Warrington Bank Quay railway station

Warrington Bank Quay railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town of Warrington in Cheshire, England. Warrington Bank Quay is a mainline station on one side of the main shopping area, with Warrington Central on the other side operating a more frequent service to the neighbouring cities of Liverpool and Manchester. A bus shuttle service operates every 20 minutes Monday to Friday daytime between the two, also linking the offices of the North West Development Agency on the Centre Park business park. Nevertheless Bank Quay suffers from a lack of bus links to other parts of Warrington. It does, however, have a large car park and a taxi rank. In 2009 the station was identified as one of the ten worst category B interchange stations for mystery shopper assessment of fabric and environment, and is set to receive a share of £50m funding for improvements.

Layout
The station consists of two island platforms. The easternmost one has 19th century buildings, but the western platform has buildings dating from the 1950s. Passengers enter the station at street level through a functional modern entrance containing an information office and ticket office, and proceed through a subway, reaching the elevated platforms by stairs or a lift. There is a buffet on the eastern platform.

The outer platforms (1 and 4) are used for Liverpool terminating services and services between Manchester and North Wales, the trains from either direction can use either platform. Platform 2 is generally used for southbound intercity services to Birmingham New Street and London Euston while platform 3 is used for northbound intercity services to Edinburgh and Glasgow Central.

The station's best known landmark is the huge Unilever detergent manufacturing plant which stands overlooking the site.

The station has suffered from years of neglect, and because of this, Virgin Trains have announced improvements to the station are to be made. In 2009, an extension to the existing car park, a first class lounge and a new taxi rank were built, along with improvements to the platforms and a new ticket office and travel centre. The new entrance hall is now complete, with ticket office and newsagent. The buffet on the London bound platforms has been modernised.

Low Level
Until 1965 additional platforms 5, 6 and 7 (53.3857°N, -2.6023°W) were situated on what had been the St Helens Railway lines which pass beneath the WCML here (although upon the opening of the eastern extension towards Arpley in 1854, they had crossed the main line on the level - the WCML was elevated when the current station was opened in 1868). Although not the official name, this part of the station was referred to as Bank Quay Low Level. The line here remains, albeit for freight use only.

Services
It lies on the West Coast Main Line, operated by Virgin Trains, with regular services to London, Birmingham, and Scotland. A regular regional express service operates between Manchester, Chester and North Wales operated by Arriva Trains Wales. There are also local services to Liverpool operated by Northern Rail and one early morning service per day to Ellesmere Port via Helsby.

Normal weekday service consists of:
 * Hourly to London Euston operated by Virgin Pendolino calling at:
 * London Euston only.


 * Hourly to Birmingham New Street operated by Virgin Voyager calling at:
 * Crewe, Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street


 * Hourly to Glasgow Central operated by Virgin Pendolino calling at:
 * Wigan North Western, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme Lake District, Penrith, Carlisle and Glasgow Central


 * Late services terminate at Preston


 * Two-Hourly to Edinburgh Waverley operated by Virgin Voyager calling at:
 * Wigan North Western, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme Lake District, Penrith, Carlisle, Haymarket and Edinburgh Waverley


 * Two-Hourly to Glasgow Central operated by Virgin Voyager calling at:
 * Wigan North Western, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme Lake District, Penrith, Carlisle and Glasgow Central


 * Hourly to Manchester Piccadilly operated by Arriva Trains Wales calling at:
 * Earlestown, Newton-le-Willows, Manchester Oxford Road and Manchester Piccadilly


 * Hourly to Llandudno operated by Arriva Trains Wales calling at:
 * Runcorn East, Frodsham, Helsby, Chester, Shotton, Flint, Prestatyn, Rhyl, Abergele and Pensarn, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno Junction, Deganwy and Llandudno


 * Hourly to Liverpool Lime Street operated by Northern Rail calling at:
 * Earlestown, St Helens Junction, Lea Green, Rainhill, Whiston, Huyton, Roby, Broad Green, Wavertree Tech Park, Edge Hill and Liverpool Lime Street


 * Hourly operated by Northern Rail terminates here from Liverpool Lime Street

There is also a limited service:


 * Once daily to Ellesmere Port operated by Northern Rail calling at:
 * Helsby, Ince & Elton, Stanlow & Thornton and Ellesmere Port

Kissing ban
The station received media coverage in February 2009 due to a sign recently erected prohibiting kissing from its drop-off point. The reason stated is to avoid queues as the station becomes busier. Colin Daniels, chief executive of the Warrington Chamber of Commerce originally suggested the idea light-heartedly, but Virgin Trains have included it as part of their regeneration of the station. The signs were removed three weeks later and sold to raise money for Comic Relief with Virgin spokesman Ken Gibbs admitting that the idea was just a bit of fun.