Skelmersdale is currently the largest town in North-West England without a railway station. Whilst it has a good road network, the level of car ownership is low and bus services are poor. The nearby stations of Upholland and Rainford on the Kirkby - Wigan line have little or no car parking, no connecting bus services, and no direct service to the closest employment centre of Liverpool. It should therefore be no surprise that youth unemployment in the area is above average.
In December 2012 a Merseytravel report proposed that an infrastructure study be undertaken by Network Rail in conjunction with local councils to define the scope of the project.
We believe that opening a new rail station in Skelmersdale would provide access to education and jobs, help to improve the local economy, and would be relatively easy to achieve. We have already written to Lancashire County Council to express our support for the plans they have for a station here in the West Lancashire Masterplan page 29.
We have also written to Merseytravel as we think that the plans should include an extension of the electric services from Kirkby and also to the MP for West Lancashire, Rosie Cooper.
On 1st August 2014 Merseytravel published their Long Term Rail Strategy and this included proposals for a spur to and station in Skelmersdale.
In 2015 Network Rail's estimate for the GRIP3 work was £4 million. The proposed timescale was:
- Jan 2017: GRIP3 concluded
- Jan 2019: GRIP4 (Single options selection) complete
- Apr 2021 - April 2013: GRIP6 (Construction, commissioning)
- Dec 2023: Train services start.
Lancashire County Council Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport John Fillis said: “Our plans to deliver a railway station for Skelmersdale are on track. Our ambition is for the proposed station to provide direct access to Liverpool, with two trains an hour, along with an hourly service to Manchester. We feel that the best route for funding the rail link and associated improvements would be through a Growth Deal, of the type which has been so successful in other parts of the county.”
In September 2017 Merseytravel confirmed that it will be contributing up to £765,000, adding to £4.32m already set aside by Lancashire County Council, for a GRIP 3A study which will identify in more detail the proposed route and the technical solutions to delivering both a new station at Headbolt Lane in the Northwood area of Kirkby, and for a new railway branch line from Rainford to Skelmersdale town centre. Merseyrail electric services will be extended beyond Kirkby to Skelmersdale, where they will connect with Northern services from Wigan diverted from Kirkby.
In June 2020 Lancashire County Council approved the acquisition of the ex-Skelmersdale College for £1 to create the long-awaited public transport link for the town. A further £2m was allocated to demolish the buildings and cover any additional costs of preparing the location to be developed into the train station.
In August 2020 it was reported that work on the scheme could be “accelerated” under a new funding application.
In December 2020 it was reported that Lancashire County Council was expected to present its business case for a new Skelmersdale rail station in the first few months of 2021.
In December 2021 planning permission was granted for a new station at Headbolt Lane, to which Merseyrail services are expected to extended using battery technology, as the first step toward an extension to Skelmersdale.
The Outline Business Case for a station at the former Glenburn college site bought by the council was published in August 2021 but in July 2022 it was announced that its submission by Lancashire County Council rejected as too expensive.
In October 2025 it was suggested by the Lancashire County Council's cabinet member for transport that a parkway-style station with a regular connecting bus service to Skelmersdale town centre would be more likely to secure government funding. The council is contributing to a Network Rail study exploring extensions to Merseyrail electric services which could potentially include a new station for Skelmersdale. Upholland station is on the edge of Skelmersdale so could be upgraded, but being on the edge of town would deliver substantially less benefit than a station in the town centre.