Acklington railway station explained

Acklington
Symbol Location:gb
Symbol:rail
Borough:Acklington, Northumberland
Country:England
Coordinates:55.3072°N -1.6518°W
Map Type:United Kingdom Northumberland
Grid Name:Grid reference
Owned:Network Rail
Manager:Northern Trains
Platforms:2
Code:ACK
Classification:DfT category F2
Original:Newcastle and Berwick Railway
Pregroup:North Eastern Railway
Postgroup:
Years:1 July 1847
Events:Opened
Footnotes:Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Acklington is a railway station on the East Coast Main Line, which runs between and . The station, situated 28miles north of Newcastle, serves the small village of Acklington in Northumberland, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains. It is the currently the least-used station in Northumberland, with an estimated 434 passenger journeys made during 2022/23.

History

The station was opened on 1 July 1847 by the Newcastle and Berwick Railway.[1] It later joined the North Eastern Railway, becoming part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the North Eastern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

When Sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Regional Railways until the Privatisation of British Railways. Intercity Sector trains passed through on the East Coast Main Line.

The station has a substantial main building on the northbound side, which is Grade-II listed and now used as a private residence.[2] It also had a goods yard and signal box. The station avoided the Beeching Axe in the late 1960s that claimed several others on the East Coast main line and until the late 1980s had through trains to and Edinburgh Waverley (though only 3-4 per day each way in total).[3] Electrification of the ECML and a rolling stock shortage led to the timetable being cut to the present residual level in 1991.

Facilities

The station is unstaffed (so tickets must be purchased in advance or on the train) and only has basic amenities - a sizeable stone shelter and payphone on the southbound platform and a cycle rack on the northbound side.[4] Step-free access is available to both platforms.

Passenger volume

Passenger Volume at Acklington[5] !!2019-20!2020-21!2021-22!2022-23
Entries and exits24666324434

Services

All Services at Acklington are operated by Northern Trains using and DMUs.

The station is currently served by three trains per day (one in the morning and two in the evening) northbound to and southbound to via . Both services on weekdays and the morning service on Saturdays continue beyond Newcastle to via .[6]

No services call at the station on Sundays.

Notes and References

  1. Milner. Chris. Britain's least used stations. The Railway Magazine. November 2016. 162. 1,388. 30. Mortons Media. Horncastle. 0033-8923.
  2. http://www.pastscape.org/hob.aspx?hob_id=500432 Historic England - Acklington Station
  3. http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/features/ecml/index.shtml "A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EAST COAST MAIN LINE IN NORTHUMBERLAND"
  4. http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/ACK/details.html Acklington station facilities
  5. Web site: Estimates of station usage ORR Data Portal . 31 Jul 2024 . dataportal.orr.gov.uk.
  6. Web site: 12 December 2021. Train times: Alnmouth and Morpeth to Newcastle and Metrocentre. live. 27 November 2021. Northern Trains. https://web.archive.org/web/20211103023441/https://d11vpqhghel6qd.cloudfront.net/images/timetables/bucket2/alnmouth-and-morpeth-to-newcastle-and-metrocentre-4885-r1wewt.pdf . 3 November 2021 .