Wirral Line

The Wirral Line is one of two commuter railway lines operated by Merseyrail^[5] that are centred around Merseyside, England, the other being the Northern Line. A third line of the Merseyrail network, the City Line, is not operated by the Merseyrail train operating company, although also receives funding from Merseytravel, the passenger transport executive for Merseyside.

The Wirral Line connects Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula via the Mersey Railway Tunnel, with branches to New Brighton, West Kirby, Chester and Ellesmere Port.^[6][7] Beneath Liverpool, the line follows a clockwise circular route in a single-track tunnel called the Loop, built during the early 1970s.^[6][8]

The line was developed through the amalgamation of several historic railways and has carried its present name since the opening of the Merseyrail network by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 25 October 1978^[9] during the British Rail period. The Wirral Line is fully electrified with a DC third rail,^[6] and has existed in its current form since 29 May 1994 with the outset of electric services to Ellesmere Port.^[10][11] A total of 34 stations are served by the line, and connections are available with mainline services at Liverpool Lime Street and Chester, and with the Northern Line of the Merseyrail network at Liverpool Central and Moorfields.^[12]

History

The Wirral line is made up of three separate historic railways:

• Mersey Railway
• Wirral Railway
• Chester and Birkenhead Railway^[11]

The Loop tunnel in central Liverpool was opened in 1977. From a new platform at James Street station the tunnel carries a single track at deep level^[13] in a clockwise direction^[6] to Moorfields, Lime Street and Liverpool Central respectively. From Liverpool Central the tunnel returns to James Street, rejoining the Mersey Railway tunnel just before the station. The original Mersey Railway platforms at Central are now used by the Northern Line. Conway Park station opened on the West Kirby/New Brighton branch in 1998.^[14]

Mersey Railway

Opening in 1886,^[5][15] the Mersey Railway was Britain's second oldest underground railway system after the Thames Tunnel which opened in 1869.^[16] Originally, the Mersey Railway ran from James Street station in Liverpool to Green Lane in Birkenhead via Hamilton Square and Birkenhead Central stations.

James Street and Hamilton Square had their platforms completely underground, while Green Lane and Birkenhead Central station were built in below-ground-level cuttings.

A branch in the tunnel to the southwest of Hamilton Square station extended the line to Birkenhead Park station in 1888. The line was extended from Green Lane to Rock Ferry in 1891. In 1892 a further extension took place in Liverpool from James Street to Liverpool Central.^[15]

Wirral Railway

The Wirral Railway ran from Birkenhead Park to West Kirby.^[11] A branch from Birkenhead North took the line to New Brighton.

Chester and Birkenhead Railway

The section of the Chester and Birkenhead Railway used on the Wirral Line ran from Rock Ferry to Chester. A branch from Hooton to Ellesmere Port is also now incorporated into the Wirral Line.

Infrastructure

Track

The Wirral Line is built to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) standard gauge. The majority of the track has a loading gauge of W6 and the line has a Route Availability (RA) of RA 8 except for the New Brighton branch which is RA 6.^[17] This makes the whole line fairly restrictive and not very attractive for freight traffic.^[4]

Electrification

The Wirral Line is electrified using the 750 V DC third rail system.^[4] The Mersey Railway was electrified in 1903, making it the first railway in the world to be converted entirely to electrification.^[18] The former Wirral Railway, by then part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), was electrified in 1938.^[11] The opening of the Loop in 1977 led to three electrified terminals on the Wirral: New Brighton, West Kirby and Rock Ferry. Electrification south from Rock Ferry to Hooton followed in 1985 and was extended to Chester and Ellesmere Port in 1993 and 1994 respectively.^[11][19]

Rolling stock

In 1938 following the electrification of the former Wirral Railway, the LMS introduced new trains with air-operated sliding doors. These electric multiple units were eventually designated as Class 503. Further similar units were built in 1956 to replace the former Mersey Railway carriages.^[20] The entire Class 503 stock was replaced in 1983 with Class 508 units originally built in the late 1970s for services from London Waterloo.^[21] A few years earlier (1978–1980), almost identical Class 507 units had been introduced on the Northern Line to replace Class 502 stock. Following the privatisation of British Rail in 1993, Class 507 and 508 units have been used interchangeably on both the Wirral and Northern Lines and in 2003–2004 the 59-strong Class 507/508 fleet was refurbished by Alstom's Eastleigh Works at a cost of £32 million.^{[11][22][23][24]}

