Birkenhead Hamilton Square railway station

## Birkenhead Hamilton Square

Platforms 1 and 2.

**Birkenhead Hamilton Square railway station** is situated near Hamilton Square in Birkenhead, Wirral, on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network. It is an underground station, the platforms being reached by lifts from the surface.

In addition to local Merseyrail services to Liverpool Central, West Kirby, New Brighton, Clatterbridge, Ellesmere Port, and it hosts intercity and cross-country services to national destinations including Chester, Manchester, Crewe, Birmingham, Southampton and Bristol.

## History

Hamilton Square station was built by the Mersey Railway and opened on 1 February 1886. The station building was designed by G.E. Grayson in Italianate style, and has been designated as a Grade II listed building. It stood on that railway's original route from James Street station in Liverpool to Green Lane, later extended to Rock Ferry and Birkenhead Park. Just south of the station, the lines towards Rock Ferry and Birkenhead Park diverge; this junction was originally built as a flat crossing.

With the platforms being at a deep level, three hydraulic lifts were provided to transport passengers from ground level to the platforms and back, as well as flights of steps. Each lift was able to accommodate up to 100 passengers at a time and took 45 seconds to travel in each direction. The lifts were installed by Easton and Anderson.

The first electric train passenger service ran through the station on 3 May 1903, with a 650v DC fourth rail system and Mersey Railway electric units built by Westinghouse. Despite the journey being far quicker than travel aboard the Mersey Ferry service, passengers were not keen on travelling underground due to the smoke from the previous coal-powered steam locomotives. A *Frequent electric trains* sign was erected on the outside of the station's large hydraulic lift tower (slightly below the position of the present sign) to publicise these cleaner trains. The booking hall had a central ticket office, as was popular on the London Underground.

In the 1970s, as part of the expansion programme of the Merseyrail network, a burrowing junction was built at Hamilton Square so that trains heading towards New Brighton and West Kirby did not have to cross the path of trains coming from Rock Ferry on the flat crossing. Along with the construction of the loop tunnel in the centre of Liverpool, this improved the capacity of the Wirral Line, allowing increased train frequencies. The burrowing junction required the construction of a new 2037ft-long tunnel, dug at a depth of between 77ft and 113ft, between Hamilton Square and Lorn Street and directly beneath the Town Hall and Market Street.

As part of the project, Hamilton Square gained a new platform (Platform 3) for New Brighton and West Kirby services, and the rest of the station was refurbished. The signal box was closed on 9 May 1977, when the burrowing junction and platform came into use. Unfortunately, this investment coincided with the significant decline in employment in Central Liverpool and surrounding areas, patronage fell, and the peak hour train service provided nowadays through the extensive grade-separated tunnel junctions is notably less than was provided in the 1960s-70s, just using the flat junction.

## Services

**Merseyrail**

**Northern**

**CrossCountry**

* Hourly services to Bournemouth call at Bromborough, Chester, Crewe, Stafford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham International, Coventry, Leamington Spa, Banbury, Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, and Brockenhurst.
* Hourly services to Exeter St. Davids call at Chester, Crewe, Stafford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham New Street, Bromsgrove, Cheltenham Spa, Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads, Taunton, and Tiverton Parkway. Some services additionally call at Gloucester or/and Weston-super-Mare or/and continue to Plymouth or Paignton.

All CrossCountry services are operated by Class 220 *Voyager* and Class 221 *Super Voyager* units.

## External links

Template:Merseyside railway stations