The City Line (sometimes City Lines) is the brand name used by

Merseytravel Merseytravel is a public transport body and the passenger transport executive of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority responsible for delivering Public transport and other transport functions in the Liverpool City Region. It was origin ...

on commuter rail services connecting the

Liverpool City Region The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority area in North West England. It has six council areas: the five metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside (Liverpool, Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Knowsley, Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, St H ...

(

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

and Halton) with

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

starting eastwards from the mainline platforms of

Liverpool Lime Street railway station Liverpool Lime Street is a railway station complex located on Lime Street, Liverpool, Lime Street in Liverpool city centre. Although publicly a single, unified station, it is operationally divided into two official railway stations: Liv ...

. The term covers most of the Liverpool City Region sections of the Crewe–Liverpool line, the two Liverpool–Manchester lines and the Liverpool–Wigan line, with services continuing to Warrington, Chester via Runcorn and Blackpool and Preston via Wigan. It is mainly operated by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, Trade name, trading as Northern, is a British train operating company that operates Commuter rail, commuter and Inter-city rail, medium-distance intercity services in the North of England. It is owned by DfT Operator for the Dep ...

, with additional long-distance services operated by

TransPennine Express TransPennine Trains Limited, trading as TransPennine Express (TPE), is a British train operating company that has operated passenger services in the TransPennine Express franchise area since May 2023. It runs regional and inter-city rail ser ...

, Avanti West Coast,

East Midlands Railway East Midlands Railway (EMR; legally Transport UK East Midlands Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Transport UK Group, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. Originally owned by Abellio (transport compan ...

, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains. Unlike the other two Merseytravel-supervised lines, the Merseyrail Northern and Wirral lines, the City Line is not operated by

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network which serves Merseyside and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire in the North West England, North West of England. Merseyrail serves 69 Railway station, stations, 67 of which it manages, across two lin ...

, however most of the line's stations within the Liverpool City Region are in Merseytravel's Merseyrail branding. The line is usually depicted on Merseytravel signage and maps using the colour red.

History

The City Line can trace its origins back to the dawn of the railway era, as it incorporates most of the route of the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It ...

, opened in 1830 and including Broad Green Station, the oldest operating station in the world. Other early railway companies whose lines are now part of the City Line include the Cheshire Lines Committee and the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

. These disparate local railway services were not marketed under a common name until 1972, when Merseyside PTE introduced the Merseyrail brand for services which were operated by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

on its behalf. The PTE applied the City Line name to local services out of Liverpool's main station at Lime Street. Around this time, ambitious plans were floated to electrify parts of the City Line and incorporate it into the

Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...

, via the Wapping Tunnel from Edge Hill to Liverpool Central. However, after work started, they were abandoned, and to this day the suburbs of eastern Liverpool have no direct route to other suburbs of the city without changing to the underground network at Lime Street. In the 1990s, as part of the Government's rail privatisation, the City Line services became part of the North Western Trains franchise (later taken over by

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.First North Western). In 2004, the First North Western franchise was merged with that of neighbouring train company Arriva Trains Northern to create a new franchise covering the north of England. The new franchise was won by

Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated the ...

, owned by the Serco-Abellio consortium (who, coincidentally, had been named as the operators of the Merseyrail Electrics franchise a year earlier).

Description

The City Line comprises routes are shared with local and inter-city express services. The lines which make up the City Line are: * Liverpool–Wigan line (and onward to Preston via the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

) * Liverpool–Manchester lines (Middle and Southern Routes, including the branch to Warrington Bank Quay) * Crewe–Liverpool line (and onward to Birmingham New Street via the

)

Services

Services on the City Line are provided by Northern,

, Avanti West Coast,

, Transport for Wales, and West Midlands Trains. Monday to Saturday daytimes, most stations are served by a train every half-hour on core sections of route. Some smaller stations are served only by one train per hour. Services are less frequent in the evenings. Timetables are produced by Merseytravel. Typical off-peak weekday service is as follows:

Branding

Merseytravel's local rail network map shows how the

and its immediate neighbours are served by the various local rail services. It displays the Merseyrail Northern and Wirral Lines alongside the City Line, with contact details for Merseyrail, plus

and all of the individual operators who provide services on the City Line. Due to the division between local transport operator

and regional franchise operator Northern Trains, the City Line is inconsistently branded. Timetables published by Merseytravel displayed at stations use the City Line branding referring to several operators, whilst Northern Trains (and other operators using parts of the same routes) do not refer to the line in their own publicity or onboard trains. Additionally, main line stations operated by Merseytravel carry

branding, despite being separate from the electric

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

network and being absent from some official Merseyrail maps.

