Castleton
General information
Location	Castleton,Rochdale England
Grid reference	SD883106
Managed by	Northern Trains
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	CAS
Classification	DfT category F1
History
Opened	1875
Passengers
2020/21	35,900
2021/22	78,216
2022/23	95,966
2023/24	0.132 million
2024/25	0.141 million
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from theOffice of Rail and Road

Castleton railway station servesCastleton in theMetropolitan Borough of Rochdale,Greater Manchester, England. It is 8¾ miles (14 km) north ofManchester Victoria on theCaldervale Line, with services operated byNorthern Trains.

v t e Railways in Rochdale
Legend
Past, present and future
Rossendale Lines toBacup Calderdale Lines toCalderdale Broadley Littleborough Shawclough and Healey Smithy Bridge Wardleworth Rochdale Newbold Rochdale Town Centre Kingsway Business Park Milnrow East Lancs Rly toBury Newhey Broadfield Oldham Lines toOldham Heywood Castleton Mills Hill Middleton Manchester Lines North toManchester

The original station opened in 1839, at Blue Pits on the western side of the Rochdale-Manchester Road bridge. It was originally calledBlue Pits for Heywood. The current station opened on 1 November 1875. TheLiverpool and Bury Railway fromBolton (extended through from Bolton and beyond in 1848 to join the earlier M&L Heywood branch previously opened in 1841, which was worked by horses) used to join the main line at a triangular junction a short distance south of the station. This was at one time a busy passenger and freight route often used by trains avoiding the busy Manchester area, but was closed to passengers on 5 October 1970.^[1]

The station was also part of theOldham Loop Line, on which there were through services toRochdale, viaOldham Mumps. This route was closed in 2009 and has now been converted for light rail use byManchester Metrolink.

The station is not staffed, but a ticket machine is available. Shelters and passenger information screens are located on each platform and both have step-free access from the street; there are also staircases from Manchester Road bridge to both platforms.^[2]

On Monday to Saturday daytimes,Northern Trains operates a half-hourly service in each direction. The basic pattern is for trains to start at Rochdale, then stop at all stations to Manchester Victoria, then via Salford Central, Salford Crescent, Bolton andDarwen to Blackburn, with alternate trains continuing through toClitheroe.

On Sundays, the service pattern is hourly in each direction between Manchester Victoria, Rochdale, Todmorden, Burnley, Accrington and Blackburn. Southbound trains continue beyond Victoria toWigan Wallgate andSouthport, via Atherton.^[3]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Mills Hill		Northern Caldervale Line		Rochdale
Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Proposed extension
Heywood Line closed, station open towardsRawtenstall		East Lancashire Railway		Terminus
Disused railways
Heywood Line closed, station open		Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway		Rochdale Line and station open

The western portion of this line was retained for freight traffic after passenger trains ceased (serving the coal depot at Rawtenstall until 1980 and subsequently to the Powell Duffryn wagon works); it now forms the link with theEast Lancashire Railway heritage route atHeywood.^[4]

The heritage line plans to extend its services along and towards a possible new bay platform adjacent to the main station in the future,^[5] subject to permission being granted byNetwork Rail.

The bay platform, namedCastleton Village, will be adjacent to the main station at Castleton, from where passengers could alight and change station sides directly to Northern Trains' services on the national network. Rochdale Council commissioned a study by transport consultants Mouchel in conjunction with the ELR regarding the proposals in 2010; their report covers the tourism and regeneration aspects of any such future development.

• Bairstow, Martin,The Manchester and Leeds Railway (1983), (ISBN 0-907941-06-0)
• Marshall, John,Forgotten Railways: North-West England (1981), David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott. (ISBN 0-7153-8003-6)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCastleton (Rochdale) railway station.

• Train times andstation information for Castleton railway station fromNational Rail
• The Castleton and Heywood Masterplan 2010^{[permanent dead link]} Mouchel's report on potential ELR extension through to Castleton station.

53°35′31″N2°10′42″W / 53.5919°N 2.1783°W /53.5919; -2.1783

• Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
• DfT Category F1 stations
• Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway stations
• Railway stations served by Northern
• Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1875

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