The North Mersey Branch is a railway line that connected the Liverpool and Bury Railway at Fazakerley Junction with the Gladstone Dock. It was opened in 1867 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

 

From 1896 there was a junction to the Liverpool Overhead Railway between North Mersey Branch Junction and Gladstone Dock.

Aintree Racecourse station opened around 1890 and saw its last service on 31 March 1962. It only operated on race days at Aintree Racecourse. Gladstone Dock station opened on 7 September 1914, when the section of track from North Mersey Branch Junction was electrified, and closed on 7 July 1924. Two more stations on the line opened on 1 June 1906 Ford & Linacre Road with the electrification of the line, these closed on 2 April 1951. There was also a terminus station at Marsh Lane that was short lived and closed in 1893 and was later used for goods.

 

The section of the line between Sefton Junction and North Mersey Branch Junction is still maintained to basic Network Rail operational standards, although has no scheduled passenger services.

Occasional diesel-powered engineering/maintenance trains still use the branch to access the Southport line, without the need to reverse at Sandhills.

For trains to access the branch, a key must first be obtained in advance from the Merseyrail IECC signalling centre which unlocks the gate allowing access to & from the branch line at Aintree.

The line is largely single track and is not electrified.

 

Plans to open this section as part of Merseyrail's Northern Line have been put forward in Sefton's transport plan, with the first details to emerge about its possible reopening being published by the media on 28 February 2008. The Crosby Herald newspaper reported that the line could be reopened in conjunction with Liverpool new stadium, to provide additional transport links via the town of Litherland, likely to cost millions.This was again mentioned in Merseytravels 30 year plan of 2014.

 

Stations Along The Line