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Birkenhead Park railway station is a station serving the town of
Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
, in
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It lies on the
Wirral Line The Wirral line is one of two commuter rail routes operated by Merseyrail and centred on Merseyside, England, the other being the Northern line. The Wirral line connects Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula via the Mersey Railway Tunnel, with b ...
of the
Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line and Wirral Line, which are dedicated electri ...
network.


History

The name of the station comes from nearby
Birkenhead Park Birkenhead Park is a major public park located in the centre of Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It was designed by Joseph Paxton and opened on 5 April 1847. It is generally acknowledged as the first publicly funded civic park in the world. Th ...
, one of the UK's first Victorian municipal
park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...
s. In 1850 its layout - created by
Joseph Paxton Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
- had a profound influence on visiting American landscape architect
Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co- ...
. Eight years later he took inspiration from Birkenhead Park (and other green spaces like
Derby Arboretum Derby Arboretum is a public park and arboretum in the city of Derby, England, located about south of the city centre in the Rose Hill area. It was opened in 1840, following the donation of the land by local philanthropist Joseph Strutt, and to ...
) to win a competition to design
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
's new city park. The station was opened on 2 January 1888, as a joint interchange station between the
Seacombe, Hoylake and Deeside Railway The Wirral Railway was a railway network in the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula, England. Its route was from Birkenhead Park in the east of the Wirral to West Kirby in the west. A branch off this line at Bidston went north to Secombe and ...
and the
Mersey Railway The Mersey Railway was the first part of the passenger railway connecting the communities of Liverpool, Birkenhead, and now the rest of the Wirral Peninsula in England, which lie on opposite banks of the River Mersey, via the Mersey Railway Tun ...
. The station replaced the Wirral Railway's original terminus at Wallasey Bridge Road, which was close to the present-day Birkenhead North station. The station was an interchange between the Wirral Railway's line to
West Kirby West Kirby is a resort town on the north-west corner of the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England, at the mouth of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Cheshire, to th ...
and the Mersey Railway's new line to Liverpool Central low level station. On the same day of opening, the Wirral Railway's new line to Wallasey Grove Road opened, which was extended to New Brighton later the same year. The station was built at the western portal of the Mersey Railway tunnel that ran into central Birkenhead and Liverpool's city centre. From its opening the station had two island platforms to facilitate across-platform transfer between the Mersey Railway and the Wirral Railway. The northern pair of tracks were used exclusively by Mersey Railway trains. The centre and southern pairs of tracks were available to the Wirral Railway.


Mersey Railway electrification

On 3 May 1903, the Mersey Railway to Liverpool was changed over from steam to electric trains, with a 650 V DC
fourth rail A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), ele ...
system and
Mersey Railway electric units Mersey Railway electric multiple units were electric multiple units introduced on the underground Mersey Railway, now a part of Merseyrail, in 1903. In the early 1900s the railway was bankrupt as it used steam locomotives that left a dirty atmosp ...
built by Westinghouse. There was a small Mersey Railway electric car shed at the eastern end of the station, on the northern side of the line, which held two 6-car trains. This was built on level ground, with the tracks towards the tunnel to Liverpool dropping steeply alongside. The car shed was removed in the 1970s.


Fatal accident

On 6 December 1922 an accident occurred at the station, at around 4pm, between two trains of the Wirral Railway. The train heading to
West Kirby West Kirby is a resort town on the north-west corner of the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside, England, at the mouth of the River Dee, Wales, River Dee. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Cheshire, to th ...
, which was late, was leaving the station and collided with a train from West Kirby. There was one fatality and eight other passengers sustained serious injuries, with a further 36 people suffering from shock. This was the first fatal passenger accident to occur on the Wirral Railway.


