Borderlands Line

The Borderlands Line is the railway line between Wrexham, Wales, and Bidston, Wirral, England.

The southern part of the line was built by the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway (WMCQR) and the northern part by the North Wales and Liverpool Railway, a joint committee of the WMCQR and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. Both railways were acquired by the Great Central Railway on 1 January 1905.

Current passenger services are operated by Arriva Trains Wales Class 150s, between Wrexham Central and Bidston. Trains run every hour Monday to Saturday daytime, every two hours after 18:45 and on Sundays. Connections with other National Rail services are at Bidston (for Merseyrail services to West Kirby, Birkenhead and Liverpool), Shotton (for Chester and the North Wales Coast Line) and Wrexham General (for the Shrewsbury-Chester Line).

The service was previously operated by Class 153s, but in October 2006 Arriva started using Class 150s or doubled up on the Class 153s. In late December 2006 the Class 153s disappeared in favour of the larger Class 150s.

Proposals exist to electrify some or all of the line and incorporate it into the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network, allowing through services to Birkenhead and Liverpool with new stations at Deeside Industrial Park, Woodchurch and Beechwood, but nothing definitive has been confirmed. In August 2006 it was announced there would be a feasibility study into the 3rd-rail electrification of the line. [citeweb|url=http://www.penmorfa.com/Wrexham/electrify.html|title=The Wrexham to Bidston railway (The Borderlands line): Electrification plans|accessdate=17 February|accessyear=2007]

Development

The Borderlands Line, sometimes also referred to as the Mid Wirral Line is the Wirral's most underdeveloped line. By contrast to the Merseyrail Wirral Line, the Borderlands Line has comparatively few stations. 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. As their geographical locations remain isolated, there are no current proposals to reopen either station.

There have been proposals included in the electrification plan for the construction of two new stations on the Wirral section of the line; Beechwood between Bidston and Upton to serve the Beechwood estate, and Woodchurch to serve Prenton, the Woodchurch estate and the North Cheshire Business Park as well as providing connections to and from most of West Wirral's bus services to Birkenhead, and to "park and ride" motorists from other parts of the Wirral via the M53 motorway.

References

External links

* [http://www.borderlandsline.com Official Website]
* [http://www.wbrua.net/ Wrexham-Birkenhead Rail Users' Association]
* [http://www.penmorfa.com/Wrexham/ The Wrexham-Bidston Line]
* [http://www.transportmerseyside.org/images/uploads/1124096504.pdf PDF detailing possible addition to Wirral Line services (Page 33) - broken link]