Lime St to Chester via WBQ

[Red Rover]

Did this used to be a service? Has it changed since Chester to Lime St on the Halton curve? I’m not going mad there used to be didn’t there?
Thanks

 

[BeijingDave]

Did this used to be a service? Has it changed since Chester to Lime St on the Halton curve? I’m not going mad there used to be didn’t there?
Thanks

IIRC the service was (mid to late 2000s) Lime Street to WBQ (all stations via Earlestown), with one mid-afternoon extended to Ellesmere Port (the Parly service).

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

My recollection was of a Lime St-WBQ-Helsby-Ellesmere Port service in FNW days.
This was cut back to Lime St-WBQ except for a peak extension to Ellesmere Port, when Cheshire CC refused to fund the all-day service.
Then the Halton Curve ATW/TfW service started, but I think the WBQ Northern service still ran*.
Then Covid hit, and the Lime St-WBQ service (by then electric) was cut and not reinstated.
You can still do Lime St to Chester via Warrington, by changing at Earlestown into the TfW or Northern Manchester-Chester services.
The fares via WBQ are still there.

Since the BR era, we have the new hourly Liverpool-Chester via Runcorn (to be extended into Wales), and the hourly (Leeds-) Manchester Victoria-Chester services to add to the old Manchester-North Wales service.

* Today, the morning EPort Northern unit runs ECS via Runcorn to Helsby.
The evening service returns to Liverpool via Warrington, also ECS.
You can follow the diagrams on RTT.

Realtime Trains | Departures from Helsby all day on 03/10/2025

Train information at Helsby all day on 03/10/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[childwallblues]

There were First North Western services from Liverpool Lime Street every two hours via Warrington Bank Quay to both Chester and Ellesmere Port but sorry I cannot confirm start or finish dates.

 

[Krokodil]

The evening service returns to Liverpool via Warrington, also ECS.

The evening one isn't empty stock, it runs in passenger service (on the odd occasion that it isn't cancelled entirely, of course)

 

[Gathursty]

The evening one isn't empty stock, it runs in passenger service (on the odd occasion that it isn't cancelled entirely, of course)

I was about to ask if the WBQ to Liverpool chord of Earlestown triangle now has no passenger services but think you've answered that question now.

 

[Krokodil]

I was about to ask if the WBQ to Liverpool chord of Earlestown triangle now has no passenger services but think you've answered that question now.

Yes, one train per day (excluding Sundays) in one direction only. If Northern actually have any crew for it of course, though according to Recent Train Times it was only cancelled on 29% of days so it's improving.