3. Kirkby

 

Opened: 1848.  (Weirdly, despite owning half a dozen books about Merseyside's railways, I've not found a more precise date than that.  Kirkby was a tiny hamlet then so maybe nobody really cared.)

Line electrified:  2nd May 1977

Number of platforms: One.  There were two until 1970, when the platform towards Wigan was taken out of service to save a few bob.  This caused problems when the diesel services were replaced by electric ones, so a second platform was built the other side of the buffers and people wanting to get from Liverpool to Wigan trains walked down and under the bridge to board it.

This then caused even more problems when the line was extended to Headbolt Lane.  The Wigan service was cut back to there and now there's a stretch of single track after Fazakerley and before Headbolt Lane.  For the time being that's not too bad, but if the line is ever extended any further - to Skelmersdale, for example - that's a bottleneck.  The plus side is there's very little chance of that ever happening because this is the United Kingdom.  (Moral of the story: don't single track anything).

Points of interest: None.  Sorry.

Attractive Local Feature (ALF) Sign:  None. 

Original blog post: 21st November 2007

What's changed since then?  Kirkby's had a bit of a makeover to get some parking spaces and better interchange with the buses.  They also revamped the station building.  Before it was a little brick triangle.  It's been expanded and the ticket window moved to the exterior, meaning the station operative also gets a good view of the car park to help with security.

It's a marked improvement and makes the station feel a lot more like a place.  It's out of the town centre so it could feel like an afterthought but this makes it far more of a destination.

Proof of visit: