Moorfields railway station

Moorfields
Moorfields
General information
Location	Liverpool
Managed by	Merseyrail
Platforms	3
Other information
Fare zone	C/E
History
Opened	1977

Moorfields station is an underground railway station in Liverpool, England. It is situated on both the Northern Line and Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network, and is the only station on the network which has services to all other Merseyrail stations.

Description

The station was built in the 1970s, partly as a replacement for Liverpool Exchange station, opening in 1977. Services from the north which had previously terminated at Liverpool Exchange were diverted to Moorfields, and continue via a new tunnel to Liverpool Central, with some continuing south to Hunts Cross; these services form the Northern Line. At the same time, another new tunnel was built, carrying the Wirral Line in a loop from James Street via Moorfields, Liverpool Lime Street, Liverpool Central and back to James Street.

There are three platforms (two for the Northern Line and one for the Wirral Line) in two levels of tunnel. The Wirral Line platform is at a much deeper level; this is because the Northern Line tunnels pass over the Queensway road tunnel while the Wirral Line passes beneath it. A curious feature of the station is that the entrances to the station are at a floor above street level. This is because the station was designed to connect with a proposed pedestrian walkway system, designed to separate pedestrians from traffic. Only a small amount of this was built, and of that much has since been removed.

Services

On the Northern Line, northbound trains run every 15 minutes (Monday to Saturday daytime) to each of Southport, Ormskirk and Kirkby. Southbound trains run every five minutes to Liverpool Central. Trains originating from Southport continue to Hunts Cross, every 15 minutes.

On the Wirral Line, run every 15 minutes (Monday to Saturday daytime) to each of New Brighton, West Kirby and Hooton. From Hooton, trains continue every 30 minutes to each of Chester and Ellesmere Port. These services give a combined frequency of five minutes around the loop and through the Mersey Railway Tunnel to Hamilton Square station in Birkenhead. At other times, trains operate every 30 minutes to each of the four destinations.

Future

Moorfields station will be home to the first of Merseyrail's trials of in-station convenience stores. Dubbed 'M to Go' the stores will be the first of such a type in the UK. They are common place in Merseyrail operator Serco NED's home country Holland. Merseyrail has joined forces with Nisa Today's and the first M to Go store will arrive in the summer.