Greenbank railway station

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Greenbank
National Rail
Greenbank railway station platforms looking towards Manchester in 2008.jpg
LocationHartford, Cheshire, Cheshire West and Chester
England
Grid referenceSJ644728
Managed byNorthern Trains
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeGBK
ClassificationDfT category F1
History
Original companyWest Cheshire Railway
Pre-groupingCheshire Lines Committee
Post-groupingCheshire Lines Committee
Key dates
22 June 1870Station opened to passengers as 'Hartford & Greenbank'
7 May 1973Name changed to 'Greenbank'
Passengers
2016/17Increase 230,598
2017/18Increase 241,706
2018/19Decrease 223,058
2019/20Increase 231,198
2020/21Decrease 94,578
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

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[]

Winter scene at Hartford & Greenbank in 1962

The station was built by the West Cheshire Railway, a constituent of the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC)[1] and opened to passengers on 22 June 1870.[2] 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,[3] to avoid confusion with the nearby Hartford station on the West Coast Main Line. Greenbank was served by CLC trains from Manchester Central via Northwich to Chester Northgate. From the closure of Manchester Central on 5 May 1969 & Chester Northgate on 6 October that year, trains from Greenbank were diverted to Manchester Oxford Road 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 Acton Bridge using LMS stock (this normally continued via Northwich, Middlewich & Sandbach to Crewe). This service was nicknamed "The Dodger", but was withdrawn in 1942.

Facilities[]

Greenbank signal box

The station is unstaffed (though there is a self-service ticket machine provided) 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 where Mid Cheshire College used to be, now a new housing estate, is about 440 yards (400 m) 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.[4]

The signal box is situated to the north of the station - this supervises the line from Cuddington through to Plumley and the various branches & siding connections from it (including the line to Sandbach and the now-disused link into the defunct Brunner-Mond chemical works at Winnington).

Hartford's main station is about one mile (1.6 km) 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, Runcorn, Winsford, Crewe and Birmingham New Street.

Services[]

The service to and from Manchester Piccadilly and Chester on weekdays and Saturdays is basically hourly (with a couple of weekday peak period extras to/from Stockport).[5]

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 British Rail Class 150 with the occasional Class 156.

References[]

Notes
  1. ^ Awdry 1990, p. 241
  2. ^ Butt 1995, p. 114
  3. ^ Butt 1995, p. 109
  4. ^ Greenbank station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 14 March 2017
  5. ^ Table 88 National Rail timetable, December 2016
Bibliography
  • Awdry, Christopher (1990), Encyclopedia of British Railway Companies, Guild Publishing CN8983
  • Butt, R.V.J. (1995), The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens, ISBN 1-85260-508-1

Further reading[]

  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2013). Chester Northgate to Manchester. Middleton Press. figs. 32-35. ISBN 9781908174512. OCLC 892704846.

Gallery[]

  • Greenbank railway station platforms looking towards Chester in 2008.jpg

External links[]

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Cuddington   Northern Trains
Mid-Cheshire Line 		  Northwich

Coordinates: 53°15′05″N 2°32′02″W / 53.25139°N 2.53389°W / 53.25139; -2.53389

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