THE LONG & WINDING ROAD OF MERSEYSIDE

My first venture on to Merseyrail started with a throwback to my college days when I went and stayed in Liverpool on a residential. We stayed in a hostel in the city centre which to be honest I can’t remember much about, we were all 18/19 year olds from Somerset who was let loose in a city! What I do remember really well was the day we went to Port Sunlight for a tour around the Unilever factory. We also walked around the Port Sunlight village which the building of commenced in 1888 by the Lever Brothers’ for the factory workers. 

Fast forward 15 years and I’m back in Port Sunlight as part of my challenge. On this day in particular I visited port sunlight station twice. On the first occasion I alighted at Spital and walked along Spital Road and St Andrews Road before turning and walking past the Unilever factory and then on to Port Sunlight station. After the walk I hopped on a train and went a visited Green Lane & Rock Ferry before visiting to Bebington and then walking through the Lever Brothers’ village. As this was my final movement of the day, I took my time and enjoyed the beautiful community gardens that were there. I then headed to the station where I waited for a service to take me towards Liverpool.  I was planning on heading straight into Liverpool but decided at the last minute to alight at Birkenhead Central where I then walked to Conway Park and then boarded a service into Liverpool before heading to Lime St and then home. 

After that trip I was desperate to get back and have some more time on Merseyrail. Unfortunately, I had to wait until 13th May before I was able to get back to Merseyside. This was a spontaneous midweek trip, an unexpected break in work allowed me to go and have an overnight stay in Liverpool. Although not a million miles from where I live an overnight stop would give me lots of flexibility. My first day was spent mainly focusing on the New Brighton and West Kirby lines out of Liverpool. I had no idea what to expect on these lines, the Wirral is an area I had never adventured to before. Going to new areas excites me, it’s part the reason for doing this challenge. Birkenhead North was the first station to visit of the day before heading off to New Brighton, alighting at Wallasey Village and boarding at Wallasey Grove Road on the way. 

I arrived into New Brighton and all I really knew was it was at the mouth of the river Mersey. After a walk down the hill I managed to find the seafront. I was genuinely surprised; it was beautiful looking out to the sea. I walked along the front for a bit and was thanking myself for the decision to spend the night in Liverpool. By doing this I had allowed myself time to enjoy the seafront. After the enjoyment of my stroll I headed back to the station where I caught a service back towards to Birkenhead. 

Changing at Birkenhead Park I then headed out towards West Kirby. Now this is an example of where it is good to stick to your plans… I decided to save some time by alighting at Hoylake and walking top West Kirby, I was meant to do West Kirby later in the day. This walk took me much longer than I had anticipated. I missed the train I had in mind to catch, not only this, but had it not been for a gentle jog towards the end of the walk I would have also missed the next train. This rather annoyingly left me with no time to visit the seafront at West Kirby. It is on my list of places to revisit. I might have an opportunity to do this quite soon. I made the connection. I ended this day at Meols station where I noticed a fish and chip shop. I decided it seemed as good a time as any to grab some food. All I will say about the fish and chips is, I’ve had better and I can remember them well for all the wrong reasons. 

The next day I woke up and headed back to the trains. Today’s targets were the Ormskirk and Kirkby lines out of Liverpool. Starting with the Ormskirk line as my plan was to finish at Kirkby and join the Northern network there to take me home. Anyway, my day started with heading up towards Ormskirk, I didn’t go as far as Ormskirk as I did this the previous morning on my way into Liverpool. I’ve got to be honest; I knew nothing of this line, and with the incredible frequency that Merseyrail provided I didn’t have any time or allow anytime at any stations to explore. The only exception to this was at Old Roan where I alighted and decided that I would take the walk to Fazakerley. Walking this was basically a move to stretch my legs and have a break from trains. I could have got a train down to Sandhills and back up to Fazakerley from there. The walk was a pleasant surprise as unexpectedly it included walking around the perimeter of Aintree racecourse and alongside a golf course. As a country pumpkin this was most welcome to see some greenery. 

Now I was on the Kirkby line I headed back towards Liverpool and alighted at Rice Lane and took the ridiculously short walk to Walton station (Last station on the Ormskirk line). At Walston I headed down the one stop to Kirkdale before ending my time with Merseyrail with a trip up to Kirkby. 

So… Kirkby and Ormskirk have a rather peculiar set up. A quick Wiki search for Ormskirk tells me that through trains on this line hasn’t happened since May 1970. The wiki article states the following: 

Personally, I would love to see these lines reopened as through stations. I can’t see why the current Merseyrail operated line could not be extended through to Preston. All that would be required is the reconnecting of the track at Ormskirk and third rail been introduced north of Ormskirk. A similar solution could be done at Kirkby, reconnect through the tunnel and then third rail through to Wigan Wallgate Street. Merseyrail could even occupy the bay platform at that currently exists there. By extending these two lines not only would it benefit passenger journeys, I am also aware that Merseyrail have an ambition to extend their services further afield. If my suggestion was ever to be taken up (which I highly doubt) it would go a long way to helping Merseyrail achieve their ambition. These are my opinions, but if anyone at Merseyrail would like to use these suggestions then feel free to get in touch, I’ll keep an eye on my emails 😉. 

