What extensions should be made to the Merseyrail Network?

[frodshamfella]

Here is a few ideas I had for extending the Merseryrail network, all routes would be 25kv unless otherwise stated. I know some of these are planned. Due to the number of issues with the 777s it might be worth getting a fleet of level baording 717s for extensions.

Kirby Headbolt Lane to Wigan Wallgate (4tph)
Ormskirk to Preston (4tph)
Wrexham to Bidston (4tph)
Cressington to Liverpool Airport (12tph)
Ellesmere Port to Helsby (4tph)
Ormskirk to Skelmersdale (4tph)

Headbolt Lane to Wigan is very logical the current service is poor, probably to build a branch for Skelmersdale from there would be best allowing direct access to Liverpool City Centre.

An airport link is desperately needed, and should be a high priority.
TFW are making sounds about Bidston to Wrexham . Id suggest Bidston is not the best destination, ideally around the loop itself, if no Birkenhead North where there are more connections.

Id agree with Ellesmere Port to Helsby. Ellesmere Port is an illogical point to terminate when you can have onwards connections just a bit further down the line. The platforms are there ready to use.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Aug 2025 ==

My plan would be to use tunnel boring machine and create a Heathrow Central style stations for Liverpool Airport and Speke. View attachment 187270

Looks great. I think Speke township should benefit with a station too. It has poor transport links presently.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Aug 2025 ==

I would extend the Ellesmere Port service to Runcorn via Helsby, and put a platform face on the Folly Lane branch line, or possibly send on to Liverpool South Parkway, ideally timetabled to work nicely with the Chester-Liverpool TfW service. Given Runcorn often feels left out of the Liverpool City Region politics, this could greatly assist. A less desirable option would be to send it to Warrington Bank Quay via Runcorn East.

Given the suitable battery tech is already available now, I'd not be against sending 2tph from Liverpool to Chester on to a bay at Crewe, replacing and enhancing the Crewe-Chester shuttles, particularly if Beeston and Tarporley ever reopens. The third rail at Chester is likely to be removed within this decade in any event, or whenever it gets resignalled.

I believe there is a provision for a station at Beechwood on the Halton Curve. This would be useful for that part of Runcorn..

 

[Djgr]

Yes, I'd say that should be done sooner rather than later, and it could potentially be done very cheaply indeed. Burscough looks to Liverpool and the prevailing accent is soft Scouse, whereas places north of there look to Preston. And it is possible that if the paths work a single-unit hourly service could be operated between Burscough and Preston rather than requiring two which spend quite a bit of time sitting around (though it might require a few line speed improvements to make it reliable). If my suspicion is correct that you could squeeze in Burscough without an extra unit by using the capabilities of the 777s to speed up Liverpool-Ormskirk by about five minutes (which should be easily possible given how slow it is at present), this could overall actually save money aside from the capital cost of a bit of redoubling towards Burscough so the units pass in the right place, or if you're only going to send half to Burscough that can be done with the single line but would require a reversing siding for the other unit (I once worked out a timetable for this, it's on here somewhere, and it can't work without one).

(If it did look likely I'd be investing in property in Burscough as prices would be likely to go through the roof!)

Anything Burscough related is not going to happen until Lancashire get their act together on this. I have just looked online and their planned expenditure on anything Burscough related is £0.00.

Liverpool City Region will not fund this alone.

Even if they see some benefit to LCR (and I think that they would rightly prefer that those who benefit from working in LCR would also live there), it will ALWAYS be lower priority than projects solely within the region (e.g. Headbolt Lane, Maghull North, Halewood, Eastham Rake, Lea Green, Liverpool Baltic, "Woodchurch" etc), unless some external funding is made available.

That is why something on Borderlands is more likely, because the Welsh government is actually doing something.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I agree with Wigan. It seems an obvious one to do, and would surely be fairly well used (even though Wigan means more to Manchester than Liverpool). The other quick win I’d do would have to be Skelmersdale, though from Headbolt Lane not from Ormskirk.

The Glenburn site is not optimal and would be mostly reached by car. Thus I'd suggest Upholland as "Skem Parkway" with a new building and car park on Pimbo for easier access would be the most cost-effective way of doing this, rather than the originally proposed spur.

 

[bramling]

The Glenburn site is not optimal and would be mostly reached by car. Thus I'd suggest Upholland as "Skem Parkway" with a new building and car park on Pimbo for easier access would be the most cost-effective way of doing this, rather than the originally proposed spur.

