Bidston railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Bidston

---

manager = Merseyrail
code = BID
locale = Bidston
borough = Wirral
pte = Merseytravel
zone = B1
lowusage0405 = 95,455
lowusage0506 = 99,798
lowusage0607 = 108,835
platforms = 2
years = 1866
events = Opened

Bidston railway station is a railway station near the village of Bidston, Wirral, England. It is situated at the junction of the West Kirby branch of the Wirral Line (part of the Merseyrail network) with the Borderlands Line from Wrexham Central (operated by Arriva Trains Wales).

History

The station was originally built by the Hoylake Railway in 1866 as an intermediate station on their line from Birkenhead to Hoylake. After the extension of this line to West Kirby in 1878 to the west and into a new station to the east at Birkenhead Docks (the current Birkenhead North station), through trains to Liverpool commenced in 1938 when the London Midland and Scottish Railway electrified the line to West Kirby. In 1896 the North Wales and Liverpool Railway opened their line to Hawarden Bridge, which joined the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway line to Wrexham.

During the earlier half of the twentieth century, Bidston station was known as 'Bidston Dee Junction' and was a busy interchange between the Wirral line electric services and the Seacombe to Wrexham & Chester steam trains. In 1960 the Wrexham service (by now operated by DMUs) was diverted east of Bidston to terminate at New Brighton and later to Birkenhead North. [p.58, Railway Stations of Wirral, Merseyside Railway History Group, 1994. ISBN 1-899241-02-7] . However it was subsequently cut back to start and terminate at Bidston in the late 1970s and this remains the situation today. Several lanes of sidings were situated adjacent to the eastern side of the station, however, these were removed in the 1970s. The station was the nearest to the former Bidston Dock. Although partially disused, Bidston East Junction has trackwork which may be used to access the Birkenhead Dock Branch line. [p.59, Rail Atlas of Great Britain & Ireland (9th Edition), S. K. Baker, 2001. ISBN 0-86093-553-1]

ervices

Current services are every 15 minutes (Monday to Saturday daytime) to West Kirby & Liverpool, and every hour to Wrexham. At other times, trains operate every 30 minutes to West Kirby & Liverpool and every two hours to Wrexham (limited service on Sundays).

Future

Proposals exist to electrify some or all of the Borderlands Line and possibly incorporate it into the Wirral Line services. However nothing has been confirmed so far.Fact|date=September 2008

External links

* [http://www.merseyrail.org/stations/?iStationId=8 Station information] from Merseyrail
* [http://www.penmorfa.com/Wrexham/ The Wrexham-Bidston Line]

References

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