Accrington railway station serves the town of Accrington, in Lancashire, England. It lies on the East Lancashire line, east of , and is also served by the Calder Valley Line.
The station was opened on 10 June 1848 by the East Lancashire Railway, which amalgamated with the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1859. Taken into the London, Midland & Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923, the line then passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.
The station was formerly a major junction on the ELR, with the line to and diverging southwards from that towards Blackburn and at the western end of the station, just before the viaduct that carries the line over the town centre.
For many years, this was a busy commuter route carrying regular trains from and to , but it fell victim to the Beeching cuts in the 1960s and wax closed to passengers on 5 December 1966. Few traces of this route remain today; the formation through the town, including part of the notorious 1 in 40 Baxenden Bank, have been built over.
When sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Regional Railways until the privatisation of British Rail.
There was a solitary weekday morning commuter service from Colne to Manchester Victoria that formerly called here, along with a corresponding return working during the evening. This was withdrawn at the May 2009 timetable change and it was diverted to run to instead.
After a gap of almost fifty years, direct services to Manchester Victoria resumed from May 2015, with the reopening of the Curve. These start at Blackburn and continue onwards through Burnley Manchester Road, using the Caldervale Line south of Todmorden, to reach and Manchester. An hourly service each way operates on this route throughout the week. Most of these trains continue beyond Manchester, to and or Southport (Sundays only)
The station has two side platforms, flanking the twin-tracked railway line. Other than three small shelters (two on platform 2 and one on platform 1), there is no protection from the elements; indeed, even with the recent improvements, the whole impression is one of a basic halt. It offers disabled access via ramps adjacent to the platforms.
In 2011, the station underwent a major rebuild, as part of a project to create a model of sustainable energy use for a railway station. This redevelopment cost ã2 million, of which ã500,000 was funded by the European Union's Interreg IVB programme. The previous ticket office has been demolished, and was replaced by a new build and constructed, where possible, with local materials including recycled stone. The building uses a rainwater harvesting system, photovoltaic cells and solar hot water generation panels on the new tower.
As of May 2025, the weekday off-peak service pattern in trains per hour (tph) is as follows:
The service between Blackpool North and York has operated hourly on Sundays since the May 2009 timetable change.