Eccles railway station

The station is next to the M602 motorway and is 300 metres north of Eccles Interchange, a bus and Metrolink interchange. A short freight-only branch line diverges from the main line here, which descends into the Manchester Ship Canal docks at Salford Quays to serve a Blue Circle cement terminal. The branch now occupies the former slow lines formation, as the L&M was formerly quadruple track from here to Manchester (the Manchester and Wigan Railway route to Tyldesley and Wigan North Western shared the tracks of the L&M to a point just west of the station here before diverging towards Worsley). The old slow line platforms can just be made out, though they are fenced off and heavily overgrown (the lines themselves were mostly lifted in the early 1970s, apart from the docks branch). The substantial street-level buildings built by the London & North Western Railway were also demolished in 1971, after being seriously damaged by fire.^[2]

The station is staffed part-time, with a small ticket office (rebuilt in the summer of 2013) at street level. The ticket office is open in the morning and early afternoon six days per week (06:25 to 12:55 weekdays, 07:25 to 13:55 Saturdays, closed Sundays). A ticket machine is available outside these times and for collecting pre-paid tickets. There are basic shelters, digital information screens and timetable poster boards on each platform, along with a P.A system to provide automated train running announcements (the information screens, CCTV cameras & P.A. speakers were installed in September 2015).^[3] Step-free access is not possible to either platform, as they can only reached by staircases from the road above.^[4]

 

Monday to Saturdays there is generally an hourly service from Eccles to Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport eastbound and Liverpool Lime Street westbound. Extra trains run at peak periods, with a handful of services to/from Manchester Victoria.^[5] A small number of through trains to Chester and Leeds via Bradford Interchange also stop here on weekdays since the May 2019 timetable change.

Since December 2022, a limited weekday peak only service operates between Wigan North Western and Manchester Victoria that calls here.^[6]

On Sundays, the service runs between Liverpool Lime Street and Wilmslow via Manchester Piccadilly and the Airport, though whilst Lime Street station was closed for remodelling in June and July 2018 a temporary timetable was in operation (with trains running between Huyton and Victoria only in the evening and at weekends).

The station used to be served by North Wales services in the morning peak but this has now ceased. However, with the creation of the MediaCityUK complex in Salford Quays, a much more frequent pattern of services stopping at Eccles has now been reviewed. [1]

In May 2024, FirstGroup put forward a proposal for services through from Rochdale to London Euston via Warrington Bank Quay that would stop at Eccles.^[7] If approved, services could begin in 2027.

• Eccles rail crash (1941) at the east end of the station in which 23 people were killed.
• Eccles rail crash (1984)

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eccles railway station.

• Train times and station information for Eccles railway station from National Rail
• Since 2005 the Friends of Eccles Station (FRECCLES) have adopted the station to help improve the environment and lobby for better passenger services.
• For a brief video history about the station [2]

v t e Railway Lines in Salford
Legend
Past, present and future
to Wigan Wallgate         to Bolton Great Moor Street to Wigan North Western           Little Hulton Ellenbrook         Walkden Low Level           Walkden High Level to Liverpool Lime Street               Moorside to Bolton Barton Moss Worsley             Swinton Dixon Fold Patricroft   Monton Green         Pendlebury           to Bury       Irlams-o'-th'-Height Eccles Eccles               Clifton Junction Ladywell           Agecroft Bridge Weaste Weaste         Brindle Heath Jct Agecroft Jct Langworthy Seedley         Pendleton Pendleton Bridge Broadway Cross Lane         MediaCityUK           Harbour City           Salford Crescent Anchorage         Salford Docks Salford Quays       Windsor Link Exchange Quay       Ordsall Lane   Oldfield Road Metrolink to Manchester               Ordsall Chord                 Salford Central to Manchester Deansgate     to Manchester Victoria

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Patricroft		Northern Trains Northern Route (Chat Moss)		Deansgate
	Historical railways
Patricroft Line and station open		London and North Western Railway		Weaste Line open, station closed
	Disused railways
Monton Green		LNWR		Weaste