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The Northern Line is one of the two lines operated by Merseyrail on Merseyside, England, the other being the Wirral Line. It connects the centre of Liverpool with Hunts Cross to the south and Southport, Ormskirk and Kirkby to the north. It crosses the centre of Liverpool by a tunnel built in the 1970s, known as the Link. The line is allocated the colour blue on maps of the Merseyrail system.

Contents 1 Description 2 Electrification 3 Connections 4 Stations 5 Former stations 6 See also 7 External links

Northern Line

Legend Southport For Manchester-Southport Line Birkdale Hillside Ainsdale Freshfield Formby Hightown Hall Road Blundellsands & Crosby Waterloo Seaforth & Litherland Bootle New Strand Bootle Oriel Road Bank Hall Ormskirk Aughton Park Town Green Maghull Old Roan Aintree Orrell Park Walton Kirkby Fazakerley Rice Lane Kirkdale Kirkdale TMD Sandhills Moorfields For Wirral Line Liverpool Lime Street (Wirral Line only) Liverpool Central For Wirral Line Brunswick St Michaels Aigburth Cressington Liverpool South Parkway Hunts Cross For City Line

The line runs from Hunts Cross via the former Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) route towards Liverpool Central. Just south of there, it leaves the CLC route (which is in tunnel at that point) into a 1970s tunnel which takes it into the former Mersey Railway Liverpool Central (Low Level) station. It then uses the former Mersey Railway tunnel for about half of the way to the next station, Moorfields, a new underground station built in the 1970s to replace the surface-level Liverpool Exchange. North of there, the route emerges from the tunnel to join the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway lines from Exchange station. After the next station, Sandhills, the former Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway line branches off towards Southport, while the other routes continue to Kirkdale on what was a joint section of track between Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway and the Liverpool and Bury Railway. After Kirkdale, the Ormskirk and Kirkby lines diverge.

Trains from Hunts Cross continue to Southport, while trains to Ormskirk and Kirkby start from Liverpool Central. Trains operate every 15 minutes on each of the three routes (Monday to Saturday daytime) and every 30 minutes at other times.

The Northern Line is electrified using a 750V DC third rail. The line from Liverpool Exchange to Southport and on to Crossens and Meols Cop, was the first part to be electrified in 1904, followed by the branch to Aintree (on the Ormskirk branch) in 1906 and then on to Ormskirk in 1913. The Kirkby branch and the line south of Liverpool as far as Garston were electrified to coincide with the construction of the Link in 1978 and the electrification cut back to Southport in the north. The section from Garston to Hunts Cross was electrified in 1983, allowing services to be extended.

Interchange with the Wirral Line is available at Liverpool Central and Moorfields. As the Northern Line does not pass through Liverpool Lime Street (which is the city's main National Rail station), passengers must use the Wirral Line as a connection (although in practice, given the relatively short distance between Central and Lime Street, many prefer to walk).

Interchange with other National Rail services can be made at Southport, Ormskirk, Kirkby, Liverpool South Parkway and Hunts Cross.

The new Liverpool South Parkway station opened on 11 June 2006, replacing Garston station and providing connections to the City Line formerly available at Allerton station.

v • d • e Merseyrail Northern Line Stations
Southport - Hunts Cross Branch	Hunts Cross • Liverpool South Parkway • Cressington • Aigburth • St Michaels • Brunswick • 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

This list is incomplete.

• Churchtown (Southport-Crossens branch)
• Crossens (Southport-Crossens branch)
• Ford[1] (North Mersey Branch)
• Garston (Closed 10 June 2006; replaced by Liverpool South Parkway)
• Hesketh Park (Southport-Crossens branch)
• Linacre Road [2] (North Mersey Branch).
• Liverpool Exchange (1850-1977: Southport/Kirkby/Ormskirk branches)
• Marsh Lane (Southport branch)
• Meols Cop (Still open, but no longer part of the Northern Line: Manchester and Southport Railway)
• Otterspool (Closed 1951)
• St James' (Closed 1917)

• Northern Line (disambiguation)
• LYR electric units

• Merseyrail official site

v • d • e Railway lines in Northern England:
InterCity lines:	Cross-Country Route • East Coast Main Line • Midland Main Line • West Coast Main Line
Main lines:	Chester-Manchester Line • Hope Valley Line • Liverpool-Manchester Lines • Manchester-Preston Line • Settle-Carlisle Railway
Commuter lines:	Airedale Line • Blackburn-Bolton Line • Blackpool Branch Lines • Caldervale Line • Dearne Valley Line • East Lancashire Line • Glossop Line • Hallam Line • Harrogate Line • Huddersfield Line • Kirkby Branch Line • Leeds-Bradford composite line • Liverpool-Wigan Line • Manchester-Southport Line • Mid-Cheshire Line • Morecambe Branch Line • Northern Line • Oldham Loop Line • Northallerton-Eaglescliffe Line • Ormskirk Branch Line · Pontefract Line • Sheffield-Hull Line • Sheffield-Lincoln Line • Stockport-Stalybridge Line • Styal Line • Wakefield Line • Wharfedale Line • Wirral Line • York & Selby Lines • York-Scarborough Line
Rural lines:	Barton Line • Borderlands Line • Buxton Line • Cumbrian Coast Line • Doncaster-Lincoln Line • Durham Coast Line • Esk Valley Line • Furness Line • Hull-York Line • Newcastle and Carlisle Railway • Windermere Branch Line • Penistone Line • Ribble Valley Line • Tees Valley Line • Yorkshire Coast Line