Borderlands line

Borderlands line
Class 150 DMU on the Borderlands line near Bidston
Overview
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Wrexham Flintshire Cheshire Merseyside
Termini	Wrexham Central Bidston (Birkenhead)
Stations	15 with Wrexham General and Shotton as interchanges with main line services
Service
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	Transport for Wales
Rolling stock	Class 150 Sprinter
Technical
Number of tracks	Double track throughout except Wrexham General to Wrexham Central
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map Legend Wirral line to Birkenhead Bidston Bidston Sidings Wirral line to West Kirby Upton M53 motorway Storeton Heswall Merseytravel limit Neston Birkenhead Railway Burton Point England Wales border Sealand Rifle Range Halt Birkenhead Junction Golf Club Platform   Shotton Paper Deeside Industrial Park Chester & Connah's Quay Rly Chester Golf Club Halt Hawarden Bridge Hawarden Bridge over River Dee Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway Shotton North Wales Coast Line Hawarden Buckley Castle Cement Hope Exchange Chester–Denbigh line Penyffordd Sidings Penyffordd Hope River Alyn Caergwrle Cefn-y-Bedd Cegidog Viaduct over River Cegidog Gwersyllt Shrewsbury–Chester line to Chester Wrexham and Minera Railway Wheatsheaf Junction Gwersyllt Junction WM&CQ Brymbo branch Rhosddu Halt Wrexham General Shrewsbury–Chester line to Shrewsbury Wrexham Central Wrexham and Ellesmere Rly

The Borderlands line (Welsh: Llinell y Gororau), also known as the Bidston–Wrexham or Wrexham–Bidston^[α] line, is the railway line between Bidston on the Wirral Peninsula in England and Wrexham in Wales.

Passenger train services are operated by Transport for Wales between the northern terminal of Bidston and Wrexham Central and in the south. Bidston is an interchange station for Merseyrail services to Liverpool and West Kirby. At its southern end in Wales, the line is used by freight trains, serving the Deeside industrial estate and the Hanson Cement works south of Buckley.^[2][3]

The line is also referred to as the Mid Wirral line, as a large section of the line runs north–south through the middle of the Wirral peninsula. The line was to introduce bi-modal battery electric diesel trains in 2020.^[4] The Wirral's other railway routes are provided with frequent Merseyrail electric trains. An improved service is planned using fully refurbished ex-London Underground D78 stock trains, classified as Class 230, with primarily battery power plants with a diesel engine as a fail-safe.^[5][6]

The metro-mayor of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Steve Rotheram, has proposed that all or part of the line be incorporated into Merseyrail using Class 777 battery-electric trains.^[7]

Passenger services[]

Trains run every hour Monday to Saturday daytime, every two hours after 18:45 and on Sundays. From May 2022 the service will improve to two trains per hour. The service is normally operated with Class 150 trains. There are three interchange stations on the line, connecting to other railway lines and services, they are:

• Bidston, for Merseyrail services to West Kirby, and Liverpool Central.
• Shotton, for services along the North Wales Coast Line between Chester and stations in north-west Wales such as Llandudno Junction and Holyhead.
• Wrexham General, for services along the Shrewsbury–Chester line from Chester southwards to Shrewsbury.

Holders of the Concessionary Travel Pass resident in Wrexham and Flintshire can travel free along part of the line, from Wrexham Central to Hawarden Bridge.^[8] Holders of the Merseytravel Concessionary Travel Pass can travel free along the section of the line that runs through Merseyside, from Heswall to Bidston.

Community rail[]

This is designated as a community rail partnership.^[9]

The franchise[]

Upon privatisation, passenger services were transferred from Regional Railways to North West Trains, later known as First North Western. In 2003, a review led to the creation of the All-Wales Franchise, meaning services were transferred to Wales & Borders Trains. Arriva Trains Wales succeeded Wales & Borders on 8 December 2003, and operated all passenger services on the line until October 2018, when Transport for Wales Rail Services began its franchise until February 2021, when Transport for Wales Rail Limited took over. Future electrification plans could see the line transfer to Merseyrail.^[10]

Infrastructure history[]

Borderlands line

The southern part of the line was built by the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WMCQR) in 1864 and the northern part by the North Wales and Liverpool Railway, a joint committee of the WMCQR and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1896. The North Wales and Liverpool Railway northern terminus was at Bidston with the southern terminus at Hawarden Bridge^[11] Both railways were acquired by the Great Central Railway on 1 January 1905.

