Swinton railway station serves the town of Swinton and Pendlebury in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. Swinton is one of the local stations that lie on the Manchester to Southport Line between Wigan and Manchester. The station is located north-west of Manchester Victoria with regular Northern Trains services to these towns as well as Salford, Atherton and Hindley, with onward trains to Wigan, Kirkby and Southport. It opened along with the line to passenger trains in June 1887. Although the station is in the City of Salford, rather than Manchester, the name "Swinton " is used by National Rail to refer to the station. The station is actually located in Pendlebury and not Swinton itself, the boundary between the two districts being about 40 yards further down Station Road, beyond the junction with Boundary Road and nearer the town centre. Swinton railway station has relatively basic facilities. For example, the ticket office is only open until 12:50 on weekdays and 13:50 on Saturdays - after this time one must purchase tickets on board the train. A screen in the booking hall lists live departure times of the trains showing any delays or cancellations, and screens are also now installed in the centre of the island platform showing live train departure information to commuters waiting on the platforms. An intercom type unit is also installed on the platform which passengers can use in the event of an emergency or if they need help or information when the station is unstaffed. As the ticket office is at street level and connected to the platforms via a staircase, no step-free access is available for wheelchair or mobility-impaired users.
Service
Monday to Saturday daytimes, two trains per hour go southbound towards Manchester Victoria and two per hour towards Wigan Wallgate (hourly onwards to Southport and Kirkby northbound. Most Southport to Manchester trains continue through to and via the Caldervale Line. The evening service is similar, though there are no trains to Kirkby after 19:30. On Sundays there are two trains per hour each way to Manchester Victoria & Wigan, with hourly extensions to Southport. A normal service operates on most bank holidays.
Reinstatement of Sunday service
During much of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, there were no Sunday services serving Swinton. After several years of successful lobbying from passenger user groups and station friends' groups, Northern Rail introduced a 12-month trial Sunday service beginning on 23 May 2010 with the funding support from GMPTE. The service still continues to operate in the December 2016 timetable and is included in the new Northern franchise agreement that came into effect in April 2016.
