Stanlow and Thornton railway station is located within the Stanlow Refinery in Cheshire, England. It lies on the Hooton–Helsby line with services operated by Northern Trains. The station is surrounded by the refinery site, so as a result most station users are refinery employees. In 2018–19 it was the joint least-used railway station in Britain, tied with Denton in Greater Manchester. In 2020/21, the station was also one of the least used stations in Britain, with 0 entries/exits. Since 3 February 2022 the station has been temporarily closed due to safety concerns of the footbridge which is the only entrypoint to the station.

Stanlow Refinery is an oil refinery owned by Essar Energy in Ellesmere Port, North West England. Until 2011 it was owned by Shell UK. The refinery is situated on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, which is used to transport seaborne oil for refining and chemicals for Essar and Shell.