the occasional Class 156.

Gallery