Heswall railway station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

on the eastern edge of the town of

Heswall Heswall is a town on the Wirral, Merseyside, England. At the 2001 Census, the population was 16,012, including the nearby villages of Barnston and Gayton. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 it was part of the administr ...

on the

Wirral Peninsula Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to t ...

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 is on the Borderlands Line. The station and all trains serving it are 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 ...

. In 2008 the station was refurbished. The station was previously known as Heswall Hills, as there was previously another station serving Heswall, on the

Birkenhead Railway The Birkenhead Railway was a railway company in North West England. It was incorporated as the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway (BL&CJR) in 1846 to build a line connecting the port of Birkenhead and the city of Chester with ...

's branch line from

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 ...

to Hooton, that is now a footpath known as the

Wirral Way The Wirral Country Park is a country park on the Wirral Peninsula, England, lying both in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the county of Merseyside and in the borough of Cheshire West & Chester in the county of Cheshire. It was the first ...

History

The railway line between and was authorised on 31 July 1885, and was originally to be a line jointly owned by the

Wirral 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 ...

(WR) and 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 1 ...

(WMCQ), but in 1889 the WR share was transferred to the

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grimsb ...

(MS&LR). Construction began in 1892; the line went through several changes of name, and by the time of its opening (goods 16 March 1896, passengers 18 May), was known as the North Wales and Liverpool Joint Railway. A station known as ''Heswall Hills'' was opened two years later, on 1 May 1898. The MS&LR in due course became the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

(GCR), which absorbed the WMCQ on 1 January 1905, so that by the time of the

1923 Grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

the line was wholly owned by the GCR, and so became part of the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

on 1 January 1923. Heswall Hills station was renamed ''Heswall'' on 7 May 1973.

Freight and goods

The station had an extensive goods yard with sidings to the south-west of the station, where daily shunting operations were carried out until the advent of diesel railcar operations in 1960, at which time light freight operations ceased. Although, the yard was still used until 30 October 1965. The goods yard and sidings were sold off for housing development in about 1967. However, the line continued to be used for heavy freight, as

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

freight trains also passed through the station. These freight trains operated from

Bidston Dock Bidston Dock was a Dock (maritime), dock at Birkenhead, in England. It was situated to the west of the Great Float, between Bidston and Poulton, Merseyside, Poulton. History A proposal for the construction of the dock on most of what remained ...

to the John Summers steelworks in Shotton. The steam locomotives could be heard at night for at least five miles climbing Storeton Bank, from Upton station to Heswall. The Class 9F locomotive 92203, later named as ''Black Prince'', worked the final steam-hauled iron ore train in November 1967. The freight service itself ended around 1980.

Future

Proposals have been put forward to electrify the track as part of the ''Borderlands Electrification'' scheme.

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 ...

would like to see the line electrified to link with its own third-rail service, with a doubling of the frequency of services. This would allow the station to serve as a part of a direct service 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 ...

. In June 2018 it was announced that, as part of the new KeolisAmey franchise to operate the Wales and Borders rail service, the frequency of trains on the line would increase to 2tph from December 2021. However in September 2021, this was delayed to May 2022. In May 2022, the planned timetable with the increased service was revised with the additional services removed, therefore any increase in frequency was scrapped for May 2022, due to timetable conflict with freight services, , the service frequency increase has not been approved by the

Office of Rail and Road The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...

Facilities

The station facilities are somewhat rudimentary, and the station is unstaffed at nearly all times. Each of the two platforms has a waiting shelter with seating. 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 ...

, and live departure and arrival screens for passenger information, but no booking office. There is a small station

car park A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

, with space for 16 cars.

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), cerebr ...

and pram access to the platforms is possible, via the access ramps.

Services

From Monday to Saturday, there is an hourly service between Bidston and Wrexham Central (two-hourly in the evening and on public holidays). There is a service every 90 minutes each way on Sundays. Services are provided by an Transport for Wales Class 150/2 "Sprinter" DMU.

References

Bibliography

External links

{{Merseyside railway stations Railway stations in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral DfT Category F2 stations Former Great Central Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1898 Railway stations served by Transport for Wales Rail