Rail closures did not start with the BR Modernisation Plan and Dr. Beeching in the 1960s. Even before nationalisation, rail companies had been closing stations in response to changing demand and to reduce losses on uncompetitive lines. Reducing goods traffic, especially coal and parcels, increasing use of cars for domestic use, duplicating lines and the economics of repairing infrastructure damaged during the war only accelerated this process.
Before privatisation, thousands of miles of lines were closed between 1933 and 1947. But these closures did not always mean the end of rail services—sometimes lines were later reopened or repurposed. This blog focuses on how reuse of existing and abandoned infrastructure across Merseyside supported the creation of the Merseyrail Electrics network in the 1970s.
The development of the suburban passenger network on Merseyside was driven by competing companies with duplicating lines created by the competition to build new lines from the 1860s. Falling demand, combined with the duplication and inconvenient locations of some stations drove closures as early as the 1920s. The most severe cuts came under the Rail Modernisation Plan and services between Southport and Liverpool Exchange only escaped the Beeching Axe following vigorous local campaigning.
The Loop and The Link
The Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive and Authority was created in 1968 to set transport policy and manage delivery of a comprehensive integrated network providing an opportunity to develop a suburban railway more suited to commuter needs. This led to the genesis of the Merseyrail network and proposal to create an underground Loop Line to allow trains from the Wirral, renamed the Wirral Line, to serve Lime Street.
Liverpool Exchange was to close, with services from Ormskirk, Southport and Kirkby, now called the Northern Line, using another new tunnel, the Link Line, to connect via a new underground station at Moorfields to Central, with connections to the Wirral Line for Lime Street. Whilst people remember Exchange with fondness, it had been operating for 25 years with restrictions due to wartime damage and many of its services had been rerouted to Lime Street, with unused platforms used as a car park. Gateacre services were extended to Garston and connected to the newly electrified Kirkby line. The new stations were designed to be modern and bright, served by new trains with faster journey times and better connections. Some stations gained park and ride facilities, others improved integration with bus services.
The lines opened in May 1977 and the service initially ran with the existing EMUs which struggled to cope with the gradients. Replacement Class 507 and 508 trains, many newly built for Merseyside, were delivered from the following year, and the Merseyrail service was officially opened on 25 October 1978.
A Monitoring Report of the Merseyrail Projects by the PTE and BR in 1981 reported a 27% increase in patronage of the system, reversing the previous decline, with a particular increase in off-peak usage. Weekday journeys on the Garston – Kirkby service rose from 1,400 to 12,000, and many journeys across the network were by new users, transferring from cars and buses, generating 23% more revenue. Plans for similar electrified connections towards Manchester, on what is now the City Line, were put on hold due to lack of funding.
For 50 years the Merseyrail Electrics service has evolved, with its isolation from the rest of the network allowing long term planning reflecting the needs of the area that it supports and vertical integration of delivery. The network has developed to introduce new stations to under served areas such as Maghull South and Brunswick, with Liverpool South Parkway providing connections between regional and local services and park and ride facilities. Electrification has been extended to Hunts Cross, Chester and Ellesmere Port.
At privatisation any hope to make the City Line part of the electrified Merseyrail network seemed to have been dashed as the routes were included in the North West Regional Railways franchise. The third-rail electric Northern and Wirral Lines were largely isolated from the rest of the National Rail network with no through passenger services outside the electrified Merseyrail network.
Merseytravel, the current name for the Passenger Transport Executive, is now part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Over the last 2 years, the network’s 40-year-old Class 507/8 units were retired, with one undertaking a celebratory tour in the original BR Merseyrail Electrics livery. The new Class 777 units are more accessible and energy efficient. The ability to run 8 carriage trains is helping manage demand as it recovers towards pre COVID levels. Unusually, these new trains are owned by Merseytravel rather than a train leasing company. Some units can operate under battery power, enabling an electrified network to a new £80m station at Headbolt Lane with the potential to restore a through service to Wigan Wallgate.
Merseyrail appears regularly in the top of lists of providers for reliability and service. From Southport, connectivity to the rest of the rail network is far more reliable via Liverpool than the more direct Northern route via Wigan and Manchester.
The next stage on this journey is another potential reinvention of Liverpool Central, with plans to rebuild to create additional capacity at what has become one of the busiest stations in the country, allowing transfer of services from Liverpool Lime Street to free capacity for the high-speed Northern Powerhouse lines that have been promised. This would be the final step in the creation of the Merseyrail envisaged 50 years ago.
The next blog in this series will move to examine the evolution of lines serving the Liverpool Docks and how lines were reused to create the Seaforth Container Terminal Branch.