LMS electrification

Between 1936 and 1938, The
London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...
electrified the lines from Birkenhead Park to West Kirby and New Brighton using a 650 V DC
third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...
to match the system of the Mersey Railway. The smoke free electric trains facilitated through operation to underground sections of Birkenhead and Liverpool, with the line terminating at Liverpool Central low level station. The LMS electric trains were brought into passenger service on 14 March 1938. The need to change at Birkenhead Park was removed transforming the station into a through station. It was normal for the new LMS trains to operate the Liverpool to West Kirby route, and the older Mersey Railway trains to operate the Liverpool to New Brighton route, except for Sundays and bank holidays. From 1938 electrification of the Wirral lines integrated both the Mersey Railway and LMS (Wirral) railway services to New Brighton and West Kirby. However the former Wirral Railway branch to
Seacombe Seacombe () is a district of the town of Wallasey, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, Seacombe is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part o ...
was still operated by steam trains, not those of its owner the LMS but trains of the LNER from the Chester and Wrexham lines through Bidston. The additional facilities beyond a simple two-track through station became redundant at Birkenhead Park. Despite which, the layout retained all four platforms, two in each direction, until the 1970s. A new 60-lever signal box was opened in 1938, which was reduced to 25 levers in 1972 and which closed on 28 February 1988.


World War II bombing

The station building is not the original. The first station building was destroyed when two
aerial bombs An aerial bomb is a type of explosive or incendiary weapon intended to travel through the air on a predictable trajectory. Engineers usually develop such bombs to be dropped from an aircraft. The use of aerial bombs is termed aerial bombing. B ...
were dropped by German aircraft on the night of 12–13 March 1941, during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the bombing, through services were restored after five days with the station reopened to passengers after eleven days.


Postwar

The outer platform faces were hardly used, apart from a handful of trains which were stored outside of peak hours in the sidings which remained at all four corners of the station, and outside the island platforms. In the 1970s, there were a number of rationalisations to the layout. At one stage, through trains used the outer tracks of the station, while a bay platform was fashioned between these to allow a proposed Liverpool-to-Birkenhead Park extra peak-hour shuttle service, which in the event was never started. The layout was then simplified again to the current one, retaining the former southern island platform with just a through road either side, with the former northern platform demolished in 1992.


Facilities

The station is staffed, during all opening hours, and has platform
CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
. The island platform has a waiting shelter. There is a
payphone A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic outdoor areas, with prepayment by inserting money (usually coins) or by billing a credit or debit ...
, booking office and live departure and arrival screens, for passenger information. A 16-capacity lift was opened in August 2022, allowing step-free access for all passengers. The station has no car park but there is secure cycle storage for 32 bikes.


Services

Trains operate every 15 minutes (Monday to Saturday daytime) to New Brighton and West Kirby and every 5–10 minutes via
Hamilton Square Hamilton Square is a town square in Birkenhead, Wirral, England. This Georgian square, which was designed by Edinburgh architect James Gillespie Graham, has the most Grade I listed buildings outside London (after Trafalgar Square). It is named ...
and the
Mersey Railway Tunnel The Mersey Railway was the first part of the passenger railway connecting the communities of Liverpool, Birkenhead, and now the rest of the Wirral Peninsula in England, which lie on opposite banks of the River Mersey, via the Mersey Railway Tun ...
to
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
. At other times, trains run every 30 minutes to New Brighton and West Kirby, and every 15 minutes to Liverpool. These services are all provided by Merseyrail's fleet of Class 507 and Class 508
EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...
.


Gallery

Image:Birkenhead Park booking office from platform.jpg, Birkenhead Park station booking office as seen from the platform. Image:Birkenhead Park Railway Station (geograph 2974939).jpg, The platform waiting rooms. Image:Sculptures at Birkenhead Park railway station.JPG, Sculptures on the platform.


References


Sources

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External links

{{Railway stations served by Merseyrail Buildings and structures in Birkenhead DfT Category E stations Former Mersey Railway stations Former Wirral Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1888 Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Railway stations served by Merseyrail