Atherton station is no where nesr the town centre, so is Westhoughton, Salford , there are lots of staions not in the town centre. A free station shuttle were by you buy your ticket for the train at the bus station would be the answer.

Profit doesn't make the slightest bit of difference on the railways Starbug. Only one company nationwide made a profit in 2009 and 2010. And if you are worries that it won't survive on trains only dedicated to that station, don't, there are lots of lines that have smaller towns than Leigh at the end of them and the trains are packed out. Buxton is one of those that I work with regularly that the trains are packed.

In fairness, Buxton is quite a popular tourist destination - not sure if Leigh falls in to the same bracket!

It's also tiny and no-one lives there. Also the arguement about lines being electrified won't make any difference to a station in Leigh, the train operator will probably be Northern and the trains they use are about 95% Diesel. Pretty much all local trains are Diesel too, so if the Manchester-Liverpool line is electrified (which I doubt will happen any time soon) it won't make any difference.

I'd guess that only about 5% or 10% of our customers to Buxton are tourists, i'd say plenty of commuters who live in Buxton as it is a nice area and loads of kids and students.

If fact, 5% is probably being optimistic going on the amount of weekly tickets that get sold. Buxton compares with places like Heaton Chapel and Levenshulme for the % of weeklys sold.

Do we have the number of ' commuters ' living in Leigh to fill these trains ?



Just asking as I dont know , personally if it took me longer than 20 minutes to get to work , I'd either change jobs or move nearer to work

It can take you that long to get through Astley and onto the lanc's some mornings.

But that's your opinion, I commute half an hour to work every day and it suits me fine. Have you ever seen how many people use buses to get into Manchester, Bolton or Wigan in a morning or evening?