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original at North Mersey Branch copied on 11 July was okay when copied ---

The North Mersey Branch (NMB) is a railway line that was constructed by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway to connect its mainline (the former Liverpool and Bury Railway) with the northern Mersey dock system.

History
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway built this 4 mile long double-track branch line to capture some of the increasing freight passing through Hornby Dock, Alexandra Dock and the Canada Dock systems at the northern end of the Mersey docks.

The scheme was authorised in May 1861, a contract was let to George Thomson in 1864 and the line opened on 27 August 1866.

The line initially had no stations, it ran from a new Fazakerley junction between Kirkby and Fazakerley on the former Liverpool and Bury Railway terminating in the North Mersey goods yard where an end-on connection was made to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB) rail network which gave the L&YR access to the docks further south. North Mersey and Alexandra Docks opened in 1866, being renamed to North Mersey and Alexandra Docks in 1892.

Part of the branch was electrified in 1906 as part of the L&YR's efforts to win back traffic lost to competition from trams. It was electrified between Bootle New Strand (on the former Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway) and Aintree (on the former Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway) using the Seaforth connecting line and the Aintree curve.

Two stations were opened on 1 June 1906 on the newly electrified section at Linacre Road and Ford.

The branch was connected via a crossover to the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) a little to the east of Seaforth Sands creating Rimrose Road junction. The connection was used by a short-lived service between Aintree and Dingle at the southern end of the LOR, it was not successful and only lasted for two years from 1906 to 1908.

By 1910 18 trains were operating each way, each day, along the branch with trains terminating at Liverpool Exchange in the south and Aintree Sefton Arms, where 10 services terminated, and Maghull to which the other 8 carried on.

Gladstone Dock station opened on 7 September 1914, when the section of track to it from North Mersey Branch Junction (the junction where the Seaforth Connecting line left the branch) was electrified, it became a halt in 1916 and closed on 7 July 1924.

In 1922 the branch had seven daily services (eight on Saturdays, none on Sundays) between Aintree Sefton Arms and Gladstone Dock, and fifteen daily services (fourteen on Saturdays, nine on Sundays) running from Liverpool Exchange to Aintree Sefton Arms.

Linacre Road and Ford closed on 2 April 1951.

Aintree races
An early passenger station, first noted in 1878, on the line was Aintree Cinder Lane, this temporary station didn't appear in the timetables and was only used for race traffic excursions, the initial trains arriving from Manchester.

Cinder Lane was replaced by Aintree Racecourse station which opened in 1910, it also only operated on race days, it saw its last service on 25 March 1961.

Annual Grand National Express services ran from London Euston and other locations, such as Bridlington, Hull and Goole, direct to racecourse station via the North Mersey Branch.

In 1988 BR decided to cancel the Grand National Express permanently, due to attacks by vandals along the line. Bricks and other missiles would be hurled at the trains when coming down the line in Litherland on the old site of the North Mersey Junction at the end of the crossover above the Merseyrail Northern Line.; and too many trains and coaches were arriving at Aintree with significant damage.

Usage/Freight
Intermodal and engineering trains ran from Garston, Edge Hill and as far away as Southampton, along the North Mersey Branch to Aintree Container Base, Aintree Metal Box and Fazakerley P-Way Yard.

In 1986 the line to Aintree Container Base was cut, leaving no further need for container trains along the line. In 1987 the short spur to Fazakerley sidings was closed, and the Metal Box service had finished by 1991, leaving no regular goods services on the North Mersey Branch.

Today
The section of the line between Sefton Junction and North Mersey Branch Junction is no longer maintained to basic Network Rail operational standards and as of December 2017 is completely overgrown in places.

Occasionally diesel-powered engineering/maintenance trains used the branch to access the Southport line, saving 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.

As of October 2020, much of the North Mersey Branch is completely overgrown in most places. However, the spur behind Aintree Station, which formerly housed the Grand National platforms, was severed from the branch junction in favour of an electrical power supply cabinet installed by Network Rail. A section of rail on the Leeds Liverpool Canal Bridge between Bootle New Strand and Bootle Oriel Road was cut during the bridge's renovation and replacement. Although it does appear that the track on this section has been reinstated.

Future
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 a proposed new stadium for Liverpool F.C., to provide additional transport links via the town of Litherland, likely to cost millions.

This was again mentioned in Merseytravel's 30-year plan of 2014.

In January 2019, Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying the line which was listed as Priority 2 for reopening. Priority 2 is for those lines which require further development or a change in circumstances (such as housing developments).

- 1906 to 1914 the following isn't on the branch, Southport to Dingle via Seaforth and Litherland station then the <>-- The branch was connected to the Liverpool Overhead Railway (LOR) in 1905 when a connecting line was built between Seaforth Sands, formerly the LOR terminus and the former Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway line, the connecting line ran adjacent to the branch for most of its length and a connection was made between them opposite the end of Bowles Street. The junction was used by through L&YR services between Southport and Dingle from 1906 to the outbreak of WWI. -