Clitheroe railway station

Clitheroe railway station serves the town of Clitheroe in Lancashire, England. The station is the northern terminus of the Ribble Valley line / Clitheroe Line operated by Northern Trains and is 10 mi north of Blackburn. The station forms part of Clitheroe Interchange, which has won a number of awards.

History
The original station opened on 22 June 1850. It was replaced in 1893–4 by another approximately 220 yd to the north. The station closed to normal services on 10 September 1962 (that is, before the Beeching cuts) but remained in use for special services until 7 February 1971. The special services resumed on 14 May 1990, and the station was fully reopened on 29 May 1994, when passenger services began again from Blackburn.

The line from here continues northwards towards Hellifield, but this section is normally used only by freight and engineering trains on weekdays; passenger services are limited to a pair of Saturday only Dalesrail, charter trains and occasional railtours. The line also forms part of a valuable strategic diversionary route between Preston and Carlisle, which is utilised if planned engineering work blocks the West Coast Main Line over Shap. (Though diverts are very rare). It has also been used in emergency for unplanned work between these locations. Terminating trains from the Blackburn direction run empty up to Horrocksford Junction to the north (where the former Ribble Cement (now Hansons) factory branch diverges from the main line) and use the crossover there to reverse and change lines prior to returning to the station.

The station has since become an award-winning bus and train transport interchange. The bus station, known as the Clitheroe Interchange, is the terminus for bus connections bringing passengers from towns and villages in the Ribble Valley area to the train service to Blackburn and Manchester. The Ribble Valley Line is a community railway line and is supervised by the Ribble Valley Rail group, which includes the train operator Northern.

Facilities
The station had a ticket office, which was next to the old station building (which is used as an art gallery). The ticket office, operated by Lancashire County Council rather than operator Northern, permanently closed from February 2020. It was staffed Monday to Friday. All tickets must now be purchased via mobile device or from the ticket machine on Platform 1. There are waiting shelters on both platforms (which are offset from each other) and train running details are provided via digital screens, signage, customer help points and automatic announcements. Step-free access is available on both sides.

Services
All train services are operated by Northern Trains. There is generally an hourly service daily from Clitheroe to Rochdale via Blackburn and Manchester Victoria with some extra trains during weekday peak hours. Northern used to operate a variety of train types on the route but now only operate a variety of Sprinter trains, including Class 150, Class 156 units.

For much of 2017 and 2018, Saturday and Sunday services to Manchester were either partially replaced by buses south of Bolton or diverted via Accrington and Todmorden while the Manchester to Preston Line was closed for electrification work.

On Sundays, one or two trains operated from Preston along the Ribble Valley Line via Clitheroe to Hellifield and onwards towards Carlisle via the Settle-Carlisle Line. This improves on the previous service that only ran in the summer. The Dales Rail service was suspended from the winter 2022 timetable change.

From June 2024 Northern run an amended service, operating Saturday's only. This sees 2 return trips from Rochdale to Ribblehead via Manchester Victoria, Bolton and Clitheroe. This is branded as the Yorkshire Dales Explorer rather than Dales Rail.

Due to overcrowding at certain times, there are plans from the Department for Transport to increase services from 1 tph to 2 tph; however, the funding for this may not be available.