Shotton railway station

Shotton
View down to a Class 175 standing at Shotton's Low Level platform on the North Wales Coast Line.
Location
Place	Shotton
Local authority	Flintshire
Grid reference	SJ307689
Operations
Station code	SHT
Managed by	Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms	4
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	162,455
2005/06	163,974
2006/07	168,317
2007/08	184,406
2008/09	191,896
2009/10	201,788
2010/11	218,370
2011/12	246,270
2012/13	246,270
2013/14	247,938
2014/15	240,596
History
1 October 1891	High level station opened as Connah's Quay & Shotton[1]
15 September 1952	High Level and Low Level suffixes added[1]
14 February 1966	Shotton Low Level closed[1]
21 August 1972	Low level station reopened as part of Shotton[1]
26 September 1999	High Level suffix restored[1]
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Shotton from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Shotton railway station serves the town of Shotton, Flintshire, Wales. It is situated where the Borderlands Line crosses the North Wales Coast Line. All passenger services are operated by Arriva Trains Wales, which manages the station.

Shotton is split into two sections: Shotton High Level is above street level and serves the Borderlands Line; Shotton Low Level serves the North Wales Coast Line. Each level has two side platforms and both are double tracked. The tracks of the high and low levels cross each other at right angles.

There is a ticket office on the high level Bidston-bound platform. The station is staffed on weekdays and Saturday mornings only.

History

The town gained its first railway as early as 1848 with the opening of the Chester and Holyhead Railway, but the railway company did not provide a station to serve it. The town had to wait until 1890 for its first station, when one was built by the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway as the northern end of their Hawarden Loop line from Buckley. This station opened on 1 October 1891 as Connah's Quay & Shotton and became Shotton High Level on 15 September 1952.^[1] It connected there to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's line from Chester Northgate via Hawarden Bridge. The link to Bidston was added by the North Wales and Liverpool Railway in 1896, whilst the LNWR built two wooden platforms on the main line to Holyhead in 1907^[2] to give the town access to trains along the coast to Crewe, Rhyl, Llandudno and Holyhead and to allow interchange with the Wrexham line.

The Beeching cuts of the 1960s saw the low level platforms closed on 14 February 1966^[1] and services to Chester Northgate withdrawn on 9 September 1968,^[3] leaving only the Wrexham - Bidston line to serve the high-level platforms. The loss of the link to Chester proved unpopular however and BR eventually agreed to restore it by re-opening the low level platforms. Trains began calling again on 21 August 1972^[1] after new platforms had been built (the slow lines that served the original platforms having been removed in the late sixties as an economy measure).

Between 2009 and 2010, both sets of platforms were refurbished as part of a £1.5 million modernisation scheme. This work (which commenced in March 2009) included platform resurfacing, the installation of new waiting shelters & ticket vending machines, improved signage and a new ticket office.^[4] The scheme was completed in early November 2010 with the official opening of the new ticket office by former Alyn & Deeside MP Lord Jones.^[5]

Services

Shotton High Level

The high level of the station is on the Borderlands Line and consists of two platforms: 3 & 4. Services operate every 60 minutes in each direction (Monday-Saturday daytime) between Wrexham Central and Bidston (where passengers can change for Liverpool). The frequency drops to two-hourly in the evenings and is infrequent (six trains each way) on Sundays.^[6] To the north of the station on the Borderlands line is Hawarden Bridge over the River Dee.

Shotton Low Level

Trains operate approximately every hour on the North Wales Coast Line. Services travel between Llandudno and Manchester Piccadilly via Chester and Warrington Bank Quay. A number of early morning & late evening services between Holyhead and either Shrewsbury or Crewe also stop here.^[7]

Sunday services are infrequent during the day although there are hourly trains in the late afternoon that run between Crewe and either Llandudno Junction or Holyhead.

Future

In March 2015 Network Rail published the draft version of their Welsh Route Study. It contained a proposal to build a new interchange station that would replace existing the High and Low Level stations, allowing for greater connectivity between the North Wales Coast Main Line and the Borderlands Line. The document recommended a transport planning study to establish the cost, feasibility and benefits of the proposed scheme.^[8]

Gallery

• 

  The low level platforms, from the footbridge.

• 

  The low level platforms and footbridge to the high level.

• 

  A broad view of the high-level platforms.

• 

  An Arriva Trains Wales Class 150 train waits at Shotton High Level station.

See also

Similar two-level layouts can be found at:

• Tamworth railway station
• Lichfield Trent Valley railway station

References

1. Mitchell & Smith 2013, map XX
2. "Hawarden Loop Line". Disused Stations. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
3. "Chester Northgate". Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
4. "£1.5million revamp will transform Shotton railway station". eveningleader.co.uk. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
5. "Flintshire Railway Station Opens after £1 million Revamp". dailypost.co.uk. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
6. GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 101
7. GB eNRT December 2015 Edition, Table 81
8. "Welsh Route Study - Draft for Consultation". Network Rail. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

Sources

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2013). Wrexham to New Brighton. West Sussex: Middleton Press. ISBN 9781908174475. OCLC 859543196.

Bibliography

• Baughan, P.E (1980) A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain; Volume XI: North and Mid Wales. David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, Newton Abbott. ISBN 0-946537-59-3.

External links

• Train times and station information for Shotton railway station from National Rail
• History of the North Wales Coast Line
• History of the Borderlands Line
• History of Shotton

Coordinates: 53°12′47″N 3°02′17″W / 53.213°N 3.038°W