I guess what Skelmersdale really needs is a focal point for the town, with the station being part of that. A wider issue than just building a railway station I guess.

Upholland just seems very peripheral to me, but I guess this is the problem with Skelmersdale as a whole, being a typical new town.

The other thing I forgot to mention, I’m not sure I’d bother with Wrexham-Bidston. The busier end is the Wrexham end, and that’s more for Wales to sort something than Merseyside. If it’s not going to go all the way into Liverpool then I can’t really see the point.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I guess what Skelmersdale really needs is a focal point for the town, with the station being part of that. A wider issue than just building a railway station I guess.

It has one - the Concourse. But like many South East stations (Leighton Buzzard for one smaller example) where the station isn't really in the town centre, this doesn't massively matter, because with almost* all the employment being minimum wage retail and the likes people aren't going to commute in for those jobs by rail, they will simply take them locally to where they live because they exist there as well and the commute isn't financially viable.

Thus the station's purpose is for people to go out of the town (primarily to Liverpool and secondarily Wigan and on towards Manchester) - and so its location doesn't overly matter provided it's easily reachable by car, cycle and bus. I'm not convinced Upholland is a whole lot worse than the Glenburn site - it's nearer some residential, it's further from other. There could also be development around and south of the site. Indeed to be fair Maghull North is only about 10 minutes' drive along the uncongested M58 (Headbolt is really not optimal requiring driving on smaller roads too and I'm not sure why that's seen as the railhead).

Yes, people said that of Milton Keynes originally, MKC was an afterthought. But MK is different because there's significant white collar employment in the centre - Skem doesn't have this now, and if you were going to build it you'd just build an office development by the station instead!

(I think it is fair to say though that it's a real shame Skem wasn't built mirrored to the south of where it is now with the railway through its centre - that would have been so much easier though we might well be talking about Rainford New Town instead! But like MK it was built with the fallacious idea that you'd have everything you'd ever want there and hardly ever want to go to Liverpool, for which the car or bus would be fine - a fallacy if I ever knew one!)

* Probably the only example of higher waged employment in the centre of Skem bar the managers of the site is the Co-operative Bank which might get some inbound commuting (it certainly does by car from places like Ormskirk). However, that could easily arrange a dedicated bus shuttle to any station location timed to suit the 9-5 office day (or whatever they work) plus the call centre shift changes. Or as it's a rather old building they could relocate nearer the station!

 

[BerkshireRails]

An airport link is desperately needed, and should be a high priority.

Looks great. I think Speke township should benefit with a station too. It has poor transport links presently.

A very rough idea for the routing of the Liverpool Airport extension.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

TFW are making sounds about Bidston to Wrexham . Id suggest Bidston is not the best destination,

I don't think anyone is suggesting that an electrified / 777 operated Wrexham service would terminate at Bidston: once there it seems to me that the expectation has always been to head for Birkenhead and then maybe through the tunnel to Liverpool. The only reason the current diesel service ends at Bidston is to avoid disrupting Merseyrail.

 

[Djgr]

I don't think anyone is suggesting that an electrified / 777 operated Wrexham service would terminate at Bidston: once there it seems to me that the expectation has always been to head for Birkenhead and then maybe through the tunnel to Liverpool. The only reason the current diesel service ends at Bidston is to avoid disrupting Merseyrail

Although Bidston has cross-platform interchange, which Birkenhead North doesn't

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Aug 2025 ==

The busier end is the Wrexham end, and that’s more for Wales to sort something than Merseyside

Don't think station usage figures support this.

There is a lot of travel from Wales into Liverpool. It doesn't drop off at the border.

 

[frodshamfella]

A very rough idea for the routing of the Liverpool Airport extension.View attachment 187275

Do you think this could be done from Liverpool South Parkway ? Just thinking of onwards connections. Or is it too difficult because of buildings etc ?

 

[BerkshireRails]

Do you think this could be done from Liverpool South Parkway ? Just thinking of onwards connections. Or is it too difficult because of buildings etc ?

It might be possible from Liverpool South Parkway off the low level lines with a tunnel.

 

[The Planner]

I would extend the Ellesmere Port service to Runcorn via Helsby, and put a platform face on the Folly Lane branch line, or possibly send on to Liverpool South Parkway, ideally timetabled to work nicely with the Chester-Liverpool TfW service. Given Runcorn often feels left out of the Liverpool City Region politics, this could greatly assist. A less desirable option would be to send it to Warrington Bank Quay via Runcorn East.

