Quoted directly from the Merseyside RUS:
It is recommended that
the frequency of services between Chester
and Liverpool is increased from two to four
per hour in the inter-peak, thereby matching
the high peak frequency and providing a
quarter-hourly Chester – Liverpool service
between 07:00 and 19:00, and six trains per
hour for all stations between Hooton and
Birkenhead Central (inclusive). During the
inter-peak every second service would not call
between Chester and Hooton in the direction
of Liverpool, with the other two services not
calling between Hooton and Chester in the
direction of Chester. This would reduce the
return journey time by around three minutes
thereby providing an improved performance
buffer for services. The frequency at Bache
and Capenhurst would remain half hourly, and
all am peak arrivals in Liverpool and pm peak
departures from Liverpool would have the
same stopping pattern as currently. This would
also improve connections with services from
North Wales into Chester.
The scheme is expected to generate around
190,000 additional passengers per annum,
and only a relatively moderate investment
of public funding would be needed as all the
rolling stock can be resourced from spare units
that are already used to operate the additional
services in the peak. Overall the scheme is
likely to offer high value for money indicated by
a BCR of 2.5.
As an increment to this option it is
recommended that the line speed between
Bache and Hooton is raised from 60mph to
75mph. It is anticipated that this could be
done almost entirely through planned track
renewals due to be completed in 2010/11;
however it is recommended that a small
scheme is developed to optimise the scope of
the infrastructure work and fund any resultant
small cost increases. This would improve
the turnaround time of inter-peak services
to around 8½ to 9 minutes and provide
a performance buffer for peak services.
Alternatively, Merseyrail could choose to use
the reduced journey time to increase the
service frequency at Bache and Capenhurst, if
it is perceived to offer better value for money.
It is anticipated that the longer turnaround
times generated by the improved service
frequency and line speed upgrade will increase
punctuality to the level of the other Merseyrail
service groups. However, in the longer term
an additional electrified platform at Chester
station may produce a significant further
performance benefit, particularly as more
peak services operate in six-car formation
resulting in an increasing number of coupling
and uncoupling manoeuvres at the station.
It is therefore recommended that a review of
the infrastructure at Chester is undertaken
once the frequency increase and line speed
improvements have been implemented.
Analysis suggests that the additional two
services per hour through the Wirral Line
loop will not be particularly detrimental to
train punctuality. However, any performance
risk could be mitigated by replacing the
current half hourly inter-peak Ellesmere Port
– Chester services with a quarter hourly
Ellesmere Port – Hooton shuttle, with a fiveminute
connection time with the quarter hourly
Chester – Liverpool services. This option is not
recommended at this stage as the value for
money is inferior to the previous scheme.
Options to increase the frequency of Chester
– Liverpool services and significantly reduce
the journey time by either not calling at
stations between Hooton and Birkenhead
Central, or using additional infrastructure
between Hooton and Rock Ferry have also
been assessed. However, these are not
recommended because it is not possible to
achieve an even service interval with a mixture
of stopping and semi-fast services, so the
benefit of improved journey times would be
partially offset by the disbenefit from losing
an even quarter hour frequency. Furthermore,
the level of benefit generated is not sufficient
