The Best Guide for the Neston Area

The problem with the service is that it doesn't go all the way through to Liverpool City Centre. Until the line is electrified, there seems little point in having 2 empty trains an hour (4 trains an hour when you count each way) rattling past so many peoples homes.

Fully agree with Richard - if the hourly train is mostly empty then increasing the frequency isn't going to help.

My problem is the cost - if 2 of us are travelling to Liverpool its much cheaper to drive to Hooton or even Spital and go from there. Its also much easier on return as no risk of missing connection at Bidston back to Neston. At nearly £7 Adult return each from Neston to Liverpool with the need to change at Bidston its never going to be an option for many people

Also for our younger travellers there is a fixed price now for anyone under the age of 18 if travelling on Merseyrail. From Neston though, you have to pay the full adult return fare from Neston to Bidston which makes it MUCH more expensive for 16-18 year olds.

Note the Merseyrail change below from last September, apologies slightly off topic but it illustrates the cost issue of Neston-Liverpool trains:

"Following changes to the law meaning young people must stay in education or work based training until their 18th Birthday, Merseyrail and Merseytravel have made changes to their ticket products to bring more affordable travel to younger passengers.

From Tuesday 1 September, passengers aged 18 years or under can buy Young Person’s Railpass, Day Saver, Trio, Solo and Saveaway tickets for travel in the Merseyside area.

Day Saver

Make as many journeys as you like throughout the day with a Day Saver. Day Savers are valid from 09:30, Monday to Friday and all day Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays.

Young People aged 18 and under can now purchase a Day Saver from £1.85 for 1 Zone, or just £2.50 for an All Zone Day Saver. "


Sort the cost out first and make it competitive with Hooton-Liverpool then there is a chance people will use the service more, I certainly would. It must be more cost effective to run full trains with cheaper fares surely.

The reason the trains are mostly empty is because the current service runs too infrequently and is unreliable. Commuters and shoppers have better alternatives.

Don't forget that many people from Neston use rail to travel to destinations other than Liverpool. However, due to the poor service, this group are currently forced to drive to Hooton, or other stations, for their connections.

As an example, it is only 10 minutes in the other direction to Shotton from where there are frequent trains to Chester and Manchester. It takes less than 15 minutes to get to Chester from Shotton.

Currently, the poor connection times at Shotton mean that a passenger travelling from Neston to Chester via Shotton will typically be waiting for 45 minutes for their connection. A shorter wait at Shotton could put Chester 30 minutes away from Neston and Manchester within an hour and a half. This would be possible with a new timetable and more frequent service.

It would be wonderful to have the line electrified and incorporated into the Merseyrail network. However, as this unlikely to happen in the short-term, increasing the frequency of trains is a sensible first step towards providing Neston with the rail service it deserves.

Two important steps needed in first instance:
1. Twice an hour, every hour, at the same times throughout the day, regular and reliable.
2. Sort out the fares so that Neston to Liverpool is equivalent to Hooton to Liverpool.
Until this is done it will never become a great service. Electrification can come later.

I agree if we had a more frequent service it would help, especially in the return journey where you can miss a connection now and have to wait an hour.

However even if the trains were every 30 minutes myself I don't think that many more people would use them as it is simply too expensive. For example 4 x 16-18 year old's would have to pay over £24 return from Neston or £10 return from Hooton, and the ticket from Hooton can be used all day on any Merseyrail train.

I appreciate not everyone can get to Hooton but I go back to Richard's comment that the hourly service is almost empty. If it became a 30 min service but the price remained the same, I really cannot see numbers increase by much.

If the fares were brought in-line with Hooton-Liverpool, and a more frequent service introduced at the same time we would have a winner for sure and I would expect a huge increase in usage.

I really appreciate the efforts to improve our transport links but sort the hugely disparate fares please.

Once the upgraded rail infrastructure is in place over the next few years then maybe services can be upgraded. The bidston bound line is being upgraded from burton to neston next winter from feb to april as they fit new track so look forward to about 10 weeks of disruption.

Slightly off topic but significant disruption to Liverpool rail travel for 6 months next year - may even need its own thread on AMA. This is what I have just read online:

" There will be no trains at all between Wirral and Liverpool for six weeks from January next year in the first phase of ‘essential’ work, with all trains starting and ending at Birkenhead North and Central.

Passengers face rail replacement bus journeys between Wirral and Liverpool stations from Tuesday, January 3 until Sunday, February 12.

More than a kilometre of track needs to be replaced or fixed on Merseyrail’s City Centre loop underground between James Street, Moorfields, Lime Street and Central Station.

The second phase of work will see Wirral line trains run to James Street but no further on weekdays between Monday, February 13 and Monday, May 29. But trains will still only go as far as Birkenhead Central and North stations at weekends during the 15-week second phase - other than during major events like Easter, bank holidays and Aintree.

The third and final phase of work will again see no trains at all between Liverpool and Wirral for 20 days, with trains starting and finishing at Birkenhead stations from Tuesday, May 30 to Sunday, June 18.

Rail replacement buses between Wirral and Liverpool will be in operation throughout the works.

Northern line services will be unaffected, and will call at Moorfields and Liverpool Central as normal. "