Formby
General information
Location	Formby,Sefton England
Coordinates	53°33′13″N3°04′15″W / 53.5535°N 3.0708°W /53.5535; -3.0708
Grid reference	SD292068
Managed by	Merseyrail
Transit authority	Merseytravel
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	FBY
Fare zone	D2
Classification	DfT category E
History
Original company	Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
24 July 1848 (1848-07-24)	Opened as Formby and Altcar
1866	Renamed Formby
1913	Rebuilt
3 October 1960	Closed to goods
Passengers
2019/20	1.547 million
2020/21	0.418 million
2021/22	0.996 million
2022/23	1.063 million
2023/24	1.170 million
Notes Passenger statistics from theOffice of Rail and Road

Formby railway station is a railway station in the town ofFormby,Merseyside,England. The station is located on theSouthport branch of theMerseyrail network'sNorthern Line. The station has a car park.

Formby railway station opened asFormby and Altcar on 24 July 1848 when theLiverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway (LC&SR) opened its line fromWaterloo toSouthport Eastbank Street.^[1]

The station was situated on the north side of Kirklake Road which was crossed using a level crossing, shortly before the station the line became double with the formation of a long loop through the station so that trains could pass each other, the line reverted to single-track on leaving the station.^[2]

The station had two platforms, one each side of the double-track, it was described as "cramped and inconvenient, there being a station house, and a waiting room with an ungainly wooden awning on the up platform, and only a small timber waiting shed on the opposite side. An open-air footbridge connected the platforms whilst the main road passed over the railway via a level crossing".^[a][4]

In 1850 the LC&SR had been authorised to lease, sell or transfer itself to the L&YR and on 14 June 1855 the L&YR purchased and took over the LC&SR.^[5][6]

The station was renamed toFormby in 1866.^[1] By 1893 a goods yard opened to the south of Kirklake Road, on the coastal side of the line, it was two sidings forming a run-around loop with a headshunt, it was equipped with a three and a half ton crane.^[7][8]

The level crossing was replaced with the road bridge in 1912. The station was rebuilt in 1913 getting waiting rooms on each platform, the booking office being on the road bridge.^[9][10][11]

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway amalgamated with theLondon and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922 and in turn wasGrouped into theLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. Nationalisation followed in 1948.^[12]

The goods yard closed on 3 October 1960.^[13]

Formby is mentioned in the songSlow Train byFlanders and Swann. This is because theBeeching Report listed Formby as a station to be closed, along with the entire Liverpool to Southport route, which never happened.^[14]

In 1978 the station became part of theMerseyrail network'sNorthern Line (operated byBritish Rail untilprivatised in 1995).^[15]

The station is staffed, 15 minutes before the first train and 15 minutes after the last train, and has platform CCTV. There is a payphone, ticket machines, booking office and live departure and arrival screens for passenger information. The station has a free car park, with 126 spaces, as well as an 8-space cycle rack and secure indoor storage for 40 cycles. The platforms are fully accessible for wheelchair users with lifts available.^[16]

Trains operate every 15 minutes throughout the day from Monday to Saturday toSouthport to the north, and toHunts Cross viaLiverpool Central to the south. Sunday services are every 30 minutes in each direction.^[17]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Freshfield towardsSouthport		Merseyrail Southport branch Northern Line		Hightown towardsHunts Cross
	Historical railways
Freshfield towardsSouthport		Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway		Hightown towardsLiverpool Exchange

• 
  The ticket office at Formby.
• 
  The station frontage, on the main road.
• 
  A MerseyrailClass 507 waits at the station.
• 
  A building on the Southport-bound platform.
• 
  The station from the south

• Awdry, Christopher (1990).Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd.ISBN 1-8526-0049-7.OCLC 19514063. CN 8983.
• Clinker, C. R. (October 1978).Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830–1977. Bristol: Avon-Anglia Publications & Services.ISBN 0-905466-19-5.OCLC 5726624.
• Ferneyhough, Frank (1975).The History of Railways in Britain. Reading: Osprey.ISBN 0-85045-060-8.OCLC 2120140.
• Gahan, John W. (1985).Seaport to Seaside: Lines to Southport and Ormskirk - 13 decades of trains and travel. Countryvise.ISBN 978-0-907768-07-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link)
• Gell, Rob (1986).An Illustrated Survey of Railway Stations Between Southport & Liverpool 1848-1986. Heyday Publishing Company.ISBN 0-947562-04-4. (No page numbers.){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Marshall, John (1969).The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. Vol. 1. Newton Abbot:David & Charles.ISBN 978-0-7153-4352-4.
• Pettitt, Gordon; Comfort, Nicholas (2015).The Regional Railways Story. Oxford Publishing Company.ISBN 978-0-86093-663-3.
• Quick, Michael (2023) [2001].Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology(PDF). version 5.05.Railway & Canal Historical Society.
• Simmons, Jack (1997). "'up' and 'down'". In Simmons, Jack; Biddle, Gordon (eds.).The Oxford Companion to British Railway History From 1603 to the 1990s (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 548.ISBN 0-19-211697-5.
• The Railway Clearing House (1970) [1904].The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations 1904 (1970 D&C Reprint ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles Reprints.ISBN 0-7153-5120-6.
• Williams, Michael (2011).On the Slow Train. Random House.ISBN 978-1-84809-208-2.
• Yorke, Barbara (1987).Formby and Freshfield in times past. Countryside.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toFormby railway station.

• Train times andstation information for Formby railway station fromNational Rail
• Station information for Formby railway station from Merseyrail

• Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton
• DfT Category E stations
• Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations
• Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848
• Railway stations served by Merseyrail
• Formby

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2017
• Use British English from January 2017
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Articles with OS grid coordinates
• Pages with no open date in Infobox station
• CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors
• CS1 maint: postscript
• Commons category link is on Wikidata