Aintree railway station

For a guide to the various Aintree stations that have existed and their relationship to each other see Aintree Stations.

Aintree

Location
Place	Aintree
Local authority	Sefton
Coordinates	53°28′26″N 2°57′23″W / 53.4740°N 2.9563°W / 53.4740; -2.9563Coordinates: 53°28′26″N 2°57′23″W / 53.4740°N 2.9563°W / 53.4740; -2.9563
Grid reference	SJ366978
Operations
Station code	AIN
Managed by	Merseyrail
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11	1.197 million
2011/12	1.147 million
2012/13	1.108 million
2013/14	1.142 million
2014/15	1.084 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Merseytravel
Zone	C1/C3
History
2 April 1849	Station opens
?	Renamed Aintree Sefton Arms
6 May 1968	Renamed Aintree
National Rail – UK railway stations

* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Aintree from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Merseyrail map

Aintree railway station is a railway station in Aintree, Merseyside, England. It is on the Ormskirk branch of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line. Until 1968 it was known as Aintree Sefton Arms after a nearby public house. The station's design reflects the fact it is the closest station to Aintree Racecourse, where the annual Grand National horse race takes place.

History

Opened by the East Lancashire Railway in April 1849, then taken over by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway ten years later, it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The line then passed on to the London Midland Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

The L&YR electrified both routes from Liverpool Exchange in 1906 (two years after a successful trial of the system on the neighbouring line to Southport),^[1] extending it subsequently as far as Ormskirk by 1913. The western end of the North Mersey Branch from Gladstone Dock & Bootle (which had opened in 1866 and joined the main line immediately south of the station) was also equipped with the third rail in 1914, though Gladstone Dock station only remained open for passenger trains until July 1924. Services henceforth ran only to Bootle Oriel Road and on to Exchange until they were withdrawn by the British Transport Commission on 2 April 1951.^[2] The main line via Walton was also used by longer distance local & express trains from Exchange to Preston, Blackpool, Scotland and East Lancashire in addition to the intensive electric commuter service and some of these also stopped at Aintree, especially when the nearby race course hosted the famous Grand National meeting.

The Ormskirk line wasn't included in the list of routes to be closed in the 1963 Beeching Report (unlike the other two routes from Liverpool Exchange), but the route was subsequently reviewed by BR and reprieved in 1966.^[1] This came at some cost though, as all through trains between Liverpool, Preston and East Lancashire were to be either re-routed via Wigan North Western to Liverpool Lime Street or withdrawn altogether. These alterations were mainly carried out in 1969, with all through running beyond Ormskirk ceasing from 4 May 1970.^[1] Exchange then closed to passengers on 30 April 1977,^[1] with services henceforth being integrated into the Merseyrail Northern Line and running via the new Link tunnel to Liverpool Central from the following Monday (2 May).

The North Mersey line lost its connection into the docks in 1971, though it remained in use to serve a permanent way depot at Fazakerley until 1987 and for periodic engineers trains to/from Bootle & Edge Hill thereafter. It has seen no traffic since 2005, but Merseytravel has long term ambitions to reopen it to passenger trains (as stated in the Liverpool City Region Long Term Rail Strategy published in 2014^[3]).

When Sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Regional Railways on behalf of the Merseyside PTE until the Privatisation of British Railways.

Services

On Mondays to Saturdays, trains run every 15 minutes towards Liverpool Central and every 15 minutes towards Ormskirk. On race days, the trains have 6 carriages (two trains coupled together). During the Grand National meeting, additional trains run to the station from Liverpool city centre. Connections for stations to Preston are available at Ormskirk.

In the evening and on Sundays, trains call every 30 minutes in each direction.^[4]

Gallery

An LMS 630v EMU approaching in 1959.
The view south along the Liverpool-bound platform.
The station building viewed from the car park.
A Merseyrail Class 507 departs with a service.

References

1 2 3 4 "Disused Stations - Liverpool ExchangeDisused Stations; Retrieved 29 March 2016
↑ "Disused Stations - Linacre RoadDisused Stations; Retrieved 29 March 2016
↑ "Merseytravel plan to open or reopen host of new stations" Shennan, P; Liverpool Echo news article 28 August 2014; Retrieved 29 March 2016
↑ GB eNRT 2015-2016 Edition, Table 105

Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.
Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 0-9068-9999-0. OCLC 228266687.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aintree railway station.

Train times and station information for Aintree railway station from National Rail

Station information for Aintree railway station from Merseyrail

Preceding station	National Rail		Following station
Old Roan towards Ormskirk		Merseyrail Northern Line	Orrell Park towards Liverpool Central
	Disused railways
Terminus		Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway North Mersey Branch	Ford

Railway stations in Merseyside

Knowsley	Halewood Huyton Kirkby Prescot Roby Whiston

Liverpool (city centre stations in italics)	Aigburth Bank Hall Broad Green Brunswick Cressington Edge Hill Fazakerley Hunts Cross James Street Kirkdale Liverpool Central Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool South Parkway Moorfields Mossley Hill Orrell Park Rice Lane St Michaels Sandhills Walton Wavertree Technology Park West Allerton

Sefton	Ainsdale Aintree Birkdale Blundellsands & Crosby Bootle New Strand Bootle Oriel Road Formby Freshfield Hall Road Hightown Hillside Maghull Meols Cop Old Roan Seaforth & Litherland Southport Waterloo

St Helens	Earlestown Eccleston Park Garswood Lea Green Newton-le-Willows Rainford Rainhill St Helens Central St Helens Junction Thatto Heath

Wirral	Bebington Beechwood (proposed) Bidston Birkenhead Central Birkenhead North Birkenhead Park Bromborough Bromborough Rake Conway Park Eastham Rake Green Lane Hamilton Square Heswall Hoylake Leasowe Manor Road Meols Moreton New Brighton Port Sunlight Rock Ferry Spital Upton Wallasey Grove Road Wallasey Village West Kirby Woodchurch (proposed)

Outside Merseyside, but within the Merseytravel area	Hooton Hough Green Town Green Aughton Park Ormskirk

Transport in Merseyside Merseytravel Merseyrail

Merseyrail Northern Line Stations

Southport–Hunts Cross Branch	Hunts Cross Liverpool South Parkway Cressington Aigburth St Michaels Brunswick (St James – proposed) Liverpool Central Moorfields Sandhills Bank Hall Bootle Oriel Road Bootle New Strand Seaforth & Litherland Waterloo Blundellsands & Crosby Hall Road Hightown Formby Freshfield Ainsdale Hillside Birkdale Southport

Ormskirk Branch	Liverpool Central Moorfields Sandhills Kirkdale Walton Orrell Park Aintree Old Roan Maghull Town Green Aughton Park Ormskirk

Kirkby Branch	Liverpool Central Moorfields Sandhills Kirkdale Rice Lane Fazakerley Kirkby (Headbolt Lane – proposed)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.