Services

Passenger

During Monday to Saturday, trains run every 15 minutes from Liverpool to each of New Brighton, West Kirby and Chester. Hooton is the point of interchange between trains to Ellesmere Port and trains to Chester, and gets six trains per hour from Liverpool, four of which continue to Chester (only two call at Capenhurst) and two calling at stations to Ellesmere Port.^[25]

Interchange with the Northern Line is available at Liverpool Central and Moorfields, and with the City Line at Liverpool Lime Street. Arriva Trains Wales operate services from Bidston along the Borderlands Line to Wrexham Central.^[25] Various proposals over the years have suggested the electrification of part or all of this route and incorporating it into the Wirral Line, as well as also electrifying beyond Ellesmere Port through to Helsby.^[4][26]

Connections are available with other National Rail services at Liverpool Lime Street and Chester. There is also a very limited connecting service from Ellesmere Port to Helsby and Warrington Bank Quay.^[27]

Freight

Parts of the Wirral Line in Ellesmere Port saw frequent freight traffic until 1996 with branches to several wharves as well as Eastham Oil Terminal.^[28] In 2005 a single track line to Manisty Wharf in Ellesmere Port was reopened for a regular coal flow to Fiddlers Ferry power station.^[7][28][29] This freight route follows the Wirral Line for a very short distance to the west of Ellesmere Port station before forking off northwards to reach the wharf.^[2] Freightliner Heavy Haul currently operates the service, with two trains per day.^[7][30]

Freightliner Heavy Haul also has a contract with Quinn Glass to deliver sand from Sibelco's Middleton Towers Quarry in Middleton, Norfolk to their 205 acres (0.83 km²; 0.320 sq mi) site at Elton which outputs 1.2 billion glass containers per year for the food and beverage industry.^{[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]} A trial service ran on 7 April 2011 and a twice-weekly service every Wednesday and Friday commenced on 13 April 2011.^[38][39] At present the sand is transported by road the final five miles to the Quinn Glass plant from a former Cawoods siding in Ellesmere Port beside the Manchester Ship Canal, south of Manisty Wharf, but from November 2011 trains will begin using a dedicated terminal at the plant itself.^[38][40][41]

Incidents

A number of incidents have occurred on the Wirral Line.

Unit 508118, while in storage in the siding at Birkenhead North, was subject to an arson attack in 2001. The unit was scrapped.^[42]

On 19 May 2004, Unit 507009 derailed at points as it approached Birkenhead North station.^[43] The leading bogie of four wheels came off the track, but the train remained upright. None of the 20 or so passengers on the train was injured.^[44][45] The cause was a worn switch rail and an imbalance in wheel loads across the leading carriage of the train.^[46]

At 17:41 on 26 October 2005 the rear bogie of unit 508124 derailed in the Loop tunnel between Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Central.^[47][48] Due to concerns by Network Rail as to the condition of the track, there had long been a temporary speed restriction of 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) in the tunnel, although at the time of the derailment the train was travelling at only 12 miles per hour (19 km/h). None of the 119 passengers was injured; the guard attended hospital overnight with a neck injury, but was not detained.^[44] In August 2006 a report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) cited poor track maintenance, inadequacy of the rail fastening system, and the track infrastructure and trains not being designed as a complete system, as causes of the derailment.^[46][49] Liverpool-bound services terminated at James Street instead of going around the Loop while investigation and track renewal work took place.^[50][51][52]

On 19 April 2006 a small fire in the Mersey Railway Tunnel caused electrics to short circuit. The 06:30 service from Ellesmere Port to Liverpool Central was in the tunnel at the time of the incident. All 120 passengers were escorted 400 yards (370 m) through the tunnel to Hamilton Square.^[53][54]

At 11:57 on 11 January 2007, unit 507019 hit the buffers at West Kirby as it was arriving from Liverpool Central. There were no injuries to the 20–30 passengers, but the driver and guard were treated for shock and minor rib injuries respectively.^[55] The train was travelling at around 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) at the time of impact when it demolished the buffers and caused other minor damage.^{[56][57][58][59][60]} The unit was towed to Crewe Works^[61] and repaired.^{[62][63][64][65]}

On 30 October 2007 a fire broke out on a Liverpool Central to Chester service. The train was evacuated at Bromborough Rake. The fire was caused by an electrical fault, and the carriage involved was damaged.^[66]

Accidents at level crossings on the line, involving pedestrian fatalities, took place in July 2007,^[67][68] January 2008,^[69][70] and November 2009.^{[71][72][73][74][75]}

See also

• Commuter rail in the United Kingdom

References

External links

• Merseyrail official website