Shrewsbury–Chester line

The Shrewsbury–Chester line is a railway line between Chester and Shrewsbury in England, with the line passing through Wrexham in Wales. Passenger train services are operated by Transport for Wales Rail between Chester, in the north, and Shrewsbury, in the south, as part of the Wales & Borders franchise. Some additional services, starting part way along the line to London Euston via Chester are operated by Avanti West Coast. The line was built in 1846 by the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, with the engineer for the line being Henry Robertson, a partner in locomotive builders Beyer Peacock, while the contractor was Thomas Brassey in partnership with William Mackenzie and Robert Stephenson. The line is part of Transport for Wales' North Wales Metro improvement programme.

The line has six stations, equally distributed between England and Wales. There are proposals to open stations on the line in Baschurch (by re-opening Baschurch railway station) and in the north and south of Wrexham.

The line was formerly double-track for its entire length, however, 9.5 miles (15.3 km) of the line between Wrexham and Saltney Junction was reduced to a single-track in the 1980s. This was partly reversed in 2017, with the re-doubling of 5 miles (8.0 km) of the single-track section between Saltney Junction to Rossett Junction into double-track. The infrastructural work was carried out by Network Rail and funded by the Welsh Government. The re-doubling was completed in April 2017, with the project described to be an effort to increase services between Wrexham and Chester and improving certain sections of line to allow trains to run at 90 mph. The remaining 4 miles (6.4 km) of track between Rossett Junction and just north of Wrexham General remains single-track. The line used to extend to Chester directly, however the section of track between Saltney Junction and Chester railway station was reduced from two double-tracks, sharing with the North Wales Coast Line, to a single double-track now considered only part of the North Wales Coast Line by Network Rail.