Trains

There were 17 Class 142 diesel powered Pacer units painted in the PTE's yellow livery, ostensibly for use on City Line services. However, they were not dedicated to Merseyside operations and could often be seen working on other

services outside the Merseyside area. Conversely, Class 142s in other liveries could previously be frequently seen working Lime Street City Line services. Some longer-distance City Line services are diagrammed for Class 150, Class 156 and Class 195 units. On 28 February 2007 Merseytravel announced a new deal with

and

Angel Trains Angel Trains is a British rolling stock company (ROSCO). Together with Eversholt Rail Group and Porterbrook, it is one of the three original ROSCOs. Angel Trains was established in March 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. In No ...

, which would see four Pacers taken out of service and replaced by six Class 156 units. The higher capacity of the 156s assisted in tackling overcrowding. This new arrangement began with the May 2007 timetable.

Future

Electrification of the City Line

Formerly the only section of City Line route electrified was between Lime Street and Liverpool South Parkway, which is used by Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway Electric Multiple Units. The line from Liverpool to Manchester via Newton-le-Willows was electrified, along with the Liverpool–Wigan line, opening in early 2015. Four electrified tracks are operative from Broad Green Station to Huyton Station. This is to allow a fast uninterrupted service from Liverpool to Manchester and slower electric urban trains to operate on segregated tracks from Liverpool to Wigan. Merseyrail City Line trains run on this section of track.

operate the trains on this electrified section of tracks.

Bootle branch line

The

Canada Dock Branch The Canada Dock Branch is a 4-mile 59 chain (7.62 kilometre) long railway line in Liverpool, England. The line's route is from the large Edge Hill rail junction in the east of Liverpool to Seaforth Dock to the north. The line was originally ...

line, also known as the Bootle branch line, is a line running from Edge Hill Junction in the east of the city in a long curve to Canada Dock in the north of the city. The line meets Merseyrail's Northern Line at a junction between and stations. The line's last remaining passenger services were withdrawn in 1977, however the line remains busy with freight to Seaforth Dock and its container terminal and

Liverpool2 Liverpool2 is a container terminal extension adjoining the River Mersey in Seaforth, Merseyside, Seaforth, Merseyside. The extension, built by Peel Ports, officially opened on 4 November 2016 and is an expansion of the Seaforth Dock container te ...

container terminal. If the line was reopened to passengers, it would allow the reopening of stations along its length: , , ,

Tuebrook Tuebrook (or Tue Brook; locally ) is an area in the north-east of Liverpool, England. At the 2001 census the population was 14,490. Toponymy The origin of the name may be Tew Brook, a tributary of the Alt. The brook itself is now almost ent ...

, and . The line from Edge Lane would continue through to Edge Hill station and terminate at Lime Street. Network Rail have investigated options for the Canada Dock Branch in their Route Utilisation Strategy for Merseyside and have concluded that the expected benefits do not justify the investment in new infrastructure. It had been suggested that

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

could assist in funding the reopening of this line to provide a direct link to their proposed extension of the

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

stadium. The Department for Transport's Rail electrification document of July 2009, states that the route to Liverpool Docks will be electrified. The Canada Dock Branch Line is the only line into the docks. From the document: :''70. Electrification of this route will offer electric haulage options for freight.'' :''There will be an alternative route to Liverpool docks for electrically-operated freight trains, and better opportunities of electrified access to the proposed freight terminal at Parkside near Newton-le-Willows.'' The electrification of this line would greatly assist in recommissioning passenger trains, as costs would be reduced.

References

External links

Merseytravel
{{Railway lines in North West England Rail transport in Liverpool Railway lines in North West England Rail transport in Merseyside