Given the suitable battery tech is already available now, I'd not be against sending 2tph from Liverpool to Chester on to a bay at Crewe, replacing and enhancing the Crewe-Chester shuttles, particularly if Beeston and Tarporley ever reopens. The third rail at Chester is likely to be removed within this decade in any event, or whenever it gets resignalled.

Chester is only due a relock.

 

[Class15]

The third rail at Chester is likely to be removed within this decade in any event, or whenever it gets resignalled.

I wonder why? It seems a bit unnecessary and making things more difficult?

 

[BerkshireRails]

Although Bidston has cross-platform interchange, which Birkenhead North doesn't

If your extending it into James Street then you might as well just run it around the loop.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that an electrified / 777 operated Wrexham service would terminate at Bidston: once there it seems to me that the expectation has always been to head for Birkenhead and then maybe through the tunnel to Liverpool. The only reason the current diesel service ends at Bidston is to avoid disrupting Merseyrail.

If people thought I was just suggesting a 4tph Wrexham to Bidston shuttle, I was suggesting it as an extension with 717s from the Liverpool Loop to Wrexham by electrification and take over the Borderlands Line (Wrexham to Bidston).

 

[Mr. SW]

A tram train to the Airport is a reasonable idea, but I did think a year or two ago "Would it be possible to create a heavy-rail solution on a budget?" The answer is "Just About". Here are some piccies.

Map 1: Railway Number 2, branch off the Northern Line at Cressington that goes into a cut-and-cover covered way under the A561 to Dock Road, where it emerges using a sliver of land taken from the container depot. The line rises to an underbridge over Church Road keeping north of the line to the depot. There's a couple of pipes under the A561, bur as far as I can tell, no significant obstruction like a major sewer. A possible station site is indicated.

Map 2: Line line passes under the existing overbridge. It was originally built for four tracks, so this should be easy. "Diamonds" indicates where Railway Number 2 crosses the West Curve on the level. I couldn't find any alternative to doing this. Railway Number 2 then goes into a rising gradient of 1:50ish onto a extended viaduct/elevated section, where it crosses over the Garston Sidings. Railway Number 1 (sorry about labelling: taken from private notes) starts at the same junction where the West Curve meets the Slow Lines just south of Parkway Station. There is also a rising gradient of similar steepness onto an Elevated section. There is no junction where the lines meet at Railway Number 3: it is an either/or situation. Railway Number 3 then crosses the car distribution depot. Some temporary huts may have to be removed.

Map 3: A possible new elevated station at New Mersey. A bone of contention is that the line crosses the police compound, but I don't think this will be much of a problem. The line skirts the Propeller Roundabout, a local landmark.

Map 4: Railway Number 3 parallels Speke Hall Road on the eastern side before being involved with the demolition of a hut building being used be a tyre company. The line apparently splits. Again, there is no junction. Railway Number 4 retains its elevated stance. Railway Number 5 drops down to ground level and then below on a gradient of 1:80ish. This will become more clear on the next map.

Map 5: Railway Number 4 goes to an elevated station adjacent to the Hotel. Railway Number 5 drops into a cut-and-cover tunnel to a sub-surface station immediately outside the teminal. The yellow, unnumbered is a possible extension to the east.

I've checked the radii and they're all fine.
Railway Numbers 1,3 and 4 is by far the cheapest. No tunnelling, a tiny amount of land take and demolition only of industrial buildings.
Railway Number 2 and 5 is more expensive due to the tunnelling, but it is all cut and cover, and one does have to consider the lowness of the terrain and the proximity of the river when planning stuff like this. I am not a civil engineer by the way, but I did cover my school books with diagrams and designs for model railways...

 

[rower40]

Tunnel under the Ribble estuary to join Southport to Blackpool?