Anyway, now I’ve voiced my opinions on the subject, I am sure other people on Merseyside have their own? If you do, let me know. I’m always interested to here other people’s thoughts and suggestions. 

After doing the switch from reliable Merseyrail to erm, let’s just say the slightly less reliable Northern, I then intended to do the four stations between Kirkby and Wigan Wallgate. Now the reliability issues of Northern kicked in pretty quickly. I went from Kirkby to Upholland then as you have probably guessed it went wrong. My next train that should of took me back Rainford was Cancelled. I decided that I would have the time in that case to walk back to Rainford. I was wrong, I missed my train and then had to wait the best part of 45min for the next service. While waiting for the next service to arrive I studied RTT and noticed that that was not the last cancellation of the day on this line. So, there was only one thing for it! Home, after all, I could come back and do the other two stations on a day trip sometime. 

After my foray to Maghull North I then headed to Southport line. I didn’t really know what to expect from this line. This was a line I knew very little about. When I have spoke to people in the past about areas like Bootle, they have said things like be careful, watch your pockets etc etc. I decided to walk the short distance between Bootle New Strand and Bootle Oriel Road, after all this challenge is about see every area of the UK. That means the not so nice parts too. That been said, when I took this brief walk, I didn’t feel worried or anything. There was definitely no feeling of I was going to have my wallet stolen. Seemed like many other suburban areas I’ve been too. It’s funny isn’t it how some people have negative opinions off areas they don’t live in or spend any time in. Maybe if these people did, then they might change their opinion of said area. I then headed further north on the line. There was some unexpected beautiful scenery to enjoy. I alighted at Birkdale and then walked the short distance back to Hillside before then boarding and heading to Southport. After arriving at Southport, I decided to head home. Due to it been rush hour and the likely hood it would be an overcrowded 158 I went to Manchester airport and boarded an empty train there to take me home to Ulverston. Guaranteed seat every time!

My next trip would mark the end of Merseyrail and would mark the start of the Northern stations in Merseyside. I finished the Merseyrail network with a short and simple section of track, Liverpool Central to Liverpool South Parkway. This line I expected to be quite a dull section, so when I alighted at St. Michaels I was pleasantly surprised to find upon leaving the station it was in the middle of some woods and even more surprised that a short walk away was a beautiful park that was on the banks of the River Mersey. I ended up deliberately spending more time here than I had intended to. But it was fine, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to starting the Northern stations in Merseyside. 

After a lovely walk around, it was back to the station to continue finishing the Merseyrail network. After visiting the remaining stations on this section of line I headed up to Hunts Cross which I actually had already done on a different date. I had to come here though to be able to change over to Northern to start with the Northern stations in the Merseyside area. 

Now… The most frustrating part of this challenge so far has been trying to do the Northern stations on Merseyside. Simply because it appeared that every time I attempted to visit any Northern stations on Merseyside a service would be cancelled or big delays would make any planning nearly impossible. Now to be honest with you. I have only two good memories of from the Northern stations. The first was visiting Edge Hill station which I walked to from Wavertree Technology Park, to be honest I have no idea why I did this walk as it would have been quicker to wait for the next train back to Edge Hill. But anyway, the silver lining in the walk was that it gave me more time to look around Edge Hill and look into the fascinating history. The current station opened in 1836 and to this day is still the oldest station on the national rail network to still be in use. Rather than me sit here for ages typing out all the history please see image below… Sorry everyone, Even as I type about just two Northern stations in Merseyside it’s making me angry. 

Moving on to my final memory of the Northern stations on Merseyside is the very last station I had to visit in Merseyside, Prescot. This is a great memory for three reasons: Firstly, it meant Merseyside was complete, and after all the good experiences with Merseyrail and Arriva Wales I was just so pleased to see the back of Merseyside after the nightmare with Northern. The second reason I remember Prescot was it looked beautiful with the stunning sunset that was happening overhead. The third reason was as a reward for finally completing Merseyside I went for a McDonalds for my dinner! So actually, it’s not really the station at all that’s a good memory. This could be that it took three attempts to actually get there.

So, as you have probably now worked out, Merseyside was a mixed bag for me. I am definitely going be revisiting some stations over the next 12 months when I’m not on far away trips. Unfortunately, it’s just how Merseyside ended for me that its been tainted. Which takes me nicely on to the Northern issue, I won’t go into too much detail as I have a whole blog about Northern planned for the near future. Basically, though I just want to say that since I finished Merseyside I have been closely monitoring the Northern situation and just want it to be noted that their services have vastly improved. I genuinely enjoy travelling with Northern now and with more new trains and more fully refurbed trains entering service all the time it surly can only get better.

Anyway. Merseyside, I WILL BE BACK for some revisits in the new year! See you then.

Stu 😊