The line is used by freight trains at its southern end in Wales, serving the Deeside industrial estate and the Hanson Cement works south of Buckley. Amongst the biggest users of freight was the Shotton steelworks which received imported iron ore from Birkenhead's Bidston Dock, until the closure of the steelwork in 1980.^[12][13]

Two Wirral stations on the line closed in the 1950s; Storeton in 1951 and Burton Point in 1955. No trace of the station at Storeton remains, yet Burton Point station is still almost entirely intact, the station buildings currently forming part of a garden centre.^[14] Further south, the high level platforms of Hope Exchange closed in 1958.^[15]

The northern terminal of the Borderlands Line has been at four different stations at various times: Bidston, Birkenhead North, Birkenhead Park (briefly in the late 60s), New Brighton and Seacombe.^[16][17]

Development[]

The doubling of the journey frequency on the line is one of the aims of the Growth Track 360 group, a consortium of business, politicians and public sector leaders. The group aims to improve transport and create jobs in the North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire area over the next 20 years.^[18] During the 2017 Autumn budget, Chancellor Philip Hammond stated that part of the additional £1.2 billion funding Wales was receiving would be used to look into proposals to improve journey times on the line and developing a business case.^[19]

Proposed new stations[]

New stations at Deeside Industrial Park, Woodchurch and Beechwood have been proposed.^[20] The route was mentioned in Merseytravel's proposed 30-year plan of 2014.

"New stations at Beechwood and Woodchurch in Birkenhead (the latter "would be around junction 3 of the M53, the Prenton/Oxton side") and Deeside Industrial Park. These changes would "Incorporate the line into the Merseyrail Wirral line to provide direct connectivity with Liverpool city centre."^[21]

The draft of the Network Rail Welsh Route Study in March 2015 contained several suggestions for improving services on the line, including:.^[22]

• Replacing the High and Low levels at Shotton station with a dedicated interchange station, improving connectivity between the North Wales Coast Main Line & the Borderlands line
• The removal of level crossings to improve line speed.

Proposed electrification[]

There has been many proposals to electrify the line for a number of decades. All have been rejected.

Merseytravel Committee Chairman, Councillor Liam Robinson, revealed in an interview in 2017 that passenger use on the line had increased 75% over the previous decade but electrification was still a long-term aspiration. He also stated that the new Class 777 rolling stock, which can operate on overhead wires, third rail or batteries was being procured for Merseyrail, which could be utilised to run on the line. The Class 777 trains could extend the line into the Liverpool and Birkenhead tunnels and stations.^[23]

Proposed battery trains[]

Class 230 battery (hybrid) trains were to be introduced in 2020

Inside the refurbished trains

Merseyrail Class 777

The operation of battery trains that receive energy from batteries and an electric pick-up has been proposed for operation on unelectrified and electrified sections of the track. Adoption of these types of trains would reduce the need for full line electrification.^[22]

A trial of a converted Electrostar train using energy from overhead wires and batteries when on non-electrified sections of track was undertaken in January and February 2015 on the Mayflower line. The train travelled up to 60 miles on energy stored in the batteries also recharging the batteries via the overhead-wires when on electrified track, at stations and via brake regeneration.^[24] A month later in March 2015, the introduction of battery powered trains was proposed for the Borderlands line by Network Rail.^[22]

The Network Rail document suggested that consideration had been given to electrification and to extending the terminus from Bidston further into Birkenhead for greater connectivity. However these options were expressed as offering low value for money. The document proposes that using battery powered rolling stock precluding full electrification of the line, provides a cheaper method of increasing connectivity and extending the service into the electrified Birkenhead and Liverpool sections of the Wirral line. From the document:

"In the longer term, potential deployment of rolling stock with the ability to operate on battery power for part of their journey may provide the ability in an affordable manner to improve the service offering between the Wrexham – Bidston route and Liverpool."^[22]

It was announced in June 2018 that refurbished Class 230 former London Underground D78 stock trains with battery power plants and a diesel engine as a failsafe, are to be introduced between Wrexham and Bidston.^[5][25][6] The trains were passed for passenger use for 2020 introduction.^[4] There is an intention to extend from Bidston onto the Merseyrail Wirral Line taking trains into the Liverpool and Birkenhead underground sections on electrified 3rd rail track using bimodal trains with a 3rd rail pickup.^[26]

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority announced that trials of a battery electric multiple unit (BEMU) version their new Class 777 had shown that they were capable of travelling up to 20 miles (32 km) without a charge.^[27] Usage of this version of the Class 777 would allow the line to be served without full electrification.

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Borderlands Line.

• Official website
• Detailed map of the line
• The Wrexham to Bidston railway: 'The Borderland line'