Birkdale railway station

For the railway station in Australia, see Birkdale railway station, Brisbane. For the closed railway station in Birkdale, Merseyside, see Birkdale Palace railway station.

Birkdale railway station serves the Birkdale suburb of Southport, England. The station is located on the Southport branch of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line.

Birkdale
General information
Location	Birkdale, Sefton England
Coordinates	53.6340°N 3.0145°W / 53.6340; -3.0145
Grid reference	SD330157
Managed by	Merseyrail
Transit authority	Merseytravel
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	BDL
Fare zone	D1
Classification	DfT category E
History
Original company	Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway
Pre-grouping	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
31 July 1848 (1848-07-31)	Opened as Gilbert's Crossing
By December 1848	Relocated
1852	Replaced on present site
1854	Renamed Birkdale Park
1865	Renamed Birkdale
28 November 1966	Closed for goods
Passengers
2018/19	1.258 million
2019/20	1.362 million
2020/21	0.337 million
2021/22	0.852 million
2022/23	0.975 million
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

Birkdale railway station opened as Gilbert's Crossing on 24 July 1848 when the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway (LC&SR) opened its single-track line from Waterloo to Southport Eastbank Street.^[1]

The location of the first station is unknown but it is likely it was located at the road crossing the line north of "Old Gilbert's".^[1] It was not open for long and by December 1848 had moved to where the road crossed the line at "Old Gilbert's", the OS map of 1847 showing the station between "Old Gilbert's Birkdale" and "Bond's House", approximately opposite the current Dunkirk Road.^[a][4]

The line was subsequently extended to Liverpool Exchange in 1850 and Southport Chapel Street in 1851. The line was doubled by September 1852.^[5]

This station opened sometime in 1851 or 1852. ^[b][1][6][7] The station was renamed Birkdale Park in 1854 to better reflect the area it served. It was renamed to Birkdale in 1865.^[1]

The station, described as "substantial and ornate" is located on the south side of Weld/Liverpool Road where the road crosses the railway via a level crossing,^[c] in 1890 there were booking offices and waiting rooms on both sides of the line with gabled glazed canopies supported by iron columns, which once ran almost the full length of the platforms, sometime after 1954 they were shortened to six bays on the down platform and four bays on the up side, giving it the character of a small country town station rather than a suburban one, the two platforms were connected with a subway adjacent to the road.^{[d][9][10][11][12]}

The signal box adjacent to the station, in use between 1905 and 1994, is a Grade II listed building.^[13] There was a goods yard to the north of the level crossing behind the signal box equipped with a one and half ton crane, there was an additional siding behind the Liverpool side platform.^[14]

The 1851/1852 station building had a tablet inscribed “Birkdale Station", it was demolished in 1968.^[e][16] The goods yard closed on 28 November 1966.^[17]

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway amalgamated with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922 and in turn was Grouped into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. Nationalisation followed in 1948.^[18]

In 1978 the station became part of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line (operated by British Rail until privatised in 1995).^[19]

Facilities

The station is staffed, during all opening hours, and has platform CCTV. There is a booking office and live departure and arrival screens, for passenger information. There is car parking for 90 cars, secure cycle storage for 24 cycles and cycle racks for a further 26 cycles. A subway links both platforms but both platforms can be accessed without steps via the level crossing.^[20]

Services

Trains operate every 15 minutes throughout the day from Monday to Saturday to Southport to the north, and to Hunts Cross via Liverpool Central to the south. Sunday services are every 30 minutes in each direction.^[21]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Southport		Merseyrail Northern Line		Hillside towards Hunts Cross
	Historical railways
Southport		Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway		Ainsdale towards Liverpool Exchange

Gallery

• 
  Birkdale railway station from Liverpool Road 2012.
• 
  Birkdale Station, entrance on Liverpool Road 1964.
• 
  Birkdale Station 2013
• 
  Birkdale Station 2013

