The Story of Merseyrail

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 5th December 2011 by Liam Physick

This is the front cover of a book dealing with the history of Merseyrail, the train-operating company and commuter network on Merseyside. It operates three lines: the Northern Line, which runs from Hunts Cross to Southport via Liverpool, and also includes services from Liverpool Central to Ormskirk and Kirkby; the Wirral Line, which runs under the Mersey and connects Liverpool with New Brighton, West Kirby, Chester and Ellesmere Port; and the City Line from Liverpool Lime Street (in which Merseytravel, Merseyrail’s parent company, sponsors the services run by Northern Rail) to Wigan, Warrington, Preston and Manchester. Its trains are mainly electric multiple units belonging to Class 507 and Class 508/1: the City Line uses diesel units, but the route is to be electrified by 2016. Merseyrail was set up in 1969 as British Rail’s brand name in these areas, but its lines did not become a single network until 1977, when tunnels were built under Liverpool city centre and Birkenhead. Its network dates back to the Mersey Railway between Liverpool and Birkenhead, opened in 1886: the other routes originally were part of the Cheshire Lines Committee (Liverpool Central to Hunts Cross), the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (Liverpool Central to Kirkby, Ormskirk and Southport), the Wirral Railway (Birkenhead Park to New Brighton and West Kirby) and the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway (Rock Ferry to Hooton and Chester)

Tagged under: liverpool lime street station, diesel multiple units, liverpool central station, merseyrail, great western railway, london and north western railway, electric multiple units, northern rail, lancashire and yorkshire railway, chester station

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives