Bidston railway station

Bidston
Location
Place	Bidston
Local authority	Wirral
Operations
Station code	BID
Managed by	Merseyrail
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures and station information from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05 *	0.095 million
2005/06 *	0.100 million
2006/07 *	0.109 million
2007/08 *	0.119 million
2008/09 *	0.286 million
2009/10 *	0.263 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Merseytravel
Zone	B1
History
1866	Opened
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Bidston from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Please note: methodology may vary year on year.

Bidston railway station is a railway station in Bidston, Birkenhead, on the 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.

The station in 1961

Bidston railway station sign

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 diesel trains) was diverted east of Bidston to terminate at New Brighton and later to Birkenhead North. However it was subsequently cut back to start and terminate at Bidston in the late 1970s and this remains the situation today.

Several sidings were situated adjacent to the eastern side of the station, but these were removed in the 1970s. The station was the nearest to the former Bidston Dock. The adjacent Bidston East Junction gives access to the former Birkenhead Dock Branch line, but this is since been disused and is still so at present.

Services

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, with a limited service on Sundays.

Future

Proposals have been made to electrify some or all of the Borderlands Line and possibly incorporate it into the Wirral Line services, but no commitment has been made.

The station is likely to provide a Park and Ride service: designs indicate that there will be approximately 190 new car parking spaces, lighting columns and CCTV to meet Merseytravel's Travelsafe requirements and construction is set to begin late in 2009.^{[citation needed]}

External links

• Train times and station information for Bidston railway station from National Rail

• Station information for Bidston railway station from Merseyrail
• The Wrexham-Bidston Line

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Leasowe		Merseyrail Wirral Line		Birkenhead North
Upton		Arriva Trains Wales Borderlands Line		Terminus
	Disused railways
Liscard and Poulton		Wirral Railway Seacombe Branch		Terminus