 

[BerkshireRails]

A tram train to the Airport is a reasonable idea, but I did think a year or two ago "Would it be possible to create a heavy-rail solution on a budget?" The answer is "Just About". Here are some piccies.
View attachment 187330
Map 1: Railway Number 2, branch off the Northern Line at Cressington that goes into a cut-and-cover covered way under the A561 to Dock Road, where it emerges using a sliver of land taken from the container depot. The line rises to an underbridge over Church Road keeping north of the line to the depot. There's a couple of pipes under the A561, bur as far as I can tell, no significant obstruction like a major sewer. A possible station site is indicated.
View attachment 187331
Map 2: Line line passes under the existing overbridge. It was originally built for four tracks, so this should be easy. "Diamonds" indicates where Railway Number 2 crosses the West Curve on the level. I couldn't find any alternative to doing this. Railway Number 2 then goes into a rising gradient of 1:50ish onto a extended viaduct/elevated section, where it crosses over the Garston Sidings. Railway Number 1 (sorry about labelling: taken from private notes) starts at the same junction where the West Curve meets the Slow Lines just south of Parkway Station. There is also a rising gradient of similar steepness onto an Elevated section. There is no junction where the lines meet at Railway Number 3: it is an either/or situation. Railway Number 3 then crosses the car distribution depot. Some temporary huts may have to be removed.
View attachment 187333
Map 3: A possible new elevated station at New Mersey. A bone of contention is that the line crosses the police compound, but I don't think this will be much of a problem. The line skirts the Propeller Roundabout, a local landmark.
View attachment 187334
Map 4: Railway Number 3 parallels Speke Hall Road on the eastern side before being involved with the demolition of a hut building being used be a tyre company. The line apparently splits. Again, there is no junction. Railway Number 4 retains its elevated stance. Railway Number 5 drops down to ground level and then below on a gradient of 1:80ish. This will become more clear on the next map.
View attachment 187335
Map 5: Railway Number 4 goes to an elevated station adjacent to the Hotel. Railway Number 5 drops into a cut-and-cover tunnel to a sub-surface station immediately outside the teminal. The yellow, unnumbered is a possible extension to the east.

I've checked the radii and they're all fine.
Railway Numbers 1,3 and 4 is by far the cheapest. No tunnelling, a tiny amount of land take and demolition only of industrial buildings.
Railway Number 2 and 5 is more expensive due to the tunnelling, but it is all cut and cover, and one does have to consider the lowness of the terrain and the proximity of the river when planning stuff like this. I am not a civil engineer by the way, but I did cover my school books with diagrams and designs for model railways...

Guessing this would be double track with OLE and ETCS signalling, what sort of line speed would you expect you could get out of it? Some very similar routing idea to what I originally thought of for the Heavy rail route.

The elevated station at the Airport would also allow for an extension to Hale.

 

[David Bullock]

There has been one and it was hardly used, hence it dropping to a shuttle now.

In fairness, the E Port-Leeds service when it existed ran twice a day and wasn’t advertised very well if at all from what I remember.

It also doesn’t help that Ellesmere Port isn’t very dense, so services starting at Ellesmere Port station might be a 40 minute walk for someone living across town.

Half hourly Liverpool-Helsby via E port would solve that a bit by calling at overpool and little Sutton. Timing it to connect with Manchester services and having local bus services feed into the stations could make a service like that a success I think but Cheshire West council don’t seem interested in sorting transport for Ellesmere Port so unlikely to happen

 

[Mr. SW]

Guessing this would be double track with OLE and ETCS signalling, what sort of line speed would you expect you could get out of it? Some very similar routing idea to what I originally thought of for the Heavy rail route.

My design was based on urban/metro systems so it won't be particularly fast. You probably won't break 40mph with a following wind. Take a look at the REM Montreal and imagine 777s on it.

The elevated station at the Airport would also allow for an extension to Hale.

Indeed, but it would put a viaduct right across the front of the terminal building. Keeping the line sub-surface (Railway Number 5) means an unobstructed view of the front of the airport and an improved aspect. Railway Number 4 stops short because it is obstructed by the hotel.

 

[BerkshireRails]

My design was based on urban/metro systems so it won't be particularly fast. You probably won't break 40mph with a following wind. Take a look at the REM Montreal and imagine 777s on it.

That would give a run time of around 10-12 minutes from Cressington to Liverpool Airport with the two station calls (6 minutes running and 4 minutes station calls). This is around a similar time it takes to driving and it is around 8-10 minutes faster than the quickest bus service.

