Hillside railway station

Hillside railway station serves the southern half of the Birkdale area of Southport, England. It is located on the Southport branch of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line.

For other uses, see Hillside railway station (disambiguation).

Hillside
Location
Place	Birkdale
Local authority	Sefton
Coordinates	53.622°N 3.025°W / 53.622; -3.025
Grid reference	SD323144
Operations
Station code	HIL
Managed by	Merseyrail
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	0.542 million
2015/16	0.521 million
2016/17	0.535 million
2017/18	0.639 million
2018/19	0.686 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Merseytravel
Zone	D1
History
Key dates	Opened May 1926 (May 1926)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Hillside from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

It is the closest station to the Royal Birkdale golf course, and is extremely busy when major events (such as the Open Championship) are held there.

History

Hillside opened in May 1926[1] as an intermediate station on the ex-Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) after the 1923 grouping into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and long after the railway had originally opened in 1848. By this time, the area had developed into a sizable residential suburb of Southport.

Nationalisation followed in 1948 and in 1978 the station became part of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line (operated by British Rail until privatised in 1995).

Facilities

Safety and security features at this station include CCTV, an induction loop is installed, shelters and seats and a public telephone. There is no wheelchair access at this station, as the only access to the platforms is by stairs; the nearest stations with disabled access are Birkdale and Ainsdale. The ticket office is always staffed by at least one member of staff from before the start of train services until 00:30 each evening.[2] There is cycle storage for 6 cycles and secure storage for 40 cycles.[3]

Merseytravel announced in April 2019 that they had been successful in a bid for funding lifts being installed at the station under the Department for Transport's ‘Access for All’ programme. The lifts are expected to be installed at some point over the following five years.[4]

Services

Trains operate every 15 minutes throughout the day from Monday to Saturday and on summer Sundays to Southport to the north, and to Hunts Cross via Liverpool Central to the south. Winter Sunday services are every 30 minutes in each direction.[5]

Gallery

• 
  The station ticket office, viewed from the road.
• 
  The waiting room on the Southport-bound platform.
• 
  The booking office and footbridge, viewed from the platform.
• 
  A Merseyrail Class 507 waits at the station.

References

1. Gell, Rob (1986). An Illustrated Survey of Railway Stations between Southport & Liverpool 1848–1986. Crosby: Heyday Publishing Company. ISBN 0-947562-04-4.
2. Hillside station facilities National Rail Enquiries; Retrieved 13 December 2016
3. "Hillside train station | timetable | ticket prices & facilities". www.merseyrail.org. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
4. McDonough, Tony (5 April 2019). "Merseytravel secures funding for passenger lifts at six Merseyrail stations". Liverpool Business News. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
5. Table 103 National Rail timetable, December 2016

External links

• Train times and station information for Hillside railway station from National Rail

• Station information for Hillside railway station from Merseyrail

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Birkdale towards Southport		Merseyrail Northern Line		Ainsdale towards Hunts Cross