The Northern line is one of two railway lines operated by Merseyrail, a commuter rail network which serves Merseyside and adjacent areas of Lancashire and Cheshire in North West England. The line has its southern terminus at railway station in south Liverpool, from which it runs in a generally northerly direction through Liverpool city centre before splitting into three branches which terminate at , , and . It serves 39 stations in total.

The line has interchanges with the Wirral line, Merseyrail's other line, at Moorfields and Liverpool Central, which are subterranean stations. Hunts Cross and Liverpool South Parkway allow interchange with City line services, and Liverpool South Parkway also allows interchange with regional and long-distance services. Headbolt Lane, Ormskirk and Southport allow interchange with services operated by Northern Trains.

Description

Generally, trains from Hunts Cross continue to Southport, while trains to Ormskirk and Headbolt Lane start at Liverpool Central. Daytime trains operate every 15minutes on each of the three routes Monday to Saturday daytime and every 30minutes evenings and Sundays. Until 2017, summer Sunday frequencies on the Southport route were increased to every 15minutes. There are no peak hour frequency increases but trains on the Southport and Ormskirk routes are increased to six carriages, as are weekend services during the summer on the Southport route.

Special timetables are implemented for major events such as the Grand National meeting at Aintree and golf tournaments at Birkdale. These involve changing services on all branches and the closure of stations in anticipation of overcrowding risks.

Passenger volume

Passengers from the year beginning April 2002 to the year beginning April 2022.

Service pattern

There are a total of 12 trains per hour (tph) running on the central section between Sandhills and Liverpool Central. The service pattern is shown below.

History

Pre-electrification

The line from Walton Junction to Liverpool Exchange was constructed by the Liverpool and Bury Railway, opening in 1948 between Walton Junction and Great Howard Street, although the line would open under the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway after a merger occurred a year prior in 1847. The line would extend to a station on Tithebarn Street in 1850, before finally reaching Liverpool Exchange in 1888. The lines towards Aintree and Ormskirk were built by the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway, itself also taken over by the L&YR in 1847, with the lines opening two years later in 1849. The whole section between Southport and Sandhills was constructed by the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway, opening from Southport to Waterloo in 1848, and then to Sandhills in 1850. The LC&SR would be taken over by the L&YR as late as 1855.

Electrification

The line is electrified using , identical to the third rail system present in southern England. It was also amongst the first mainlines to be electrified, done so by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway due to increased tram competition, and the line being at operating capacity. Unlike today, this was originally done with fourth rail system similar to that seen in London, although from 1906 the fourth rail would be excluded, with it slowly removed from other sections.

Early electrification was done in various stages, which are as follows :

• Liverpool Exchange to Southport, Crossens was the first section to be electrified in 1904. Meols Cop would be included in 1909.

  The North Mersey Branch to Aintree followed in 1906, then to Maghull in 1909, Town Green in 1911, before fully extending to Ormskirk in 1913.

  A new station off the North Mersey Branch would be opened in 1914, Gladstone Dock, not to be confused with the Liverpool Overhead Railway station of the same name. This would close in 1924.

  A connection to the Liverpool Overhead Railway would also be opened, between Seaforth and Litherland and Seaforth Sands opening in 1906, although both connections would be removed with the closing of the LOR in 1956.

1960s to Present

Electrification was cut back to Southport in the north in 1964 as part of the Southport-Preston line closure under the Beeching Cuts, stations closing which previously had had electric services were St Lukes, Hesketh Park, Churchtown, and Crossens, electric services also ceased to Meols Cop station although the conductor rail remained until 1970 to serve the large depot at Meols Cop, and this station continues to serve trains on the Southport to Wigan/Manchester line. It was also fully intended for the whole mainline between Southport and Liverpool Exchange to also be closed under the Beeching Cuts, although the North Mersey Branch to Ormskirk would remain unscathed. This would not go ahead, with various forms of action undertaken to lessen maintenance on the line, such as removing platform canopies, and even in some cases platform buildings. After a study, referred to as the "Merseyside Area Land Use & Transportation Sutdy", was undertaken in 1969 by the then Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority, the Northern Line would be introduced in 1977 under the "Mersey Railways Extensions Act" of 1968, seeing the previously threatened mainline to Southport, and the branch to Ormskirk, secured and brought under this new line.

Electrification done as part of the new Link line are as follows:

• The line from Walton Junction to Kirkby would be electrified in 1977.

  The Link Line would connect with the old tunnel serving Liverpool Central Low Level in 1977 also, seeing Liverpool Exchange closed and the old lines rerouted into the tunnels, with the line south towards Garston electrified in 1978.

  The electric services on the southern section would later be extended to terminate Hunts Cross in 1983.

Later additions and extensions done to the line after the Link line was opened in 1977 are as follows:

• Brunswick railway station would open in 1998 to serve a new business park near the line.

  On the southern section, Garston station would be closed and replaced by Liverpool South Parkway in 2006.

  On the Ormskirk branch, Maghull North would open in 2016, between Town Green and Maghull, in order to serve new housing developments near the line.

  On the Kirkby branch, Headbolt Lane would open in 2023 beyond Kirbky, the first extension to the Northern Line since 1977.

Future

Plans to re-open St James station have been proposed. Merseytravel agreed to work with Liverpool Vision in March 2014 to investigate the cost of re-opening the station and its projected usage. Merseytravel listed the re-opening of St James station as a 'top rail project' on a Rail Development and Delivery Committee report in 2016. The plans were confirmed with the station to be named Liverpool Baltic, construction is planned to begin in 2025.

As part of Lancashire County Council's plans to build a new railway station in Skelmersdale, they proposed an extension to the Northern line that would change the terminus of the Kirkby branch of the line from Kirkby (now Headbolt Lane) to Skelmersdale. The proposals could see Merseyrail services also passing through Rainford railway station. By September 2017, Merseytravel and Lancashire County Council had committed £5million of funding to the scheme. Merseytravel believe the scheme could cost around £300million to develop and could be ready in a decade.

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Long Term Rail Strategy document of October 2017, page 37, states a review in 2020 to introduce new Merseyrail battery trains will be undertaken, in view to put Preston onto the Merseyrail network by extending the Merseyrail Northern line from Ormskirk to Preston. The aim is to have Preston one of the terminals of the Northern line. The document states, "The potential use of battery powered Merseyrail units may improve the business case".

See also

• LYR electric units

• A59 road, which follows the same route.

References

Bibliography

External links