St Luke's railway station
Encyclopedia
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
, Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
. It opened by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway on 2 July 1883 as Barton Street, serving the route from Southport Chapel Street to Wigan
Wigan Wallgate railway station
Wigan Wallgate railway station is one of two main railway stations serving the town of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. The station is on 2 lines, the Manchester-Southport Line and the Manchester-Kirkby Line. It is north west of Manchester Victoria...
. It was then renamed three months later as Southport St Luke's Road.
On 1 March 1902, the station was renamed again as Southport St Luke's, and in June of that year it began serving the Preston line
Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railway
The Liverpool, Southport & Preston Junction Railway was formed in 1884, and totaled 7 miles. In 1897 it became part of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and on 1 May 1901, its northern terminus switched from to ....
, absorbing the adjacent Southport Ash Street railway station
Southport Ash Street railway station
Southport Ash Street was a railway station in Southport, Lancashire, England. It opened as Southport Windsor Road on June 10, 1878 as the temporary terminus of the West Lancashire Railway from Preston....
. The two platforms were almost at right angles to each other, both separated by a road named Hart Street. They did, however, share the same ticket office, located on the street at St Luke's Road.
On 22 March 1904 the Preston line was electrified all the way up to Crossens
Crossens railway station
Crossens railway station was a railway station serving Crossens, a suburb of Southport, Sefton, Merseyside, England. Located on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway main line between and , it was opened to passengers by the West Lancashire Railway...
, and enabled a regular service to stop at St Luke's. In May 1914, the station was finally named St Luke's.
Trains to Preston (including the Crossens electric shuttle) ended when the line was closed on 7 September 1964, a victim of the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
. However the station did not close as some trains bound for Wigan still used part of the route. The direct line to Wigan then closed on 14 June 1965 with trains being diverted via Meols Cop
Meols Cop railway station
Meols Cop railway station serves the Blowick suburb of the coastal town of Southport, Merseyside, England. The station has an island platform and is served by Northern Rail's - via branch services, on which it is the last stop before the terminus...
and a section of the old branch line to Altcar
Altcar and Hillhouse railway station
Altcar and Hillhouse was a railway station located on the Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway near Great Altcar, Lancashire. The station opened on September 1, 1884, and from 1887 to 1926 also served as the southern terminus of the Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railway, which...
to allow the closure of the busy level crossing at Blowick
Blowick
-History and etymology:Blowick is part of the ancient parish of North Meols and was formerly a detached settlement, on the northern fringe of what is now Southport....
. The end of St Luke's station came when the Preston platform, still serving a number of trains, finally closed on 9 September 1968.
Today, the site of the Wigan platforms have been built over with a modern housing development, but the tracks widen at a point where the Preston platform used to stand and can be clearly seen by passing trains.