Upton railway station

Upton railway station serves the village of Upton, and the Noctorum area of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. The station is situated on the Borderlands line. Transport for Wales operates the station and all trains serving it.

This article is about the station in Upton, England. For other stations of the name, see Upton station (disambiguation).

Upton
LocationUpton, Wirral
England
Grid referenceSJ279882
Managed byTransport for Wales
Transit authorityMerseytravel
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeUPT
Fare zoneB1
ClassificationDfT category F2
Key dates
1896Opened
Passengers
2015/16 31,658
2016/17 32,740
2017/18 33,634
2018/19 23,406
2019/20 22,502
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

Upton Station was opened to passengers on 18 May 1896, as part of the Dee and Birkenhead Railway.[1] The station became part of the North Wales and Liverpool Railway, less than three months later, on 7 July 1896.[1]

The station had a booking office on the road bridge which spans the two platforms.[2][3][4] Staffing ended on 20 April 1969,[5] with the booking office removed during redevelopment of the station and expansion of the road bridge in the 1970s. The station had a brick-built waiting room situated on each platform.[4][6]

Freight and goods

Adjacent to the station there was a coal and goods yard with a cattle pen.[7] From 1 February 1965, the goods yard only handled coal, and closed on 28 April 1969.[7] The site of the goods yard now has a Co-operative supermarket. Access to the yard was operated by a small signal box with a 24-lever frame, which was used until 25 June 1969.[8] The signal box was situated at the southern end of the Bidston-bound platform.[9]

Iron ore freight trains also passed through the station.[3][9] These freight trains operated from Bidston Dock to the John Summers steelworks in Shotton. The Class 9F locomotive 92203, later named as Black Prince, worked the final steam-hauled iron ore train in November 1967.[10][11][12] The freight service itself ended around 1980.

Future

Proposals have been put forward to electrify the track as part of the proposed Borderlands line electrification scheme. Merseyrail would like to see the line electrified and incorporated into the Wirral line to link with its own third-rail service, with a doubling of the frequency of services.[13] This would allow the station to serve as a part of a direct service to Liverpool.

Transport for Wales have an Adopt a Station initiative. Upton station is on their list of adopted stations and has been adopted by a member, or members, of the public.[14]

In June 2018 it was announced that, as part of the new KeolisAmey operation of the Wales & Borders franchise, the frequency of trains on the line would increase to 2tph from December 2021.[15]

Facilities

The station facilities are somewhat rudimentary. Although longer, each platform is surfaced to receive four carriages only.[16] The station is unstaffed at nearly all times, but has platform CCTV.[17] Each of the two platforms has a waiting shelter with seating. There is no payphone or booking office, but there are electronic departure and arrival screens for live information to passengers. There is no official station car park, but very limited parking outside the station, at the drop-off point, on the old Ford Road bridge. Wheelchair and pram access to each of the two platforms is possible, and relatively easy, via the ramp-staircases. Though, as yet, platform access has not been modernised to the standard of that at Hooton.

Services

From Monday to Saturday, there is an hourly service between Bidston and Wrexham Central (two-hourly in the evening and on Bank Holidays).[18] There is a service every 90 minutes each way on Sundays. Services are timed according to a Class 153 Super Sprinter DMU,[19] although usually provided by a Transport for Wales Class 150/2 Sprinter DMU.

  • View of the station from the bridge
  • An Arriva Trains Wales Class 150 departs with a service to Bidston, behind which is one of the easy-access ramps.
  • The station overbridge, looking towards Bidston.
  • A view of the two platforms and bridge.

References
  1. Jermy 1987, p. 29
  2. Merseyside Railway History Group 1994, p. 59
  3. Flickr - 92xxx Upton Stn. 19.7.67 Accessed 2014-06-07
  4. Mitchell & Smith 2013, fig. 93
  5. Mitchell & Smith 2013, fig. 95
  6. Shannon & Hillmer 2002, p. 122
  7. Mitchell & Smith 2013, map XXXII
  8. Mitchell & Smith 2013, fig. 94
  9. Flickr - 92057 Upton Stn. 19.7.67 Accessed 2014-06-07
  10. "The Famous Black Prince". oldsteamers.com. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  11. "Memories of Bank Hall, Birkenhead & Beyond, Part Two, as recalled by Mal Pratt, Birkenhead 1966 - 1968". derbysulzers.com. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  12. "Black Prince Steam Locomotive". The Olden Days - A Trip Down Memory Lane. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  13. Salveson, Paul. "Bidston to the Borderlands" (PDF). Today's Railways UK (116): 50. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  14. https://tfwrail.wales/adopt-station-scheme
  15. "What's Happening in North Wales | Transport for Wales". tfw.gov.wales. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  16. Mitchell & Smith 2013, fig. 96
  17. Station Facilities for Upton (Merseyside) Accessed 2013-12-18
  18. GB eNRT May 2017 Edition, Table 101
  19. "Passenger train services Section CF04 Wrexham to Bidston" (PDF). Network Rail. 21 May 2018.

Sources
  • Jermy, Roger C. (1987). A Portrait of Wirral's Railways. Birkenhead: Countryvise. ISBN 0-907768-17-2. OCLC 18682851.
  • Merseyside Railway History Group (1994). Railway Stations of Wirral. Prenton: Ian & Marilyn Boumphrey. ISBN 1-899241-02-7. OCLC 500124599.
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2013). Wrexham to New Brighton. West Sussex: Middleton Press. ISBN 9781908174475. OCLC 859543196.
  • Shannon, Paul; Hillmer, John (2002). Liverpool and Wirral. British Railways Past and Present, 39. Kettering: Past and Present Publishing. ISBN 1-85895-199-2. OCLC 57393951.

Upton Station is on the list of stations adopted as part of the Adopt a Station initiative of Transport for Wales.

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Heswall   Transport for Wales
Borderlands Line		   Bidston
  Historical railways  
Storeton   Great Central Railway
North Wales and Liverpool Railway		   Bidston

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