The Merseyrail network was extended today as a new station at Headbolt Lane opened to the public.
At present, one train per hour will operate from Liverpool Central to the £80m station which is located in Kirkby. It will enable easier access for people living in the Tower Hill and Northwood areas, as well as improving accessibility further afield for residents in Knowsley, Rainford and West Lancashire.
Service frequency will increase gradually until a full 15-minute timetable is in place.
Merseyrail, one of the most intensively used rail networks in the country, carries around 90,000 passengers each day and runs in excess of 600 trains each weekday.
At the moment, a half-hourly service is operating between Liverpool Central and Kirkby, with one of the services continuing to the new station.
Some timetable changes are in place with services for Liverpool Central departing Kirkby at 13 and 42 minutes past each hour. The last service will depart Headbolt Lane for Liverpool Central at 23.31, and will leave Kirkby at 23.33. Kirkby-bound services will depart Fazakerley at 21 and 51 minutes past each hour until 23.51, with the last service leaving at 00.11.
Trains will operate on battery power between Kirkby and Headbolt Lane. This is the first time that ground-breaking battery-power trains have been used in passenger service in the UK.
The new station has been years in the planning and is not entirely finished. A 270-space car park is still under construction, with completion expected soon. Some entrances and footpaths are also not completed so pedestrian access is temporarily restricted to Headbolt Lane. Local bus services will be stopping immediately outside the station.
Neil Grabham, Managing Director of Merseyrail, said: “We are so pleased to welcome our new customers from the communities around Tower Hill, Northwood and across Knowsley, Rainford and West Lancashire who will use this fantastic new station to access the Merseyrail network for the first time.
“It's also the first time in 29 years that we have extended one of our lines and it's thanks to the innovative new battery technology on the groundbreaking new fleet of class 777 trains being introduced by the Combined Authority. This truly is a milestone moment, as well as being a starting point for ambitious plans to grow the Merseyrail network over the coming years.
“Our friendly team at Headbolt Lane station can't wait to welcome our first customers through the door, as trains begin to gradually operate on this part of the network for the first time from Thursday.”
Merseyrail should allow the Class 777 BEMU to operate on other lines that aren’t electrified and to reopen some of the lines in Merseyside that may cater for the Class 777s to operate on in battery mode. It’s nice to see Headbolt Lane station now officially opened to the public so that you can have easier access switching from Merseyrail to Northern.
A great achievement to introduce the Class 777 to extend the service of Merseyrail pending the rollout of further electrification.
This is not the first time that battery powered trains have been used in the UK as the article says. A battery DMU ran on the Deeside line between Aberdeen and Ballater in the 1969s!