References

Notes

1. Little is known of these early stations, they are not mentioned in any of the newspaper announcements on the opening of the line, nor in the early timetables, see for example Bradshaw (1850).^[2] The timetable shown in a local newspaper in 1850 shows the station, named "Birkdale" but with no trains stopping there. It may be that the company were referring to Birkdale station at Gilbert's Crossing.^[3]
2. Foster (1995) states the station moved in 1851.^[6] Quick (2023) notes that the LC&SR issued orders on 3 August 1852 to open ‘forthwith’ the new station at Birkdale.^[1] There was also a March 1852 newspaper item saying the new Birkdale station is nearly completed. ^[7]
3. The railway appears to be place where Weld Road becomes Liverpool Road
4. Up trains usually headed towards the major conurbation, usually London, some railway companies ran 'up' to their headquarters location. In this case 'up' was towards Liverpool.^[8]
5. Harrop has the demolition date as 1966.^[15]

Citations

1. Quick 2023, p. 82.
2. Bradshaw 2012, p. 46.
3. "Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway Notice: Alteration of Trains". Liverpool Albion. 17 June 1850. p. 1. Retrieved 7 July 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
4. Lancashire Sheet LXXXIII (Map). Six-inch. Ordnance Survey. 1847.
5. Gahan 1985, p. 21.
6. Foster 1995, p. 40.
7. "Southport: Railway". Preston Chronicle. 27 March 1852. p. 7. Retrieved 6 July 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
8. Simmons 1997, p. 548.
9. Southport - Lancashire LXXV.13.14 (Map). 1:500 Town Plan. Ordnance Survey. 1890.
10. Greenwood 1990, p. 31.
11. Gahan 1985, p. 90.
12. Bolger 1994, pp. 20–21.
13. Historic England, "Birkdale Signal Box (1412052)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 28 January 2016
14. The Railway Clearing House 1970, p. 54.
15. Harrop 1985, p. 145.
16. Foster 1995, p. 30.
17. Clinker 1978, p. 126.
18. Ferneyhough 1975, pp. 164 & 176–177.
19. Pettitt & Comfort 2015, pp. 59 & 171.
20. "Birkdale train station | timetable | ticket prices & facilities". www.merseyrail.org. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
21. Table 82 National Rail timetable, May 2023

Bibliography

• Bolger, Paul (1994). Merseyside and District Railway Stations. The Bluecoat Press.
• Bradshaw, George (2012) [March 1850]. Bradshaw's Rail Times for Great Britain and Ireland March 1850: A reprint of the classic timetable complete with period advertisements and shipping connections to all parts. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 9781908174130.
• Clinker, C. R. (October 1978). Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830–1977. Bristol: Avon-Anglia Publications & Services. ISBN 0-905466-19-5. OCLC 5726624.
• Ferneyhough, Frank (1975). The History of Railways in Britain. Reading: Osprey. ISBN 0-85045-060-8. OCLC 2120140.
• Foster, Harry (1995). New Birkdale. Southport: Birkdale and Ainsdale Historical Research Society. ISBN 0-9510905-1-8.
• Gahan, John W. (1985). Seaport to Seaside: Lines to Southport and Ormskirk - 13 decades of trains and travel. Countryvise. ISBN 978-0-907768-07-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link)
• Greenwood, Cedric (1990). Thatch, towers and colonnades : the story of architecture in Southport. Preston: Carnegie Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-948789-64-9. OCLC 1412564057.
• Harrop, Sylvia (1985). Old Birkdale and Ainsdale: Life on the South West Lancashire coast 1600-1851. Birkdale, Southport: Birkdale and Ainsdale Historical Research Society. ISBN 0-9510905-0-X.
• Pettitt, Gordon; Comfort, Nicholas (2015). The Regional Railways Story. Oxford Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-86093-663-3.
• Quick, Michael (2023) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF). version 5.05. Railway & Canal Historical Society.
• Simmons, Jack (1997). "'up' and 'down'". In Simmons, Jack; Biddle, Gordon (eds.). The Oxford Companion to British Railway History From 1603 to the 1990s (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 548. ISBN 0-19-211697-5.
• The Railway Clearing House (1970) [1904]. The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations 1904 (1970 D&C Reprint ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles Reprints. ISBN 0-7153-5120-6.

External links

• Train times and station information for Birkdale railway station from National Rail
• Station information for Birkdale railway station from Merseyrail