Bidston railway station is a
railway station that serves the village of
Bidston
Bidston is a village, a parish and a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, in the modern county of Merseyside. The area is a mixture of the well-preserved Bidston Village, Bidston Hill, a modern housing estate, and the Bidston Moss nat ...
,
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 Liverp ...
, on the
Wirral,
England. The station is situated at the junction of the
West Kirby branch of the
Wirral line, which is part of the
Merseyrail network, and serves as the northern terminal for the
Borderlands line from
Wrexham Central, operated by
Transport for Wales.
History
Bidston station has for most of its existence been primarily an interchange point between trains. The station is relatively isolated except for nearby
Bidston Village, and was accessed only by foot. Until 1970, the approach road to the station was an unpaved track. Because of its isolation when a through station, the station closed twice due to poor passenger usage. Today there is an adjacent car park at the station with access to the nearby Junction One retail park via a lane. The station's prime function as an interchange still remains today.
The station was originally built by the
Hoylake Railway, opening on 2 July 1866 as an intermediate through station on their line from
Birkenhead Dock to the east to
Hoylake to the west. The Birkenhead Dock terminus was a tramway railway interchange station, with onward journeys to
Birkenhead Woodside ferry by horse drawn street trams of the Wirral Tramway. The station first closed on 4 July 1870, reopening on 1 August 1872.
In 1878 the Hoylake Railway line was extended to
West Kirby on the
River Dee coast to the west. In 1888 the line was extended to
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 ...
station. Birkenhead Park was an interchange station to Liverpool via 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 Tu ...
. The old tramway interchange terminus at Birkenhead Dock station was converted to a goods station.
The station was again closed in June 1890 due to low passenger numbers.
The station was permanently reopened on 18 May 1896 as the northern terminus of the new
North Wales and Liverpool Railway
The North Wales and Liverpool Railway (NWLR), was the name given to the joint committee formed to construct a railway between Bidston, on the Wirral Railway and Hawarden on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's (MSLR) Chester & Con ...
. The southern terminus was at
Hawarden Bridge
Hawarden Bridge (; cy, Pont Penarlâg) is a railway bridge over the River Dee, near Shotton, Flintshire, Wales. It was built by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (which later became the Great Central Railway), as part of th ...
, which joined onto the
Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway
The Buckley Railway was opened from Buckley to a connection with the Chester to Holyhead main line on 7 June 1862, to convey coal and finished brickworks products from the Buckley area. Numerous short tramroads had existed in the area from the ...
line to
Wrexham Central.
In 1898 Bidston ceased to be a terminus station with the line extended 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 ...
in
Wallasey
Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral P ...
. Bidston became a passenger interchange station.
Through trains to
Liverpool commenced in 1938 when the
London Midland and Scottish Railway electrified the line from
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 ...
to
West Kirby. During the earlier half of the twentieth century, Bidston station was known as ''Bidston Dee Junction'' and was a busy interchange between the Wirral line electric services and the Seacombe to Wrexham and
Chester Northgate steam trains. In 1960 the Wrexham service changed to
diesel trains. At the same time the northern terminus of the line was diverted further north to terminate at
New Brighton due to the closure of Seacombe station. The section of line from Bidston to New Brighton was closed in 1971 due to poor passenger use with the line from Wrexham terminating at
Birkenhead North.
However it was subsequently cut back to Bidston and again the station became a terminus on the
Borderlands Line in October 1978
and this remains the situation today.
The section of curve between Bidston West and North Junctions, on the
wye to the east of the station, was severed on 28 November 1983. This removed the direct route to New Brighton for passengers, and
Bidston Dock for freight.
Signal boxes
Bidston had four signal boxes in 1899.
These signal boxes were situated alongside the Dee, West, East and North junctions. The nearest to the station was the Bidston Dee Junction box.
The second Dee Junction signal box was built in the 1930s by the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and was much larger than the earlier signal box which had been built by the Wirral Railway.
This signal box had a 65-lever frame and also took over the operation of Bidston North Junction, when built.
Bidston Dee Junction signal box was closed on 17 September 1994,
and demolished two months later on 20 November.
Engine shed and freight use
Bidston station had a nearby
engine shed, shed code 6F,
which principally operated the Wrexham line. The building was somewhat south of the running lines, halfway between Bidston and Birkenhead North stations.
The shed was built by the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1897 and had two tracks inside.
The shed had a water tank and a
coaling stage
A coaling tower, coal stage, coaling plant or coaling station is a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops.
In the early years of ...
for
steam locomotives. Examples of locomotives, which could be found at the shed, included the
LNER Class J94 ''Austerity'', which was used around the Birkenhead docks, and the
BR Standard Class 9F
The British Railways Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 is a class of steam locomotive designed for British Railways by Robert Riddles. The Class 9F was the last in a series of standardised locomotive classes designed for British Railways during the 1950 ...
, which hauled
iron ore trains from Bidston Dock to the
John Summers steelworks in
Shotton.
The engine shed closed on 11 February 1963, along with transfer of its allocation of locomotives to
Birkenhead Mollington Street depot.
The shed remained intact for several years after closure.
Several sidings were situated adjacent to the eastern side of the station, south of the running lines.
These sidings had been built prior to 1899,
and were removed after goods traffic ended on 29 July 1968.
A
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...
supermarket now occupies the site of these sidings.
The station was the nearest to the former Bidston Dock. The adjacent Bidston East Junction gives access to the former
Birkenhead Dock Branch
Birkenhead Dock Branch is a disused railway line running from the South junction of Rock Ferry, to the site of the former Bidston Dock on the Wirral Peninsula, England. The branch is approximately in length. Although called a branch, the l ...
line, but this has been disused by freight workings since the mid-1980s and is still so at present.
Facilities
The station has a
booking office, shelter and toilet facilities.
Each side of the island platform can receive six carriages.
The station is staffed at all times during 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 ...
. Each platform has open-air seating. There is a
payphone, next to the ticket office, on platform 1. The station provides a "Park and Ride" service. There are a further 198 car parking spaces, which are free to use for travellers, with lighting columns and CCTV to meet Merseytravel's Travelsafe requirements. Construction of the new car park was completed in 2010. There is no access to the platform for passengers with
wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries (paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebral p ...
s or
prams, as access is by staircase only. On 3 August 2015, a new Bike & Go shelter opened at the station. This provides secure cycle storage for 28 cycles.
Services
Currently, services run every 15 minutes (Monday to Saturday daytime) to West Kirby & Liverpool, and every hour to Wrexham. Services to and from Wrexham usually terminate/start from platform 2, which is also used by West Kirby trains. Liverpool-bound trains use platform 1.
During the evenings, trains operate every 30 minutes to West Kirby & Liverpool and every two hours to Wrexham (all day on Bank Holidays), with a service approximately every 90 minutes on Sundays.
Merseyrail services are provided by
Merseyrail's fleet of
Class 507 and
Class 508 EMUs. Services to Wrexham are usually provided by a
Transport for Wales, double-carriage,
Class 150/2 "Sprinter"
DMU.
Future
Proposals have been made to electrify some or all of the Borderlands Line and possibly incorporate it into the Wirral Line services, but no commitment has been made.
Written Answer from Transport Minister Tom Harris to Wirral South MP Ben Chapman, 2007-03-02
Accessed 2008-10-15
References
Bibliography
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External links
The Wrexham-Bidston Line
Welcome to the Borderlands Line
{{Coord, 53.409, N, 3.079, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title
Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
DfT Category E stations
Former Wirral Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1866
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1870
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1872
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1890
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1896
Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail
Railway stations served by Merseyrail
1866 establishments in England