Darwen railway station

Darwen railway station serves Darwen, a town in Lancashire, England. It was opened in 1847 by the Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe & West Yorkshire Railway, which was subsequently taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway twelve years later. It is now served by Northern Trains services on the Ribble Valley Line from Rochdale/Manchester Victoria to Blackburn and into Clitheroe.

Darwen is set amongst the hills of East Lancashire. Arriving from or departing towards Bolton involves journeying through the long Sough Tunnel, some 2015 yd in length.

History
The railway line between Blackburn (Bolton Road) and Bolton was built by the Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton Railway, but it had amalgamated with the Blackburn, Clitheroe and North Western Junction Railway to form the Bolton, Blackburn, Clitheroe and West Yorkshire Railway by the time that the first section, from Blackburn to Sough, including the station at Over Darwen, 4+1/4 mi from Blackburn, was opened on 3 August 1847. The station was renamed Darwen on 1 December 1883.

The neighbouring stations either side which also served the area, at Lower Darwen and Spring Vale, were both closed in 1958 and the nearest surviving station to the south is now Entwistle.

Facilities
The station has two platforms. It is one of only two passing points on the otherwise single track Blackburn to Bolton part of the route, but trains normally cross here only in the morning and evening peak periods. The loop was extended in length by a mile (1.6 km) either side of the station during a six-week-long engineering blockade in July & August 2015 to increase capacity on the line and eventually allow a half-hourly service to operate (as specified in the new Northern franchise agreement, due to come into effect in April 2016).

The station is currently unstaffed, with waiting shelters on each platform; step-free access is available to both. Ticket machines are available, along with a long-line P.A system and passenger information screens to convey train running information.

Services
Since the December 2017 timetable change, the weekdays and Saturday service to Blackburn northbound and to Bolton and Manchester Victoria southbound is now half-hourly all day. Alternate northbound trains continue through to Clitheroe, whilst nearly all southbound trains continue beyond Manchester to Rochdale. On Sundays the service is usually hourly to both Clitheroe and Manchester.