 

[frodshamfella]

A tram train to the Airport is a reasonable idea, but I did think a year or two ago "Would it be possible to create a heavy-rail solution on a budget?" The answer is "Just About". Here are some piccies.
View attachment 187330
Map 1: Railway Number 2, branch off the Northern Line at Cressington that goes into a cut-and-cover covered way under the A561 to Dock Road, where it emerges using a sliver of land taken from the container depot. The line rises to an underbridge over Church Road keeping north of the line to the depot. There's a couple of pipes under the A561, bur as far as I can tell, no significant obstruction like a major sewer. A possible station site is indicated.
View attachment 187331
Map 2: Line line passes under the existing overbridge. It was originally built for four tracks, so this should be easy. "Diamonds" indicates where Railway Number 2 crosses the West Curve on the level. I couldn't find any alternative to doing this. Railway Number 2 then goes into a rising gradient of 1:50ish onto a extended viaduct/elevated section, where it crosses over the Garston Sidings. Railway Number 1 (sorry about labelling: taken from private notes) starts at the same junction where the West Curve meets the Slow Lines just south of Parkway Station. There is also a rising gradient of similar steepness onto an Elevated section. There is no junction where the lines meet at Railway Number 3: it is an either/or situation. Railway Number 3 then crosses the car distribution depot. Some temporary huts may have to be removed.
View attachment 187333
Map 3: A possible new elevated station at New Mersey. A bone of contention is that the line crosses the police compound, but I don't think this will be much of a problem. The line skirts the Propeller Roundabout, a local landmark.
View attachment 187334
Map 4: Railway Number 3 parallels Speke Hall Road on the eastern side before being involved with the demolition of a hut building being used be a tyre company. The line apparently splits. Again, there is no junction. Railway Number 4 retains its elevated stance. Railway Number 5 drops down to ground level and then below on a gradient of 1:80ish. This will become more clear on the next map.
View attachment 187335
Map 5: Railway Number 4 goes to an elevated station adjacent to the Hotel. Railway Number 5 drops into a cut-and-cover tunnel to a sub-surface station immediately outside the teminal. The yellow, unnumbered is a possible extension to the east.

I've checked the radii and they're all fine.
Railway Numbers 1,3 and 4 is by far the cheapest. No tunnelling, a tiny amount of land take and demolition only of industrial buildings.
Railway Number 2 and 5 is more expensive due to the tunnelling, but it is all cut and cover, and one does have to consider the lowness of the terrain and the proximity of the river when planning stuff like this. I am not a civil engineer by the way, but I did cover my school books with diagrams and designs for model railways...

Looks great, can you show the Mayor ; - )

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Aug 2025 ==

In fairness, the E Port-Leeds service when it existed ran twice a day and wasn’t advertised very well if at all from what I remember.

It also doesn’t help that Ellesmere Port isn’t very dense, so services starting at Ellesmere Port station might be a 40 minute walk for someone living across town.

Half hourly Liverpool-Helsby via E port would solve that a bit by calling at overpool and little Sutton. Timing it to connect with Manchester services and having local bus services feed into the stations could make a service like that a success I think but Cheshire West council don’t seem interested in sorting transport for Ellesmere Port so unlikely to happen

You would have thought, if it was feasible a station for Cheshire Oaks would be a very good idea, considering the amount of traffic it generates.

 

[Bertie the bus]

The Merseyrail extension to Preston is never going to happen. There is probably a 1 or 2% chance of extending Headbolt Land services to Wigan in the next 20 or so years and a less than 1% chance of the Skem extension in the same timeframe. The current plan is to run Wrexham – Liverpool services in about 9 years but 9 years is a very long time and plans can change which just leaves Helsby. As that would probably require little infrastructure work and would mainly just be running a service on a pretty much disused line it could conceivably be given the go-ahead as a purely political project even though it clearly shouldn’t and would certainly not be 4 tph.

 

[Trainbike46]

The Merseyrail extension to Preston is never going to happen. There is probably a 1 or 2% chance of extending Headbolt Land services to Wigan in the next 20 or so years and a less than 1% chance of the Skem extension in the same timeframe. The current plan is to run Wrexham – Liverpool services in about 9 years but 9 years is a very long time and plans can change which just leaves Helsby. As that would probably require little infrastructure work and would mainly just be running a service on a pretty much disused line it could conceivably be given the go-ahead as a purely political project even though it clearly shouldn’t and would certainly not be 4 tph.

what do you mean it "clearly shouldn't" regarding Ellesmere Port-Helsby?

It is a short extension, replacing a shuttle service that isn't particularly helpful for anyone with a direct service to Birkenhead and Liverpool for little cost seems like a great idea for passengers. From the sounds of it 4tph sounds a bit much, but an half-hourly extension would seem sensible.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The Merseyrail extension to Preston is never going to happen

Preston maybe not, but with expansion of Burscough and the possibility of saving a unit on the hourly Preston DMU service I really wouldn't be surprised to see Burscough Junction happen at some point. It would be quite low cost to do - it might even be possible to do it without an extra unit due to the slow running and long layovers on the Ormskirk line.

