The long-awaited opening of Merseyrail's new £80m Headbolt Lane station is due to take place tomorrow, Thursday, 5 October.
The new station is fully accessible and will be the first to be served by Liverpool City Region's new publicly owned battery-powered trains, which could help to expand the network across the region and beyond. By using battery technology there is no need for a live third rail, which would allow the Merseyrail network to be expanded to Manchester, Wrexham, Warrington, Preston, and Runcorn.
Initially, the station will be served by one Merseyrail service per hour to Liverpool Central, but as the new technology becomes established services will gradually increase to four trains per hour. Although the station is opening tomorrow, because of issues with Buckingham Group Network Rail and its delivery partners need to complete some outstanding works including the car park. Although the car park will be open, there will be limited parking for a few week..
Both the new station and the region's publicly owned trains are are at the heart of the Mayor's plans to create a London-style transport network, with quicker, cheaper, greener ,and more reliable trains. Headbolt Lane will be the second new station opened by the Mayor and the first to be built under the Merseyrail for All banner, which is the Mayor's commitment to expanding the local rail network across the region.
The new station is set to benefit over 20,000 people in the Northwood and Shevington areas of Kirkby, where 60% of households do not own a car. An adjacent bus interchange will provide services to Skelmersdale, while the cycle parking and links to active travel networks should encourage greater use with their convenient connections to public transport services.
Both Merseyrail and Northern trains will serve the station, with services to Liverpool city centre, Wigan and Manchester. The battery trains on Merseyrail services will use up to 80% less energy than their diesel equivalents, providing a vital contribution to the Mayor's commitment to reach net zero by 2040.
Funding for the new Headbolt Lane station came from the Transforming Cities Fund, and the scheme was delivered by Mayor Rotheram and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in partnership with Knowsley Council, Network Rail, Merseyrail and Northern.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “As a Kirkby native, I know how long local people have been talking about a station at Headbolt Lane. Thanks to devolution and the power it gives us to shape our own destiny, we've turned that talk into reality.
“We've invested £80m in this fully accessible, state of the art train station – and it will be the first to be served by our new battery powered trains. These trains are the first of their kind in the country and will help us to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, paving the way for a cleaner, greener integrated London-style transport network.
“Headbolt Lane station sets a new standard for public transport in this country – and it's the very least that our residents deserve. We're incredibly grateful to local people and passengers on the Kirkby line for their patience and understanding throughout this project – I hope they'll agree with me that it's been worth the wait!”
Great to see this step forward but a pity Steve Rotherham continues to condone the running of dangerously overloaded half length 1970s trains on the Southport line in the rush hour. What will it take to get some attention to this problem? Hope and pray it doesn’t need a passenger death to get it fixed.
Love the new station, easy access, convenient having the station on the doorstep especially when family visit you can never get taxis from kirkby station with my elderly father with mobility problems. My grandkids (asd) love going to watch the trains at the station
£80 million seems a lot for a station. How come it cost so much?
It wasn’t built by triang mate
Bruh are they that lazy just extend the third rail a little bit more? I get that it’s expensive but cmon it’s only a few kilometres
Who needs 3rd Rail electrification when you can rely on a Class 777 Metro train to operate a short distance from Kirkby to Headbolt Lane running on battery power and fully charged. Nice to see the new railway station now opened and for Merseyrail to continue on using the Class 777s on other routes in Merseyside.