Blacon railway station

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Main article: Blacon

Blacon Station in the 1950s looking north-west to Shotton, Flintshire Steelworks

Blacon railway station in December 2006 showing cycle path/walkway and bridge in distance

Blacon railway station was a part of the line between Chester Northgate and Hawarden Bridge. This line was later extended to reach Wrexham and Birkenhead.

Blacon Station was opened on 31 March 1890 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (later the Great Central Railway). The station included the station master's house and a brick goods warehouse. A Cheap Day return to Chester Northgate Station would cost 6d compared to a bus fare of 9d return.

Although Blacon Station was busy it closed to passengers in 1963 because of the Beeching Axe of railway economic modernisation in the mid-1960s.^[1][2] The station was closed on 9 September 1968 by British Railways. Freight trains ran through Blacon until 1979 when steelmaking ended at Shotton, Flintshire.

Although the old station and railway line have gone, they have been replaced with a tarmac road surface, which now provides a cycle path, jogging track and a countryside walkway. This amenity is accessed from the side of old Blacon station bridge; but its route can also be joined (just off) Chester City's 'Fountain' roundabout, to take one through Blacon, and on to the North Wales countryside, and beyond.

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