St Helens Central
General information
Location	St Helens,St Helens England
Coordinates	53°27′10″N2°43′48″W / 53.4529°N 2.730°W /53.4529; -2.730
Grid reference	SJ516953
Managed by	Northern Trains
Transit authority	Merseytravel
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	SNH
Fare zone	A1/A2
Classification	DfT category D
History
Original company	St Helens Canal and Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
1 February 1858	Opened asSt Helens
1 March 1949	RenamedSt Helens Shaw Street
11 May 1987	RenamedSt Helens Central
Passengers
2019/20	0.724 million
2020/21	0.208 million
2021/22	0.514 million
2022/23	0.537 million
2023/24	0.619 million
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from theOffice of Rail and Road

St Helens Central railway station (previously known as St. Helens Shaw Street) is a railway station serving the town ofSt Helens, Merseyside, England. It is on theLiverpool to Wigan Line fromLiverpool Lime Street toWigan North Western. The station is managed byNorthern Trains, and is served byTransPennine Express and Northern Trains.

The station is on theMerseytravelCity Line. The City Line is the name given to local rail routes out of Liverpool Lime Street operated by companies other than Merseyrail. The City Line appears on Merseytravel network maps as red, and covers theLiverpool-Wigan Line.

The station was originally opened by theSt Helens Canal and Railway asSt Helens on 1 February 1858 to replace two earlier (1833 and 1849) nearby stations. The original 1833 route fromWidnes Dock through the town (along with the branch fromSt Helens Junction) and onwards toRainford Junction (opened along with the station in 1858) was joined a decade later by theLancashire Union Railway toWigan North Western andBlackburn in December 1869, whilst the route southwestwards toHuyton was opened by theLondon and North Western Railway in 1871. It was renamedSt Helens Shaw Street in 1949.

The station was completely rebuilt in 1961^[1] to a design by the architectWilliam Robert Headley^[2] which included and advertised a significant amount of the local PilkingtonVitrolite Glass. The fully glazed ticket hall was illuminated by a tower with a valley roof on two Y-shaped supports. The platform canopies were free standing folded plate roofs on tubular columns.

By this time, the original St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway routes had both closed to passenger traffic, services having ceased on 18 June 1951. The short branch to St Helens Junction suffered the same fate in June 1965 as a result of theBeeching Axe, though freight traffic would continue to operate on both lines until the 1980s.

It then becameSt Helens Central in 1987 (the original GCRSt Helens Central station situated on Corporation Street having been completely closed in 1952 and demolished in the late 1960s). Two years later the through link to St Helens Junction was severed, though the section as far as theHays Chemicals plant at Sutton Oak remained open until 2002 (the track remains in place but out of use to the present day).^[3] This left only the Liverpool to Wigan line in operation, along with a short section of the old Rainford line serving thePilkington Glass factory at Cowley Hill (nearGerards Bridge) though this has also been disused for several years.

An accident occurred on 11 November 1988, when a train fromBlackpool North toLiverpool Lime Street became derailed after it departed from St Helens Central at 23:15. Leaving the station, the driving cab struck a bridge abutment; the driver was killed and 16 passengers received minor injuries.^[4]

In 2005,Merseytravel andNetwork Rail invited tenders for the reconstruction of the station, including a new station building, footbridge and lifts. The new station building and facilities were assembled just a few yards from the 1960s station building and is the third build on the same site. The project came in at a total estimated cost of £6 million,^[5] with theEuropean Union contributing £1.7 million towards the total funding.^[6] The new footbridge was lifted into place in the early hours of 22 January 2007. Construction work was completed in the summer, with the new waiting rooms and footbridge opened to passengers on 19 September. The new station building was officially opened on 3 December 2007.

Overhead electrification of the Liverpool to Wigan line was completed in 2015.^[7] Earlier, modifications to the adjacent bridgeworks were undertaken in 2012 and during 2014 electrification masts and new signals were installed, overhead wiring taking place in early 2015.Northern Rail, the then train operating company, announced the introduction of electric services on the line from the commencement of the new timetable changeover in 2015.

There is a booking office, and a ticket vending machine is provided next to it. Disabled access is facilitated by lifts on both platforms.

Car parking (including disabled bays) is available and is free for rail users, provided a parking ticket for the vehicle is obtained from the ticket office first. Recharging facilities have recently been provided for electrically powered vehicles.

Cold drink and snack vending machines are provided in the waiting room on the Wigan-bound platform. In March 2012, a dedicated coffee shop serving hot and cold food was opened upstairs in the main station building but closed in September 2012, the franchise remaining vacant up to the present.

As of 2017, St Helens Central operates automatic ticket barriers, replacing a temporary staffed barrier operated by Northern (Arriva Rail North).

During Monday to Saturday daytimes, there is a half-hourly local stopping service betweenLiverpool Lime Street and Wigan North Western, and an hourly fast service between Lime Street andBlackpool North viaPreston.^[8] Until the May 2018 timetable update, this service started and terminated at Huyton orLiverpool South Parkway.^[9] TwoTransPennine Express trains call per day from Liverpool Lime Street toPreston andGlasgow Central each way. On Sundays, this is extended to three trains per day in both directions.

On Sundays, there is an hourly service to Wigan/Blackpool and Liverpool, calling at all stations bar Edge Hill.

The typical off-peak service is (Monday-Friday):

• 3 trains per hour toLiverpool Lime Street
• 3 trains per hour toWigan North Western, one of which continues toBlackpool North railway station viaPreston railway station

• 2 trains per day toLiverpool Lime Street
• 2 trains per day toGlasgow Central

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Huyton		Northern Trains Liverpool to Wigan Line		Wigan North Western
Thatto Heath				Garswood
Liverpool Lime Street		TransPennine Express TransPennine North West		Wigan North Western
	Historical railways
Terminus		London and North Western Railway Lancashire Union Railway		Carr Mill
	Disused railways
Gerards Bridge		LNWR St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway		Peasley Cross

• St Helens Junction railway station

Wikimedia Commons has media related toSt Helens Central railway station.

• Train times andstation information for St Helens Central railway station fromNational Rail
• Disused Stations UK, for earlier St. Helens stations
• The station on an 1888-1913 Overlay OS Map via National Library of Scotland

• Railway stations in St Helens, Merseyside
• DfT Category D stations
• Former London and North Western Railway stations
• Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1858
• Railway stations served by Northern
• William Robert Headley railway stations
• Railway stations served by TransPennine Express

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2017
• Use British English from February 2017
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Coordinates on Wikidata
• Articles with OS grid coordinates
• Pages with no open date in Infobox station
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension