Halton Station was situated on the Birkenhead, Lancashire & Cheshire Joint Railway’s (BLCJR) Warrington and Chester line which opened on the 31st October 1850. Halton Station did not open with the line but following a serious railway accident that took place in the Sutton Tunnel on the 30th April 1851 a report by Captain R. E. Laffan recommended that a station be opened at each end of the tunnel and that they be linked together by electric telegraph. Halton was the station provided at the southern end of the tunnel.  The station first appeared in the public timetable with the name Runcorn in March 1852.

The station was located on the south side of a road overbridge which carried Wood Lane over the line. The BLCJR was a double track railway so Norton was provided with two platforms. The stations main facilities were located in a two storey brick built building on the southeast side of the line on the Chester direction platform. The brick building was rendered so as to give a smooth finish. The building provided booking and waiting facilities and it also incorporated a Station Masters house. The stations platforms actually continued underneath the Wood Lane bridge. An approach road connected the main station building with the public highway and this was the main approach to the station. Access to the Warrington direction platform was via a set of steps that led down from a gateway on the northeast side of the road overbridge.

At the time of opening the Station was served by trains that ran between Warrington and Chester and onward to Birkenhead.

On the 1st of August 1859 the BLCJR became the Birkenhead Railway but within a matter of months it was taken over jointly by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London North Western Railway (LNWR) as the Birkenhead Joint Railway on the 1st January 1860. In April 1861 the new company renamed the station as Runcorn Road. On the 1st March 1869 they renamed it again this time as Halton. The GWR used the line through Halton as a means of access to Manchester via Warrington and lines belonging to the LNWR. Halton Station however remained very much a local facility.

In 1923 the LNWR share in the joint line passed to the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) who absorbed the former company as part of the ‘Grouping’ of the country’s many railway companies into four large organisations. The GWR retained its own identity.

Halton Station was in a fairly isolated location so it was never very busy. It did not survive long after the Nationalisation of Britain’s Railway in 1948 closing to passengers on the 7th of July 1952 and to goods on the 3rd February 1954.

The line through the station site is still in use today for goods and passenger services.

The Chester direction platform at Halton Station is still extant and the building, although heavily altered, can still be seen. It is in use as a private residence.

Source – British Railway Companies by Christopher Awdrey

To see the other stations on the Chester - Warrington line click on the station name: Mickle Trafford, Dunham Hill, Norton, & Daresbury