Northern Line (Merseyrail)

For other uses, see Northern Line (disambiguation).

Northern Line (Merseyrail)
A Northern Line Class 507 at Liverpool Central.
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Liverpool North West England
Termini	Southport Hunts Cross
Stations	35
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Merseyrail
Depot(s)	Kirkdale TMD
Rolling stock	British Rail Class 507 British Rail Class 508
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Loading gauge	W6
Electrification	750 V DC third rail
Operating speed	60 mph (97 km/h) maximum

Merseyrail Map. The Northern Line is in blue

Northern Line

Legend Preston to Ormskirk Line to Manchester Southport Birkdale Ormskirk divided platform Hillside Aughton Park Ainsdale Town Green Freshfield Maghull M58 M57 Formby Old Roan Hightown Aintree Hall Road Orrell Park Blundellsands & Crosby Walton Waterloo Kirkby to Wigan Line Seaforth & Litherland Kirkby Bootle New Strand Fazakerley Bootle Oriel Road Rice Lane Bank Hall Kirkdale Kirkdale TMD Sandhills Moorfields Liverpool Lime Street Wirral Line Liverpool Central St James Brunswick St Michaels Aigburth Cressington Garston (Merseyside) City Line Liverpool South Parkway Hunts Cross City Line

The Northern Line is one of the two commuter rail lines operated by Merseyrail in Merseyside, England, with the Wirral Line. A third line, the City Line, is not owned or operated by Merseyrail, although funded by Merseytravel.

The Northern Line passes underground through Liverpool city centre and has termini at:

• Hunts Cross to the south;
• Southport,
• Ormskirk, and
• Kirkby to the north.

Description

The Northern Line operates from Hunts Cross near the south of Merseyside to the north at Southport, running underground through Liverpool's city centre. Off the northern section of the line there are branches to Kirkby and Ormskirk in Lancashire.

The line runs from Hunts Cross via the former Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) route towards Liverpool Central. Brunswick station between St Michaels and Liverpool Central was added in 1998 to provide a connection to the Brunswick Business Park. Just south of Liverpool Central, the line leaves the CLC route, in tunnel at that point, into a 1970s tunnel that drops to a lower level into the former underground Mersey Railway Liverpool Central (Low Level) station. North of Central the line uses the former Mersey Railway tunnel for about half of the route to Moorfields, an underground station built in the 1970s to replace the surface-level Liverpool Exchange. North of Moorfields the route emerges from the tunnel to join the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway lines from Exchange station.

After Sandhills, the former Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway branches off towards Southport, while the other routes continue to Kirkdale on what was a joint section of track between Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway and the Liverpool and Bury Railway. After Kirkdale, the Ormskirk and Kirkby lines diverge.

Trains from Hunts Cross continue to Southport, while trains to Ormskirk and Kirkby start at Liverpool Central. Daytime trains operate every 15 minutes on each of the three routes (Monday to Saturday) and every 30 minutes on Sundays, except in summer when Sunday frequencies on the Southport - Hunts Cross route are increased to every 15 minutes. On the same route, the frequency is every eight minutes during peak hours, when trains on the Southport - Hunts Cross and Ormskirk - Liverpool Central routes are increased to six carriages. Weekend services during the summer on the Southport route are six carriages all day.

Electrification

The Northern Line is electrified using 750V DC third rail.

• Liverpool Exchange Station to Southport, Crossens and Meols Cop was the first section to be electrified, in 1904.
• The branch to Aintree, on the Ormskirk branch, followed in 1906, extended to Ormskirk in 1913.
• The Kirkby branch and the line south to Garston were electrified to create north-south crossrail line coinciding with the construction of the Link Tunnel creating Merseyrail in 1978.
• Electrification was cut back to Southport in the north in 1964, though the conductor rail remained until 1970 to serve the large depot at Meols Cop.
• Garston to Hunts Cross was electrified in 1983.

Connections

Interchange with the Wirral Line is available at Liverpool Central and Moorfields. As the Northern Line does not pass through Liverpool Lime Street, passengers must use the Wirral Line as a connection. Given the short distance between Central and Lime Street, many with light luggage prefer to walk.

Interchange with other National Rail services can be made at Southport, Ormskirk, Kirkby, Liverpool South Parkway and Hunts Cross.

Liverpool South Parkway station opened on 11 June 2006, replacing Garston station and providing connections to the City Line formerly available at Allerton.

Former stations

This list is incomplete. Apart from Garston, near South Parkway, all closures were prior to the formation of the Northern Line.

