The railway line between
Salford and , the
Manchester and Bolton Railway (M&BR), opened in 1838, but had no stations between and . In 1844, the
Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway (MB&RR) was authorised to build a line from a junction with the M&BR at Clifton, to . It opened to the public on 28 September 1846, by which time the MB&RR had amalgamated with other companies to become the
East Lancashire Railway, and the M&BR had itself amalgamated with the
Manchester and Leeds Railway; the M&LR became the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1847. Junction Diagram showing (upper right) railways in the vicinity of Clifton The Bury line ran northward from the junction, crossing the
Irwell Valley on the
Clifton Viaduct (known locally as the "13 arches"), to run on the opposite side of the valley from the Bolton line. A station at the junction, with two platforms for each route (Bolton or Bury), opened in June 1847, and was named
Clifton Junction. The line to Bury closed in 1966 along with the platforms that served it, with the tracks being lifted in 1968. The old Bury and Accrington platforms are still intact (though heavily overgrown) in the woodland that now occupies the site of the junction behind the modern station, and the viaduct remains a Grade II
listed local landmark. On 6 May 1974 the station was renamed
Clifton, (even though the area has become known as
Clifton Junction), and in the 1990s the service was reduced to one train per day in each direction. The closest station to Clifton Junction with a regular service is
Swinton away on the line between Manchester and
Wigan Wallgate via
Atherton. Local industry made good use of Clifton Junction railway station long before the advent of mass car ownership when three factories were established close by enabling employees and visitors access by train. The three factories were
Magnesium Elektron Ltd,
Chloride Batteries Ltd and
Pilkington's Tiles Ltd. ==Services==