In this next update, as I visit every single station in the United Kingdom, we’re back at Liverpool Lime Street. We’ll be visiting the Cheshire Lines Committee, travelling from Lime Street via Warrington and continuing through to Manchester Oxford Road. Leaving Lime Street, my first stop is West Allerton, followed by Edge Hill station, one of the oldest stations in the world, which opened in 1836.

From Edge Hill, we make our way to Liverpool South Parkway, a rather busy station with many trains heading towards Liverpool, London, Manchester, and of course, Birmingham too. Merseyrail also calls at this station, with services to Liverpool Central and Hunts Cross, the terminus of the Northern Line. Merseyrail trains used to head to Southport, but since the introduction of 8-car trains, they have been going to Ormskirk. Cressington station is a rather awkward station for 8 carriages, with narrow platforms at one end.

From Liverpool South Parkway, I head to Mossley Hill station, where you can also catch trains once an hour towards Birmingham. However, Northern Trains typically operate services to Warrington and Manchester Oxford Road. I might plan to create a video of this line, focusing on the history of the Cheshire Lines. If that interests you, please let me know. From Mossley Hill, I continue up the line to Hough Green, the last station on the Merseyside boundary. I particularly like this station as it still retains the feel of when it first opened, and you can also get a model version of the station.

Starting from Hough Green, I make my way to Halewood, where my initial attempt to complete this series didn’t quite go as planned. Due to the line’s length and the limited service at certain stations, I had to split this journey over two days. For instance, Sankey for Penketh, Glazebrook, and Trafford Park only receive trains every two hours. However, Sankey is particularly limited, with just two trains in the morning and two in the evening in each direction, a result of Warrington West opening in 2019 and effectively replacing it. From Halewood, I proceed to Warrington West before walking to Sankey for Penketh.

Leaving Halewood Station, I took the train to Widnes Station and then headed to Warrington West. As you can see in the images, I enjoyed Widnes Station. It retains the classic Cheshire Lines style building similar to Hough Green. Widnes is the first station beyond the Merseyside boundary and was once one of four in the area. The Runcorn Gap Railway is just down the road and the main dual carriageway is part of the original railways in the Runcorn area, primarily used for freight.

From Sankey, I make my way to Warrington Central, the last station on the journey from Liverpool Lime Street. However, the line continues with Padgate as the next station. We skip Padgate on this line because it’s an awkward station, only receiving an hourly service between Warrington and Manchester Oxford Road. I head to Glazebrook from Warrington Central, as I can catch a train from there to Padgate. Unfortunately, in 2024, I witnessed a suicide at Padgate station, so I haven’t been back since.

From Padgate, I took the bus to Birchwood station, where I would then head up past Irlam towards Urmston. I then returned down the line towards Irlam Station, which is one of the major stations on the line with services to Cleethorpes operated by TransPennine Express. It’s a lovely station with a beautiful building and plenty of memorabilia. There is also a pub at the station that I haven’t visited yet, but I plan to go sometime in the near future.

I travel from Irlam to my next station, Trafford Park. Both Trafford Park and Humphrey Park stations only have a two-hourly service, making it quite challenging to visit them. After Trafford Park, I head to Humphrey Park, then continue to Manchester Oxford Road, the end of the line. Trains typically terminate in the bay platform at Manchester Oxford Road, but during delays, they may terminate on platform 3 or platform 4 instead. From Manchester Oxford Road, I proceed to Flixton before concluding my journey at my final station of the day, Chassen Road.

Unfortunately, I seem to have lost the photo from my visit to Humphrey Park. It was station 80/2593. From there I headed to Manchester Oxford Road a major station on the Cheshire Lines. It’s also the terminus for trains from Liverpool Lime Street. We then continued on the same train back to Manchester Oxford Road to my second-to-last station of the day, Flixton. This would be my penultimate station before heading to Chassen Road where I would head back to Liverpool having visited every station on the Cheshire lines from Liverpool to Manchester.

Finally, the last station in this blog post is Chassen Road. Unfortunately, there isn’t much here, but it marks the end of our trip over a couple of days. The line is quite long, and half of the stations only receive a two-hourly service or barely any trains at all, like Sankey for Penketh. From Chassen Road, I make my way back to Liverpool Lime Street, where we began our journey. I’m considering creating a video on the stations opened by the Cheshire Lines Committee, sharing the history and secrets of each station along the line. I hope you’ll enjoy that. It feels great to be back writing about my quest to visit every station in the country.