 

[BerkshireRails]

Preston maybe not, but with expansion of Burscough and the possibility of saving a unit on the hourly Preston DMU service I really wouldn't be surprised to see Burscough Junction happen at some point. It would be quite low cost to do - it might even be possible to do it without an extra unit due to the slow running and long layovers on the Ormskirk line.

Maybe the saved unit could be used to make it a half hourly service.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Maybe the saved unit could be used to make it a half hourly service.

I'm not sure there's the demand. North of Burscough (which is rapidly becoming a suburb of Ormskirk a bit like Aughton on the other side) it is a very rural setting. You could maybe justify using two units to do a Preston-Croston shuttle in the opposite half hour, though - with an end to end of just over 30 minutes for the full route it's an incredibly inefficient use of units. An attempt was made to run the Blackpool S-Colne-Ormskirk triangle with one unit fewer but it was a mess because there was nowhere near enough slack.

Half hourly on the whole line would also require redoubling or an extra loop.

 

[urbophile]

Preston maybe not, but with expansion of Burscough and the possibility of saving a unit on the hourly Preston DMU service I really wouldn't be surprised to see Burscough Junction happen at some point. It would be quite low cost to do - it might even be possible to do it without an extra unit due to the slow running and long layovers on the Ormskirk line.

The problem would be the likelihood of no funding from either Liverpool City Region (obviously), or Lancashire CC (especially as the latter is under Reform control).

 

[Bletchleyite]

The problem would be the likelihood of no funding from either Liverpool City Region (obviously), or Lancashire CC (especially as the latter is under Reform control).

Lancashire CC hasn't long to live anyway, the area is subject to upcoming unitarisation. It's in some ways a shame this won't bring West Lancs into the Liverpool City Region which could unlock such funding, but even so the politics of the area should change (and I don't doubt that a significant part of that Reform vote came from the East Lancashire area, which isn't planned to be part of the same unitary as West Lancs if I recall rightly).

I half wonder if British Rail had continued if they'd have done it themselves because of the potential saving and traffic growth. Particularly if they were (as was the case in the 80s) considering closing Ormskirk-Preston entirely - you could see them arguing that losing the rural bit is reasonable if it meant Burscough got a much improved service south.

 

[Bertie the bus]

what do you mean it "clearly shouldn't" regarding Ellesmere Port-Helsby?

It is a short extension, replacing a shuttle service that isn't particularly helpful for anyone with a direct service to Birkenhead and Liverpool for little cost seems like a great idea for passengers. From the sounds of it 4tph sounds a bit much, but an half-hourly extension would seem sensible.

It should be fairly obvious by what I mean. It would be a total waste of money and resource.

Preston maybe not, but with expansion of Burscough and the possibility of saving a unit on the hourly Preston DMU service I really wouldn't be surprised to see Burscough Junction happen at some point. It would be quite low cost to do - it might even be possible to do it without an extra unit due to the slow running and long layovers on the Ormskirk line.

You keep bringing this up but that won't happen either. Ormskirk is the logical break. Burscough might be a pleasant enough place but it is a nothing place. It isn't a destination and if people needed to change trains between Ormskirk and Preston - increasing the journey length and risk of missing the connection - it would decimate the ridership.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You keep bringing this up but that won't happen either. Ormskirk is the logical break. Burscough might be a pleasant enough place but it is a nothing place. It isn't a destination and if people needed to change trains between Ormskirk and Preston - increasing the journey length and risk of missing the connection - it would decimate the ridership.

Have you been to Burscough recently? It's expanding and gentrifying fast, starting to look a bit like the Didsbury of West Lancs. It isn't what it was 20 years ago, not at all.

It isn't a big destination (but then nor really is Ormskirk) but it is certainly an increasingly important origin for Liverpool travel to work, which will presently be driving to Ormskirk.

I'm not sure the relatively low traffic from Ormskirk to Preston should be prioritised over a potentially rather bigger flow. And the argument there is exactly the same as Headbolt - I assume you opposed that too?

 

[BerkshireRails]

Half hourly on the whole line would also require redoubling or an extra loop.

Extend the Rufford loop to Crosston but keep the passing at Rufford with the extension to Crosston proving the reliability for the single line.