On my latest adventure to visit every station in the UK, I travelled on the delightful Borderlands Line starting at Bidston Railway Station on the MerseyRail West Kirby line. From Bidston, I headed to my first station Heswall. It’s a rather uninteresting station with just two platforms waiting shelters and an old station building – the only exciting part.

Leaving Heswall, I travel to Upton, Merseyside’s least used station, though not the overall least on the line. I believe that would be Hawarden Bridge, also a request stop. From Upton, I head up the line towards Shotton Station, a rather unique station with four platforms. Interestingly, Shotton is the main station for the Borderlands line while Higher Station serves the line towards Llandudno and Holyhead on the North Wales Coast Line.

Leaving Shotton station, I walk over the low-level platforms and across the rather beautiful Swing Bridge over the River Dee towards Hawarden Bridge station. This is the first request stop of the series and I’ll take my next train from here to Neston. One thing to note about Hawarden Bridge station is the narrow platforms and foot crossing which make it quite unsafe. This probably explains why it’s a request stop.

Leaving Neston, I cross the border again into North Wales, heading to my next station Hope. It’s a rather awkward change of platforms here. You have to go under the railway line and down a side street to reach the other platform. One thing I’ve noticed at Hope is that trains from Bidston and Wrexham often meet here simultaneously. This makes for a rather awkward changeover as there’s no foot crossing.

Leaving Hope, I head to Hawarden station in the town itself. I like this station because despite being a small two-platform station it accommodates up to three coaches with the Class 230s on the line. Another update for the Borderlands line is the potential for a half-hourly frequency, which would mean more trains and greater capacity. Currently the line operates a 45-minute frequency, which is quite inconvenient for this challenge.

Leaving Hawarden Station, I headed towards Penyffordd Station before continuing down the line to Buckley. Now nearing the end of the line, I’m thoroughly enjoying my day visiting every station between Bidston and Wrexham Central. I fondly recall travelling up the line in the mid-2010s on Arriva Trains Wales’ Class 150s. It’s a world apart from then to now.

Well next up we head too Caergwrle Station where I decide to catch the Bus to Cefn-y-Bedd station before then making my way towards Wrexham Cenrtal then continuing back down the line to what will be my final station, Gwersyllt, having stations with welsh names and trying to pounce or even spell them correctly for that matter is rather challenging, some of the stations like the one on Anglesey with the very long name will be hard to spell or even pronounce for that matter. I do hope you’ve enjoyed this blog so far.

Finally arriving at my final station on the Gwersyllt line, I find myself at another rather small two-platform station with limited surroundings. Nearby, there’s a Lidl, a pub and a chip shop which is quite interesting. I’m eagerly looking forward to rejoining the network soon and visiting the Chester to Shrewsbury line to complete my Wrexham General journey. From Gwersyllt, I have a 45-minute wait for my final train back to Bidston, the line’s terminus, where I’ll connect onto Merseyrail.

That’s it for this post. We’ve finished the entire line between Bidston on the West Kirby line and Wrexham Central in North Wales, operated by Transport for Wales. Next I’ll be visiting stations between Chester and Liverpool James Street on Merseyrail’s Wirral line. It’s good to be revisiting this series, visiting every station. I apologise for cancelling and then resuming it twice but I hope you understand my reasons.