Helsby railway station serves the village of

Helsby Helsby is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Overlooking the Mersey estuary, it is approximately north east of Chester and south we ...

in Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The station is on the Chester–Warrington line between Chester and Warrington Bank Quay and on the Hooton–Helsby line to Hooton.

Facilities

There is a BT Payphone on Platform 1. Limited seating exists on Platform 1 and 2.National Rail Enquiries – Station Facilities for Helsby
/ref> The station has won numerous Best Kept Station awards. A Customer Information System has been installed and is operational. There is no disabled access to trains calling at this station due to the low platforms. Platforms for the

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, south of Birkenhead, southwest of Runcorn and south of ...

services can also only be reached by using the footbridge. The station is operated by

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consi ...

and is unstaffed requiring passengers to purchase tickets from the ticket vending machine located on Platform 1. The nearest station with additional ticketing facilities is Chester. Penalty fares do not operate here. From 2005 until the franchise was handed over in 2018 the Helsby station was operated by Arriva Trains Wales.

Services

There is a basic hourly service in each direction between Manchester and Chester/North Wales and between Chester and Liverpool Lime Street via the Halton Curve. There is also a service to Leeds that calls at Helsby three times in a morning and twice in an evening that is operated by Northern. Most westbound trains towards Chester continue to (although connections are available at Chester for Holyhead and London). There are two services that run to Holyhead rather than Llandudno on weekdays and one service on Saturdays runs to Bangor. Certain northbound trains are now extended through to . On Sundays the Manchester service operates between Chester & Manchester Piccadilly only, although on the same hourly frequency as during the week. The station is also the junction of the

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

. This service sees three trains daily in each direction, (Monday–Saturday) - two in the early morning and another in the early evening. Two of these trains continue to Warrington Bank Quay and beyond to Manchester and on weekdays only.

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

operates this service. (In the picture, the train on the right has arrived from

). There is no Sunday service on this line. The summer Saturdays only Chester to Runcorn

parliamentary train A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act req ...

via the

Halton Curve Halton Curve (now formally known as the Frodsham Single Line) is a short bi-directional railway line which links the Chester–Warrington line to the Weaver Junction–Liverpool line within the borough of Halton, Cheshire. The route, which is ...

(operated by Northern) passed through the station but did not call when operating. A regular (hourly each way, seven days a week) service between

Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world. A branch of the West Coast ...

and Chester on this route, calling here and serving and commenced at the May 2019 timetable change. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Long Term Rail Strategy document of October 2017, page 37, states that a trial of new

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, 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 (Merseyrail ...

battery trains will be undertaken in 2020, in view to put Helsby onto the Merseyrail network. If successful, Helsby will be one of the terminals of 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 ...

giving direct services to Birkenhead and four underground station in

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 populat ...

's city centre.

Adopt-a-station

The North Cheshire Rail Users' Group has adopted this station and regularly ensure the station is clean and tidy. The station has won the "Best Kept Station" six times, and the plaques commending this are fixed to the signal box located on the island platforms, (2 + 3).

Connections

Helsby has several bus links operated primarily by

Arriva North West Arriva North WestCompanies House extract company no 1990871

and

Stagecoach Merseyside Stagecoach Merseyside is a major operator of bus services in the city of Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside region. It is a sub-division of Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire. Stagecoach Merseyside was formed in July 2005 with ...

. * Route X30 operates between Chester and Warrington hourly. (Arriva NW) (Monday - Saturday) * Route X2 operates between Runcorn and Chester via Ince & Elton, and Ellesmere Port, hourly.http://www2.halton.gov.uk/publictransport/pdfs/juneweb36.pdf (Stagecoach Merseyside) (Monday - Saturday)

References

External links

North Cheshire Rail Users Group
User group responsible for upkeep of Helsby station {{coord, 53.275, N, 2.771, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Railway stations in Cheshire Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire Former Birkenhead Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1852 Northern franchise railway stations Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail 1852 establishments in England DfT Category F1 stations