Northern line (Merseyrail)

For other uses, see Northern line (disambiguation).

Northern line
The words "Northern Line" in white over a green background.A yellow "M" over a grey circle.
321px A Northern line Class 507 at Liverpool Central
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Liverpool North West England
Termini	Southport, Ormskirk, Headbolt Lane Hunts Cross, Liverpool Central
Stations	36
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Merseyrail
Depot(s)	Kirkdale TMD
Rolling stock	Class 777 (from January 2023), Class 507, Class 508
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Operating speed	60 mph (97 km/h) maximum
Route map 321px (Click to expand)

Northern Line
Legend
to Preston to Manchester Southport Ormskirk divided platform Aughton Park Birkdale Town Green Hillside Maghull Ainsdale Freshfield Formby Old Roan Hightown Aintree Hall Road Orrell Park Blundellsands & Crosby Walton Waterloo to Wigan 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 two commuter rail routes operated by Merseyrail and centred on Merseyside, England, the other being the Wirral line. The cross-city route runs from Hunts Cross in south Liverpool then (by way of an underground section through Liverpool's city centre) branches in the north to terminate at Southport, Kirkby (both Merseyside) and Ormskirk (Lancashire).

Passenger interchange to the Wirral line is available at Moorfields and Liverpool Central, and to the separately-owned City Line at Hunts Cross and Liverpool South Parkway. Liverpool South Parkway also allows interchange with regional and long-distance services, while connections to services operated by Northern Trains are possible at Kirkby, Ormskirk and Southport.

Description

The line runs from Hunts Cross in the south of Liverpool towards Liverpool Central. Brunswick station between St Michaels and Liverpool Central was added in 1998 to provide a connection to the Brunswick Business Park. In the tunnel just south of Liverpool Central, the line drops into a 1970s tunnel to a lower level into the underground Mersey Railway Liverpool Central (Low Level) station. North of Central the line uses the 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 Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway lines from the former 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.

Generally, 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 daytime and every 30 minutes evenings and Sundays. Until 2017, summer Sunday frequencies on the Southport route were increased to every 15 minutes. There are no peak hour frequency increases but trains on the Southport and Ormskirk routes are increased to six carriages, as are weekend services during the summer on the Southport route.

Special timetables are implemented for major events such as the Grand National meeting at Aintree and golf tournaments at Birkdale. These involve changing services on all branches and the closure of stations in anticipation of overcrowding risks.

Passenger volume

Passengers from the year beginning April 2002 to the year beginning April 2010.

Station usage
Station Name	2002–03	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14
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.

Service pattern

There are a total of 12 trains per hour (tph) running on the central section between Sandhills and Liverpool Central. The service pattern is: (Not all stops listed; trains call at every station on their route.)

Northern Line
Route	tph
	Mon.–Sat.	Sun.
Southport–Formby–Sandhills–Liverpool Central–Liverpool South Parkway–Hunts Cross	4	2
Ormskirk–Sandhills–Liverpool Central	4	2
Kirkby–Sandhills–Liverpool Central	4	2

History

1909 map showing former lines

The Northern Line was introduced in 1977.

In 2006, Garston station was replaced by Liverpool South Parkway station.

Electrification

The line is electrified using Template:750 V DC, identical to the third rail system present in southern England.

• Liverpool Exchange 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 a north–south line through the Link Tunnel in 1978.
• Electrification was cut back to Southport in the north in 1964 as part of the Southport-Preston line closure, stations closing which previously had had electric services were St Lukes, Hesketh Park, Churchtown, and Crossens, electric services also ceased to Meols Cop station although the conductor rail remained until 1970 to serve the large depot at Meols Cop, and this station continues to serve trains on the Southport to Wigan/Manchester line.
• Garston to Hunts Cross was electrified in 1983.

Connections

Merseyrail service map, with the Northern line in blue

Interchange with the Wirral line is available at Liverpool Central and Moorfields. As the Northern line does not pass through Liverpool Lime Street, passengers from other rail networks must use the Wirral line as a connection. As there is only a direct escalator down to the Wirral line towards Birkenhead at Liverpool Central and given the short distance between Central and Lime Street most passengers prefer to walk rather than use the several escalators necessary to travel between the two stations.

Liverpool city centre stations have lifts for wheelchairs buggies and heavy luggage but they are small.

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

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

Future

Plans to re-open St James station have been proposed. Merseytravel agreed to work with Liverpool Vision in March 2014 to investigate the cost of re-opening the station and its projected usage. Merseytravel listed the re-opening of St James station as a 'top rail project' on a Rail Development and Delivery Committee report in 2016.

As part of Lancashire County Council's plans to build a new railway station in Skelmersdale, they have proposed an extension to the Northern Line that would change the terminus of the Kirkby branch of the line from Kirkby to Skelmersdale. The proposals could see a new station built at Headbolt Lane and Merseyrail services also passing through Rainford railway station. By September 2017, Merseytravel and Lancashire County Council had committed £5 million of funding to the scheme. Merseytravel believe the scheme could cost around £300 million to develop and could be ready in a decade.

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Long Term Rail Strategy document of October 2017, page 37, states a review in 2020 to introduce new Merseyrail battery trains will be undertaken, in view to put Preston onto the Merseyrail network by extending the Merseyrail Northern Line from Ormskirk to Preston. The aim is to have Preston one of the terminals of the Northern Line. The document states, "The potential use of battery powered Merseyrail units may improve the business case".

See also

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

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons