Smithy Bridge railway station serves the village of Smithy Bridge and Hollingworth Lake near Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. The station is on the Caldervale Line 12+3/4 mi north of Manchester Victoria on the way to Leeds.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed, but there are ticket machines available to allow intending passengers to purchase or collect tickets prior to travelling. Both platforms have waiting shelters and step-free access.

Services

There is a basic half-hourly service (with peak period extras) from the station to Manchester Victoria southbound and to Todmorden northbound on weekdays. From there, trains continue alternately to Blackburn via Burnley Manchester Road and to Leeds via Brighouse. Westbound services run beyond Manchester to Wigan Wallgate and Headbolt Lane. In the early morning and evenings trains to Leeds run via Halifax but on the same frequency, whilst in Sundays the service is hourly and provided by the Southport/Manchester to Blackburn trains.

History

The station was first opened by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in October 1868. In 1915, the station was the scene of a tragic accident involving an express train and an empty stock train. Four people died and many others were injured. It was closed on 2 May 1960 by British Rail but reopened on its original site, albeit with a slightly different platform layout, on 19 August 1985 with financial assistance from Greater Manchester PTE. The signal box here, which controlled the level crossing and acted as a 'fringe' box to Preston PSB from 1973 onwards, was downgraded in late 2011 from a block post to a crossing box. The signalling is remotely operated from the new 'Rochdale West' panel at Castleton (which also supervises the layout at Rochdale and will eventually replace another box at Castleton East Junction) and the crossing is now automatic. Smithy Bridge Crossing box was closed early in 2014 and has since been demolished.