About the Wrexham-Bidston Line​
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The Wrexham-Bidston line is just over 27 miles in length, it serves 15 stations from Wrexham Central in North East Wales to Bidston located on the Wirral Peninsular. The passenger service forms part of the Wales and Borders franchise which is currently managed by Transport for Wales. There is a limited amount of freight; steel traffic between South Wales and Dee Marsh yard and material into and out of Padeswood Cement Works near Penyffordd.
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The Route
The existing line evolved in four sections:
Wrexham General to Buckley in 1866
(Wrexham, Mold and Connah’s Quay Railway)
Wrexham General to Wrexham Central in 1887
(Wrexham, Mold and Connah’s Quay Railway)
Buckley to Dee Marsh in 1890
(Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway)
Dee Marsh to Bidston in 1896
(North Wales and Liverpool Railway)
All three companies had merged into the Great Central Railway by 1897 which became the LNER in 1923 and then nationalised as British Railways (Eastern Region) in 1948
The passenger service on the completed system operated on a triangular basis.
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Wrexham to Chester Northgate and Seacombe
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Seacombe to Wrexham and Chester
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Chester to Seacombe and Wrexham.
This pattern continued over many years using a succession of small tank locomotives.
Dieselisation of passenger services occurred in the late fifties and, with the closure of the Seacombe branch in 1960, services were diverted to New Brighton.
Following closure of Chester Northgate in 1969, the service was reduced to the current Wrexham-Bidston service (although for a brief period in the 1970s it was extended to Birkenhead North).
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