The Kirkby Branch Line is a branch railway line from Wigan to Headbolt Lane. The line's original route was from Liverpool to Bury and later the most northern of the Liverpool to Manchester lines.[3] The line was split at Kirkby in 1977 with the western section forming a high frequency branch of the electrified MerseyrailNorthern Line, also referred to as the Kirkby branch line. The Kirkby branch to Wigan remained a low frequency (one train per hour) diesel operated service by Northern Trains from Headbolt Lane to Manchester.[4]
With the creation of the Merseyrail metro and the closure of the route's former terminus at Liverpool Exchange in 1977 through trains to Liverpool from the Wigan direction ceased. It had originally been intended that the line be electrified all the route from Liverpool to Wigan creating a terminal of the Merseyrail Northern Line at Wigan Wallgate. Wigan North Western is a terminal of Merseyrail's City Line. Only the section between Liverpool and Kirkby was electrified in 1977 as a part of the Merseyrail scheme. Kirkby station was reconstructed as a terminus for Merseyrail's Northern Line Kirkby branch and the Manchester to Kirkby line.[3] Services between Wigan and Kirkby were provided by diesel-powered trains. Passengers from the Manchester direction continuing beyond Kirkby into Liverpool change at Kirkby joining a Merseyrail-operated electric metro train.[3] It is a long-term aspiration of Merseyrail to complete the electrification of the Northern Line to Wigan.[5] Merseytravel also hope to use the route as part of rail link to the town of Skelmersdale, which has been cut off from the national network since 1956 and is now one of the largest towns in North West England without a passenger rail service.[6]
Proposals to extend Merseyrail's Northern Line to a new terminal station at Headbolt Lane, between Kirkby and Rainford, were announced in 2007[7] but did not receive funding until 2019.[8] Headbolt Lane station became the new terminal interchange between trains from Liverpool and Wigan/Manchester when it opened on 5 October 2023.[9]
Route description
The former main line is now "something of a backwater",[4] with the appearance of a rural branch line in places.[3]
The line reaches Pemberton station, where a now removed loop line came in on the east side.[3] This rejoined the line to Bolton east of Wigan, avoiding the latter town.[11]
The line then passes under the M6 motorway and the 959-yard (877 m) Upholland Tunnel, between which is Orrell station. The tunnel is situated at the highest point of the line, and is the only major structural work on the route.[3]
Upholland station is next, followed by Rainford—until the 1950s, a junction for two passenger lines. One, the Skelmersdale branch, ran northwestwards towards Skelmersdale and Ormskirk; the other ran to St Helens via Crank.[3] The lines were both opened in 1858, although not at the same time, and were usually operated as a through route. The Ormskirk line was built by the East Lancashire Railway, while the St Helens Railway was responsible for the line to that town.[12] Both survived until the 1960s for freight traffic.[3]
The line becomes single-track after Rainford, and continues for 5+1⁄4 miles (8.4 km) to the single platform at Kirkby, but from October 2023 is now double tracked from just north of Kirkby Station to Headbolt Lane station (inclusive).[2][3] There is a rail-connected freight terminal on this section, serving the Potter Logistics depot at the Knowsley Industrial Park near Kirkby. Regular traffic from this facility resumed in July 2016, after a prolonged period of disuse (services having previously ceased in 2006).[13]
Services
Trains originate at Blackburn and join the Kirkby branch at Wigan Wallgate, having travelled via Todmorden, Manchester Victoria, Atherton and Hindley, and change direction at Headbolt Lane. Services are scheduled to take around 140 minutes end-to-end. There is no weekday evening (after 20:00) or Sunday service.[14] In the May 2023 timetable, trains mainly continue beyond Manchester to/from Blackburn via Todmorden and Accrington.[15]
As of 2023, the standard service on the Kirkby branch is hourly, with trains starting from Blackburn and terminating there on the return journey. These service frequencies have been unchanged since the 1980s[4] however the high-level output specification for 2014-2019 envisaged the service being cut back to a simple shuttle between Kirkby and Wigan Wallgate. Services are operated by Northern Trains.[16] Network Rail has considered the effects of electrification.[17]
Macfarlane, Andrew (January 1987). Young, Tim (ed.). Lancashire and Cumbria by Rail. Britain By Rail (Railway Development Society). Norwich: Jarrold and Sons. ISBN0-7117-0297-7.
