The Kirkby Branch Line is a branch railway line from Wigan to Kirkby. The line's original route was from Liverpool to Bury and later the most northern of the Liverpool to Manchester lines. The line was split at Kirkby in 1977 with the western section forming a high frequency branch of the electrified Merseyrail Northern Line, also referred to as the Kirkby branch line. The Kirkby branch to Wigan remained a low frequency (one train per hour) diesel operated service by Northern Trains from Headbolt Lane to Manchester.
History
The Liverpool and Bury Railway built the first line into Liverpool from the north. It ran from Bury via the towns of Bolton and Wigan, reaching the city of Liverpool in 1848. Soon afterwards, the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway's route to Preston was built sharing the L&BR line as far as Walton. Mergers meant that the Bury route was built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, which had taken over the Liverpool and Bury Railway company. The opening ceremony took place on 20 November 1848.
With the creation of the Merseyrail metro and the closure of the route's former terminus at Liverpool Exchange in 1977 through trains to Liverpool from the Wigan direction ceased. It had originally been intended that the line be electrified all the route from Liverpool to Wigan creating a terminal of the Merseyrail Northern Line at Wigan Wallgate. Wigan North Western is a terminal of Merseyrail's City Line. Only the section between Liverpool and Kirkby was electrified in 1977 as a part of the Merseyrail scheme. Kirkby station was reconstructed as a terminus for Merseyrail's Northern Line Kirkby branch and the Manchester to Kirkby line. Services between Wigan and Kirkby were provided by diesel-powered trains. Passengers from the Manchester direction continuing beyond Kirkby into Liverpool change at Kirkby joining a Merseyrail-operated electric metro train. It is a long-term aspiration of Merseyrail to complete the electrification of the Northern Line to Wigan. Merseytravel also hope to use the route as part of rail link to the town of Skelmersdale, which has been cut off from the national network since 1956 and is now one of the largest towns in North West England without a passenger rail service.
Proposals to extend Merseyrail's Northern Line to a new terminal station at Headbolt Lane, between Kirkby and Rainford, were announced in 2007 but did not receive funding.
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority announced in August 2019 that they were planning to use part of a £172m funding package into opening a new station at Headbolt Lane, subject to the plans being approved. This would relocate the Merseyrail and Northern terminal from Kirkby to Headbolt Lane station. Work to facilitate this was completed in October 2023, with the new station openening to traffic on 5 October 2023. Headbolt Lane became the new terminal interchange for the line on that date.
Route description
The former main line is now "something of a backwater", with the appearance of a rural branch line in places.