Borderlands Line

Map of the Wirral showing the Borderlands Line running south from Birkenhead through Neston onwards to Wrexham. Link to detailed map.

The Borderlands Line (Welsh: Llinell y Gororau) is the railway line between Wrexham, Wales, running north to Bidston on the Wirral in England.

Passenger train services are operated by Arriva Trains Wales between Wrexham Central and Bidston. Bidston is an interchange station for Merseyrail services to Liverpool and the Wirral. Trains run every hour Monday to Saturday daytime, every two hours after 18:45 and on Sundays. Connections with other National Rail services are at Bidston (changing for Merseyrail services to West Kirby, Birkenhead and Liverpool Lime Street for London and long haul national routes), Shotton (change for Chester and London trains and the North Wales Coast Line) and Wrexham General (for the Shrewsbury-Chester Line).

The line is also referred to as the Mid Wirral Line, as most of the line runs north-south through the middle of the Wirral peninsula. The Wirral's other railway routes are provided with frequent Merseyrail electric trains. The Borderlands Line has a relatively infrequent diesel operated service.

Holders of the Concessionary Travel Pass resident in Wrexham and Flintshire can travel free along part of the line, from Wrexham Central Station to Hawarden Bridge Station.^[1] Holders of the Merseytravel Concessionary Travel Pass can travel free along the section of the line that runs through Merseyside, from Heswall Station to Bidston Station.

Link to detailed map of the line.

Passenger services

The train service is normally operated with Class 150s. It was formerly operated by Class 153s, Class 101s, and Class 142s. . In October 2006 the operator moved to using Class 150s or paired Class 153 units. The latter disappeared in favour of the Class 150s in December 2006.

The franchise

Upon privatisation, passenger services were transferred from Regional Railways to North West Trains, later known as First North Western. In 2003, a review led to the creation of the All-Wales Franchise, meaning services were transferred to Wales & Borders Trains. Arriva Trains Wales succeeded Wales & Borders on 8 December 2003, and has operated all passenger services on the line since. Future electrification plans could see the line transfer to Merseyrail.^[2]

Infrastructure History

The southern part of the line was built by the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WMCQR) and the northern part by the North Wales and Liverpool Railway, a joint committee of the WMCQR and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. Both railways were acquired by the Great Central Railway on 1 January 1905.

Two Wirral stations on the line closed in the 1950s; Storeton in 1951 and Burton Point in 1955. No trace of the station at Storeton remains, yet Burton Point station is still almost entirely intact, the station buildings currently forming part of a garden centre.^[3]

Development and electrification

Borderlands line

Legend Wirral Line Bidston Wirral Line Upton M53 motorway Storeton for Barnston Heswall Merseytravel boundary Neston Birkenhead Railway Burton Point England–Wales border Sealand Rifle Range Halt Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform Shotton Paper Deeside Industrial Park Junctions with Chester and Connah's Quay Railway Hawarden Bridge River Dee (Hawarden Bridge) North Wales Coast Line Shotton; North Wales Coast Line Hawarden Buckley Castle Cement Hope High Level; Chester to Denbigh Line Penyffordd Sidings Penyffordd Hope River Alyn Caergwrle Cefn-y-Bedd River Cegidog (Cegidog Viaduct) Gwersyllt Shrewsbury to Chester Line Wrexham and Minera Railway (Wheatsheaf Junction) WMCQ Brymbo Branch (Gwersyllt Junction) Wrexham General Wrexham Central Wrexham and Ellesmere Railway Shrewsbury to Chester Line

Proposals exist to electrify a section or all of the line with incorporation into the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network, allowing through services to the underground sections of Birkenhead and Liverpool and onwards to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.^[4] New stations at Deeside Industrial Park, Woodchurch and Beechwood have been proposed. The route was mentioned in Merseytravel's proposed 30-year plan of 2014.

“New stations at Beechwood and Woodchurch in Birkenhead (the latter “would be around junction 3 of the M53, the Prenton/Oxton side”) and Deeside Industrial Park. These changes would “Incorporate the line into the Merseyrail Wirral line to provide direct connectivity with Liverpool city centre.”"^[5]

A study conducted by Network Rail in 2008, investigated the costs of extending the Merseyrail network third-rail electrification to Wrexham. However, when the cost was estimated at £207 million,^[6] Merseytravel stated that cheaper overhead-wire electrification would also be considered and announced a lower estimated figure of £66 million.^[7] This would require dual-voltage trains with third-rail and overhead-wire capability.^[8]

Network Rail's conclusion was that full line electrification is only feasible if it could be delivered for less than £100,000 per single track km. As the line is twin track that is £200,000 per line km, giving a total figure of £8.7 million, which is far below the estimate of full line electrification of £66 million. Another consideration is whether a new the pattern of service delivers significant net benefits.^[9]

Political pressure to electrify the line has been continuous.^[10] The Welsh government is pressing for improved rail connections between North Wales and Liverpool which may accelerate the electrification of the line^[11] or the introduction of battery powered trains.^[12]

Technology advances are favourable to implement a full service from Wrexham into the Liverpool underground section of Merseyrail. Advances in electric supercapacitors and batteries may preclude full electrification of the line. Trains can operate on batteries on unelectrified sections of the track and take power from an electric pick-up on the electrified sections. While operating on the electrified sections the batteries are recharged. Batteries and supercapacitors can be recharged while waiting at stations. Trains are now operational using on-board supercapacitors that charge quickly while stopped at stations proceeding without wires until the next station for a subsequent recharge.^[13][14] Research and development from 2009 produced the latest operational passenger battery trains, the light weight construction EV-E301 series, introduced into service in Japan in March 2014. A 10-minute charge allows the train to travel over 12 miles (approximately 20 km), with battery recharging also when the train is operating on electrified track.^[15][16] A trial of a overhead-wire and battery powered converted Electrostar train was undertaken in January and February 2015 on the Mayflower Line. The train can travel up to 60 miles on energy stored in the batteries and also recharges the batteries via the overhead-wire when on electrified track, at stations and via brake regeneration.^[17] This battery/supercapacitor technology is being considered for the Borderlands Line, recharging batteries while operating on the Birkenhead and Liverpool underground sections, and short top-up charges when the train is stopped at stations. Adoption of these types of trains would preclude full line electrification.

In March 2015, Network Rail published the draft of their Welsh Route Study. It contained several suggestions for improving services on the line, including:^[18]

• Replacing the High and Low levels at Shotton station with a dedicated interchange station, improving connectivity between the North Wales Coast Main Line & the Borderlands Line
• The removal of level crossings to improve line speed.

The document also suggested that consideration had been given to electrification and to running services further into Birkenhead instead of terminating at Bidston for greater connectivity, however these options were expressed as offering low value for money. The document re-iterated previous suggestions that using rolling stock which could operate on battery power would provide a cheaper method of increasing connectivity into the electrified Birkenhead and Liverpool sections of the Wirral Line. From the document:

"In the longer term, potential deployment of rolling stock with the ability to operate on battery power for part of their journey may provide the ability in an affordable manner to improve the service offering between the Wrexham – Bidston route and Liverpool."^[19]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Borderlands Line.

• Official Website
• Wrexham-Birkenhead Rail Users' Association
• The Wrexham-Bidston Line
• PDF detailing possible addition to Wirral Line services (Page 33) - broken link

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