Wirral line

The Wirral line was not originally conceived as a single route, but uses several railway lines built by individual private railway companies. Even after the Grouping Act of 1921, three of the Big Four companies were active on the Wirral Peninsula until the nationalisation of the railways in 1948, when all four were absorbed into British Railways. During the 1970s, under British Rail, the Merseyrail network was developed. but the railway company itself was not incorporated until 12 July 1837, after a previous bill had been rejected a few months earlier. Between 1830 and 1837, an alternative route was surveyed by Francis Giles, The total cost of the railway was around £513,000, more than double the original estimate of £250,000, and the full length of opened as a single-track line on 23 September 1840 between temporary termini at Grange Lane in Birkenhead and Brook Street in Chester, close to the present location of Chester railway station. The inaugural service was operated by locomotive "The Wirral", taking 50minutes to travel the length of the line from Birkenhead. Chester General station opened a year later on 1 August 1848, still extant today as the southern terminus of the Wirral line and renamed to simply "Chester" in 1969 following the closure of Chester's other station, Chester Northgate. In 1859, the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway shortened its name to become the Birkenhead Railway, but was taken over in 1860 by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), who operated the line as a joint affair known as the Birkenhead Joint Railway. Wirral Railway . On 28 July 1863, the Hoylake Railway was incorporated due to the Hoylake Railway Act 1863 being granted royal assent, which authorised the construction of a railway line between Birkenhead and Hoylake. A single track line was constructed between and (adjacent to Wallasey Bridge Road), and the railway opened to passengers on 2 July 1866. On 18 July 1881, the railway became the Seacombe, Hoylake & Deeside Railway Company and acts were passed for lines to , Deeside and Warren Drive, later extended to New Brighton. The planned NW&LR route would pass through the heart of the Wirral Peninsula from on the Wirral Railway to in Flintshire, Wales where it would meet the Chester and Connah's Quay Railway and the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WM&CQR). and due to a high level of goods traffic the GCR opened a new connection to the docks in 1907 as part of what forms the now-disused Birkenhead Dock Branch. On 22 December 1869, Fox held a meeting with Liverpool businessmen and merchants where it was decided that the pneumatic single track railway would be substituted with a conventional steam double track line. Powers for the Mersey Railway Company to build a steam railway were granted in 1871 as well as those to extend the original planned route to connect with the joint Great Western and London and North Western railway at . A contract was made with John Dickson to raise the necessary funding and then construct the railway, but he soon became bankrupt. Work on constructing the tunnel did not commence until December 1879 when a preliminary contract was entered with Major Samuel Isaac, a London businessman, to dig a pilot tunnel for determining the nature of the strata beneath the Mersey. Isaac subcontracted the construction work to John Waddell & Sons of Edinburgh who appointed James Brunlees and Charles Douglas Fox, eldest son of Sir Charles Fox, as engineers in chief. and as a result construction began in August 1881, before the pilot bore had been completed. A total of three tunnels were constructedthe main railway tunnel, a ventilation tunnel and a drainage tunnel. The railway tunnel was horseshoe shaped Upon opening, the railway ran from James Street in Liverpool to Green Lane in Birkenhead via intermediate stations at and . A branch from Hamilton Square to opened on 2 January 1888, where it connected with the Seacombe, Hoylake & Deeside Railway, later to become the Wirral Railway. Once this extension was complete, passengers were able to travel from Hoylake to Liverpool without changing trains as only the locomotives were changed for the Mersey Railway tunnelled section. On 16 June 1891, an extension was opened from Green Lane to Rock Ferry for connections with the Birkenhead Joint Railway. A further extension opened in Liverpool on 11 January 1892, from James Street to increasing the total length of the railway to . Not long afterwards, George Westinghouse, an engineer and inventor, offered to fund and carry out electrification work on the line. By the end of April 1903, and at a cost of £300,000, the electrification work was complete, making the railway Britain's first steam-operated line to be converted to electric traction. The vehicles were built in Birmingham by Metropolitan Cammell and the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, requirement for rail stock used in tunnelled sections. The Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority, later named Merseytravel, was formed in 1969 with representatives from all Merseyside local