I am finally back with my branch line series on my blog, this time covering the route from Hooton to Ellesmere Port. The line continues through to Helsby, stopping at Ince & Elton and Helsby stations. However, this is known as a Parliamentary service, with only four services per day: two morning services between Helsby and Ellesmere Port, continuing towards Liverpool Lime Street via Warrington, and two evening services doing the same run. Starting our journey from Hooton Station, we leave what was once the mainline to London with Great Western Railway.

Hooton is an interesting station with four platforms and two disused platforms on the old railway line from Hooton to Parkgate, which continued to West Kirby. The line was closed in the 1950s and fully closed to freight in the 1960s. Despite this, Hooton remains a major junction with services to Chester and Ellesmere Port on Merseyrail’s Wirral Line. We branch off from the Mainline towards our first station, Little Sutton, which recently regained its title as the Least Used Station on the Merseyrail Network.

This line is quite short and likely one of the shortest on the network itself. I recently timed all four branch lines: New Brighton, Ellesmere Port, Hunts Cross, and Headbolt Lane. Ellesmere Port was the shortest, taking around 9 minutes in total. From Little Sutton, we head to our next station, Overpool. This station opened in 1988, making it one of the newer stations on the line, while Little Sutton and Ellesmere Port are the original stations, having opened in 1863.

In 2023/24, Aughton Park was the overall least used station on the Merseyrail network. However, in 2024/25, Little Sutton took the crown with 184,024 passengers during that period. This was also the case back in 2016/17, when Little Sutton was the least used station on the entire Merseyrail network. If you haven’t seen my post on the eight stations from most used to least used on each line of the Merseyrail network, you can read that here. However, let’s head to our next and penultimate station, Overpool.

And finally on the approach to the terminus of the line for Merseyrail being Ellesmere Port, however we also pass the old freight line that used to head to the oil refinery in the area. I rather like the Ellesmere Port line and I have visited every single station on it which you will see in a future post in my visiting every station series here on the blog. If you have any other branch lines you would like me to visit within reasonable distance then do please let me know in the comments.

Finally, where Merseyrail meets Northern, this occurs at stations such as Hunts Cross, Headbolt Lane, Ormskirk, Southport, and Chester. I’ve always noticed that trains from Ellesmere Port can be quite quiet, and I doubt we’ll see eight-car trains on that line. However, I believe we will see eight-car trains on the Chester line in the near future, as it is very busy and always packed whenever I board at Hamilton Square, like I did today.

It’s disheartening to see the station building at Ellesmere Port in such a dilapidated state. The station also features a ticket office and a ticket machine on the platform. However, it feels great to be back writing about my adventures, showcasing the stations, bus stations, and branch lines I’ll be visiting over the next few months as 2026 progresses. We’re also nearing 5,000 total views on the blog. I’ve noticed a loss of 9 subscribers, so if you’ve recently unsubscribed, I would greatly appreciate it if you could subscribe again.

I apologise for frequently changing my plans regarding the blog, but I am finally content with writing again and sharing my adventures through photos and writing about my journeys, such as this one on the Ellesmere Port branch line. I plan to cover the Wigan to Headbolt Lane branch line in my next post and also the line from Kirkdale to Headbolt Lane, as it splits like it used to at Kirkby station before the new station opened in 2023.