July 2026 will see some changes to the rail timetables in the West Lancashire area.
The first changes are between Monday July 13th to Sunday 19th July, which will see Northern increasing capacity and services during the Open Golf tournament at Royal Birkdale committing to protect services and 4-car operation on the Southport route as a priority. They will be extending the Leeds-Wigan services through to Southport from Monday 13th to Saturday 18th thus providing 3 trains per hour Wigan-Southport. On the final day Sunday 19th Northern will restore an hourly service between Manchester Victoria and Southport and will operate some additional Wigan-Southport shuttles to provide a half hourly frequency for some parts of the day. There is no published timetable at time-of-writing but these services are included in Northern’s online journey planner and on the National Rail site.
The second change is between Monday 27th July to Friday 31st July, which will see rail replacement bus running between Southport & Wigan. Network Rail has taken out a full possession order on the line to facilitate engineering work along the route, mainly track renewal at the Parbold Flood Site, signalling maintenance around Meols Cop with no fundamental changes to the signalling layout, some rail changing work around New Lane and vegetation clearance taking place alongside all locations mentioned.
More details about this engineering work can be found on Northern’s website on this page: https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/check-before-you-travel and scrolling down to ‘Major improvement works or changes to the timetable’.
