West Kirby railway station

Infobox UK station
name = West Kirby

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caption = West Kirby railway station in 1992
manager = Merseyrail
code = WKI
locale = West Kirby
borough = Wirral
pte = Merseytravel
zone = B2
usage0506 = 0.381
platforms = 2
years = 1878
1938
events = Opened
Electrified

West Kirby railway station is situated in the town of West Kirby, Wirral, England. It is situated at the end of one of the branches of the Wirral Line, part of the Merseyrail network. The station has a cafe in the main building. The beach can be reached easily from the station.

The station was originally built in 1878 as the terminus of the Wirral Railway's route from Birkenhead Park station. Through services via the Mersey Railway Tunnel to Liverpool commenced in 1938, when the London Midland and Scottish Railway electrified the line.

Current service levels are every 15 minutes to Liverpool during Monday to Saturday daytime, and every 30 minutes at other times.

There is a central island platform between two terminus tracks, and two parallel sidings for out-of-use electric trains. The canopy over the platform was renewed in reinforced concrete at the time of the 1938 electrification, but the station building across the end of the tracks was left untouched from Victorian times, although in recent times much of its space has been rented out as retail units accessed from the public road rather than from the railway premises.

When the Open Golf Championship was held at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club (situated between West Kirby and Hoylake) in July 2006, services terminated at Hoylake station during the tournament. This was to allow competitors to cross the tracks from the practice course on one side to the championship course on the other. This caused some controversy locally, especially given the large increase in passengers during the championships.

Until 1964 there was an active freight depot on the east side of the station, mainly used to receive coal for domestic distribution. The area occupied by this freight depot was later used for the construction of The Concourse local authority building.

Birkenhead Joint branch

In 1886, the Chester and Birkenhead Railway extended their line to West Kirby from Parkgate; this now meant there was a direct route from Hooton to West Kirby. The station was single platformed with a water tank at its southern end. The station closed to passengers in 1956 and completely closed in 1962. The route all the way to Hooton is now a footpath, known as The Wirral Way, which forms part of the Wirral Country Park.

External links

* [http://www.merseyrail.org/stations/?iStationId=68 Station information] from Merseyrail

References

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