authorities taking responsibility for the local rail network, henceforth known as 'Merseyrail'. At that time, the lines out of Liverpool Exchange, Liverpool Central Low Level and Liverpool Lime Street stations were completely separate and were given the names of 'Northern line', 'Wirral line' and 'City line' respectively. The new Wirral line was to have a loop tunnel under Liverpool's city centre which would be an extension of the Mersey Railway tunnel. This arrangement meant trains would only terminate in the Wirral. Trains would leave Wirral terminus stations, run into Liverpool's city centre and loop back out. Four underground stations would be on this loop under Liverpool's city centre. A further underground Link Tunnel connection between a new Moorfields through underground station and Liverpool Central underground creating a Liverpool north-south crossrail was planned. Moorfields would replace Liverpool Exchange terminus station. The Mersey Railway Extensions Act was passed in 1968 to authorise the first stage of these improvements. The Transport Act 1968 established the Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority to control policy on public transport in the conurbation, and the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive to manage ferry services and to make agreements with the National Bus Company and British Railways Board. The one track Loop Tunnel was designed to allow trains to run in a clockwise direction beneath Liverpool's city centre. It diverged from the Mersey Railway tunnel beneath Mann Island extending the short Huskisson Dock branch tunnel. This short tunnel was designed to extend to Huskinson Dock for freight purposes, however the works never materialized. A new platform was built at James Street. From James Street the tunnel continued to new deep-level platforms at Moorfields, Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Central before rejoining the existing Mersey Railway tunnel beneath the Queen Victoria monument to allow trains to continue serving one of the existing platforms at James Street. The existing 1886 tunnel from James Street to Liverpool central was relegated to shunting purposes. The Loop is a single-track tunnel, in length, in diameter, and was driven during 1972 and 1973 through mainly sandstone rock. The depth of the tunnel varies between and lined with concrete. To bore the tunnel, three new DOSCO electro-hydraulic excavating machines were used, giving a maximum work rate of per week. In addition to the construction of the Loop Tunnel, a burrowing junction was constructed at , taking the line towards Birkenhead Park beneath the Rock Ferry lines. This would allow peak-time frequencies to be increased by removing interfering train paths at the flat crossing. A new platform was built at Hamilton Square for this diversion, and the new tunnel is in length. In 1974, Merseyside was created, with Merseyside County Council taking over the responsibilities of the Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority. The Northern line, including the new Link Tunnel between Moorfields and the original Mersey Railway platforms at Liverpool Central, was opened to passengers on 2 May 1977 and the Loop Tunnel opened a week later with Wirral line trains serving Rock Ferry, New Brighton and West Kirby. The first phase of the Merseyrail development was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 25 October 1978, when she visited Liverpool Central station and rode to on the Northern line. Due to a stock shortage in the Southern Region, the new four-car trains were first introduced to operate inner-suburban services from . This allowed the few remaining 4-SUB trains to be withdrawn so that their electrical equipment could be reclaimed for the new Class 455 units. In 1981, the first two Class 508 units were sent north to Birkenhead, and three more were transferred in February 1983 as Class 455s began to enter service. The remaining Class 508 units were reduced to three carriages and delivered to Birkenhead by December 1984, allowing the Class 503 units to be withdrawn. Electric services through to Liverpool from Chester commenced on 3 September 1993 and from Ellesmere Port on 29 May 1994. The franchise was then run as Arriva Trains Merseyside. In 2003, Merseytravel took over responsibility for the Merseyrail franchise from the Strategic Rail Authority. Merseyrail Electrics 2002 Ltd was established by Serco-Abellio and the franchise is run under the "Merseyrail" brand with a 25-year contract ending in July 2028 and a review taking place every five years in line with the Merseyside Local Transport Plan. ==Infrastructure==

Track All railway lines are built to standard gauge. The majority of the track has a loading gauge of W6 and the line has a Route Availability (RA) of RA 8 except for the New Brighton branch which is RA 6. This makes the whole line fairly restrictive and not very attractive for freight traffic. Electrification The whole network is electrified using the system. The former Wirral Railway, by then part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), was electrified in 1938. Rolling stock In 1938, following the electrification of the former Wirral Railway, the LMS introduced new trains with air-operated sliding doors. These electric multiple units were eventually designated as Class 503. Further Class 503 units were built in 1956 to replace the former Mersey Railway carriages. The entire Class 503 stock was replaced in 1983 with Class 508 units originally built in the late 1970s for services from . A few years earlier (19781980), almost identical Class 507 units had been introduced on the Northern line to replace Class 502 stock. Following the privatisation of British Rail in 1993, Class 507 and 508 units were used interchangeably on both the Wirral and Northern lines and in 20032004 the 59-strong Class 507/508 fleet was refurbished by Alstom's Eastleigh Works at a cost of £32million. Maintenance of the Class 507 and 508 fleet was carried out at Birkenhead North TMD and Kirkdale TMD. Birkenhead North TMD, just west of Birkenhead North station, focused on major overhauls of the electric fleet, whereas Kirkdale TMD, situated south of Kirkdale station on the Northern line, was used for undertaking minor repairs and cleaning activities. Train cleaning operations took place at the now-defunct Birkenhead Central TMD beside Birkenhead Central station until the late 1990s. In December 2016, Merseytravel announced that Stadler had won the £460million contract and that the new Class 777 trains would be delivered from summer 2019, with all the old trains replaced by 2021. In May 2014, the lease on the Class 507s and 508s was extended to 2018. As part of the agreement with Angel Trains, the fleet would receive a refresh package including external re-livery, internal enhancements and engineering work. ==Services==

During Monday to Saturday, trains run every 15minutes from Liverpool to each of New Brighton, West Kirby and Chester, and every 30minutes to Ellesmere Port. During peak times outside of the leaf-fall season in autumn, additional services run to (evening peak), respectively from (morning peak) Ellesmere Port, giving a 15minutes frequency there in the peak direction only. Hooton is the point of interchange between trains to Ellesmere Port and trains to Chester, and is served by six trains per hour from Liverpool, four of which continue to Chester (only two call at Capenhurst) and two calling at stations to Ellesmere Port. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these frequencies reduced as of March 2020. By mid-2022, frequencies have been increased back towards their original levels. Interchange with the Northern line is available at Liverpool Central and Moorfields, and with the City line at Liverpool Lime Street. Transport for Wales operate services from Bidston along the Borderlands Line to . Connections are available with other National Rail services at Liverpool Lime Street and Chester. There is also a connecting service from Ellesmere Port to Helsby and . ==Incidents==

A number of incidents have occurred on the Wirral line. Unit 508118, while in storage in the siding at Birkenhead North, was subject to an arson attack in 2001. The unit was scrapped. On 19 May 2004, Unit 507009 derailed at points as it approached Birkenhead North station. The leading bogie of four wheels came off the track, but the train remained upright. None of the 20 or so passengers on the train were injured. The cause was a worn switch rail and an imbalance in wheel loads across the leading carriage of the train. At 17:41 on 26 October 2005, the rear bogie of unit 508124 derailed in the Loop tunnel between Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Central. Due to concerns by Network Rail as to the condition of the track, there had long been a temporary speed restriction of in the tunnel, although at the time of the derailment the train was travelling at only . None of the 119 passengers were injured; the guard attended hospital overnight with a neck injury, but was not detained. Liverpool-bound services terminated at James Street instead of going around the Loop while investigation and track renewal work took place. On 19 April 2006, a small fire in the Mersey Railway Tunnel caused electrics to short circuit. The 06:30 service from Ellesmere Port to Liverpool Central was in the tunnel at the time of the incident. All 120 passengers were escorted through the tunnel to . At 11:57 on 11 January 2007, unit 507019 hit the buffers at West Kirby as it was arriving from Liverpool Central. There were no injuries to the 2030 passengers, but the driver and guard were treated for shock and minor rib injuries respectively. The train was travelling at around at the time of impact when it demolished the buffers and caused other minor damage. The unit was towed to Crewe Works and repaired. On 30 October 2007, a fire broke out on a Liverpool Central to Chester service. The train was evacuated at . The fire was caused by an electrical fault, and the carriage involved was damaged. The West Kirby branch of the line has several level crossings, and accidents at these, involving pedestrian fatalities, have taken place in July 2007, January 2008, and November 2009. ==See also==