• Churchtown (Southport-Crossens branch)
• Crossens (Southport-Crossens branch)
• Ford[1] (North Mersey Branch)
• Garston (Closed 10 June 2006; replaced by Liverpool South Parkway)
• Hesketh Park (Southport-Crossens branch)
• Linacre Road [2] (North Mersey Branch).
• Liverpool Exchange (1850-1977: Southport/Kirkby/Ormskirk branches) replaced by Moorfields underground station.
• Meols Cop (Still open, but no longer part of the Northern Line: Manchester and Southport Railway)
• Otterspool (Closed 1951)
• St James' (Closed 1917)

Passenger volume

Passengers on the line and its branches from the year beginning April 2002 to the year beginning April 2010.

Station usage
Station Name	2002-2003	2004-2005	2005-2006	2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011
Southport branch
Southport	1,080,767	1,549,576	1,582,115	1,669,056	1,681,444	3,094,576	2,949,656	2,886,448
Birkdale	164,753	251,641	256,424	270,277	289,106	820,240	783,066	770,104
Hillside	125,031	158,618	178,252	177,678	180,744	688,812	579,460	590,254
Ainsdale	210,317	289,260	322,911	328,423	345,791	998,438	955,328	972,616
Freshfield	169,370	249,567	266,415	277,933	283,772	827,718	798,444	795,312
Formby	279,822	424,875	482,312	525,841	553,546	1,668,128	1,576,974	1,595,890
Hightown	84,188	117,664	133,241	141,686	150,991	439,588	409,956	416,844
Hall Road	50,377	69,251	76,158	88,355	91,686	288,584	270,198	269,744
Blundellsands and Crosby	296,685	457,346	518,823	561,676	599,071	1,839,920	1,717,962	1,735,882
Waterloo (Merseyside)	433,285	601,447	660,922	669,416	720,522	1,136,872	1,022,416	1,014,942
Seaforth and Litherland	176,145	300,292	335,884	337,209	362,341	832,894	766,468	789,156
Bootle New Strand	345,451	415,685	404,558	348,458	405,802	977,696	909,922	931,806
Bootle Oriel Road	57,791	155,295	203,956	249,030	209,041	523,944	511,614	521,576
Bank Hall	51,477	71,052	74,624	62,692	85,014	197,086	171,010	172,426
Ormskirk branch
Ormskirk	726,015	693,376	716,362	733,381	770,621	1,026,546	998,858	878,782
Aughton Park	95,060	86,413	83,012	89,200	85,699	124,736	109,592	96,224
Town Green	188,160	183,233	203,324	202,425	206,180	259,972	239,100	193,200
Maghull	394,191	431,945	502,020	610,318	696,791	2,144,046	1,999,436	1,956,936
Old Roan	177,332	260,871	284,901	305,589	337,166	918,262	861,176	863,568
Aintree	284,514	388,230	376,908	412,132	473,143	1,251,404	1,173,276	1,197,258
Orrell Park	369,037	452,889	473,979	469,256	491,948	1,257,746	1,170,676	1,192,140
Walton (Merseyside)	65,155	93,261	110,471	113,214	113,131	179,148	162,612	164,478
Kirkdale	299,396	410,808	452,155	441,525	479,342	1,179,346	1,085,418	1,099,018
Kirkby branch
Kirkby	350,098	516,007	560,285	639,337	739,590	2,191,476	2,050,590	2,006,486
Fazakerley	215,019	300,552	329,306	318,664	330,843	889,816	832,474	864,108
Rice Lane	64,677	102,525	116,590	118,113	133,723	330,818	307,116	323,310
Kirkdale	See above	See above	See above	See above	See above	See above	See above	See above
Bank Hall\Kirkdale to Hunts Cross
Sandhills	178,991	272,009	314,309	306,134	207,944	390,346	446,210	495,458
Moorfields	339,533	309,014	383,815	1,577,540	2,141,398	5,141,655	4,445,984	4,637,356
Liverpool Central	1,086,536	982,498	1,293,790	7,169,618	8,856,570	19,635,814	18,413,982	17,958,028
Brunswick	224,476	352,854	407,134	410,813	442,711	1,061,698	979,312	963,252
St Michaels	195,408	289,183	365,547	360,976	378,944	562,860	506,288	469,570
Aigburth	146,283	179,458	241,063	246,583	265,442	761,362	696,992	681,774
Cressington	74,789	120,034	152,383	164,734	170,409	456,042	424,174	421,076
Garston (Merseyside)	141,022	190,778	222,247	42,886	Closed	Closed	Closed	Closed
Liverpool South Parkway	-	-	-	288,845	419,681	568,822	581,898	641,662
Hunts Cross	277,961	326,258	443,837	464,367	503,426	1,269,710	1,190,934	1,172,150

The annual passenger usage is based on sales of tickets in stated financial years from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. The statistics are for passengers arriving and departing from each station and cover twelve month periods that start in April. Please note that methodology may vary year on year.

See also

• LYR electric units
• A59 road, which serves the same route.

External links

• Merseyrail official site