Wirral Street Car

Wirral Street Car
Wirral Street Car
	Map of the proposed route.
Operation
Locale	Wirral
Open	TBD
Lines	One
Routes	Bidston Dock to Woodside Ferry Terminal
Owner(s)	Wirral Waters, Wirral Council and Merseyrail (project partners)
Infrastructure
Track gauge	Standard
Website	Wirral Street Car

Last updated August 14, 2019

The Wirral Street Car is a proposed tramway from Bidston Dock to Woodside Ferry Terminal to provide transport links for the Wirral Waters development.^[1] The line will use pre-existing rolling stock as well as incorporating both the disused Birkenhead Dock Branch and the Wirral Tramway that already operates as a heritage service from the Wirral Transport Museum to Woodside Ferry Terminal.^[2]^[3]

A tram is a rail vehicle that runs on tramway tracks along public urban streets; some include segments of segregated right-of-way. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways. Historically the term electric street railways was also used in the United States. In the United States, the term tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains, which are unrelated to other kinds of trams.

Bidston Dock was a dock at Birkenhead, in England. It was situated to the west of the Great Float, between Bidston and Poulton.

Woodside is a small riverside locality in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England, situated almost opposite Liverpool Pier Head across the River Mersey.

History

Plans for the Street Car were first announced in February 2013, intending to redevelop part of the abandoned Birkenhead Dock Branch route into a streetcar system.^[3] The plans involved connecting Wirral Waters to the Merseyrail network at the Birkenhead North and Hamilton Square stations, utilising the stretch of dock branch trackbed along Beaufort Road and Corporation Road, with inner and outer loops around Vittoria Dock and East Float, respectively.^[4]^[5] Options to connect this new system to Conway Park and Birkenhead Park stations are also available, along with a further extension for the Wirral Tramway to Seacombe ferry terminal.^[4]

Birkenhead Dock Branch is a disused railway line running from the South junction of Rock Ferry, to the site of the former Bidston Dock on the Wirral Peninsula, England. The branch is approximately 4 ¹⁄₂ miles (7.2 km) in length. Although called a branch, the line was accessible from both ends, from Bidston East junction and from Rock Ferry railway station. The former Mollington Street Rail Depot was branched into the line. A section of the line runs through Haymarket Tunnel and a low-level cutting through the centre of Birkenhead; visible from the road flyovers. The former Canning Street North signal box has now been demolished following fire damage, and the rails across the level crossing there have been removed due to the provision of cycle lanes on the roadway. The non-standard gates remain on the east side, but a fence has been erected on the other side despite the railway being officially out of use, rather than closed. Level crossings are also located at Duke Street and Wallasey Bridge Road. The railway lines are still partially intact.

Wirral Waters is a large scale £4.5bn development that has been proposed by the Peel Group for Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It is the sister programme of the Liverpool Waters project. Since 2012 the two projects have enjoyed enterprise zone status, together forming the Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone.

Merseyrail is a partially underground commuter rail network and train operating company (TOC) serving Liverpool and the surrounding Liverpool City Region, England. It is a part of Serco-Abellio, and is formed of two electrified lines of the National Rail network known as the Northern Line and the Wirral Line which run underground in central Liverpool and Birkenhead, providing a metro-style service. A third line, separate from the metro-style network, is named the City Line, which is a term used by the governing body Merseytravel referring to local services it sponsors on the Liverpool to Manchester Lines and Liverpool to Wigan Line operated by Northern.

In November 2018, the details of a consultation by Wirral Council & Peel Land and Property called the 'Streetscape Project' were announced.^[6] The consultation is not directly focused on the street cars but the concept of a street car service is featured heavily, with the consultation suggesting that the scheme could be completed "over the next five years."

Related Research Articles

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool. Merseyside, which was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, takes its name from the River Mersey.

Merseytravel is the passenger transport executive responsible for the coordination of public transport in the Liverpool City Region, North West England. Merseytravel was established on 1 December 1969 as the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive (MPTE). From 1 April 2014 Merseytravel expanded its area of operation from the metropolitan county of Merseyside to also include the Borough of Halton.

The Great Float is a body of water on the Wirral Peninsula, England, formed from the natural tidal inlet, the Wallasey Pool. It is split into two large docks, East Float and West Float, both part of the Birkenhead Docks complex. The docks run approximately 2 miles (3 km) inland from the River Mersey, dividing the towns of Birkenhead and Wallasey. The Great Float consists of 110 acres of water and more than 4 miles (6 km) of quays.

Vittoria Dock is a dock in Birkenhead, Wirral Peninsula, England. It was built between 1904 and 1908, from land reclaimed during the construction of the Great Float.

The Wirral Railway was a railway network in the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula, England. It was incorporated in 1863 as the Hoylake Railway, running from Hoylake to Birkenhead Docks. After changes of name and of ownership, it was purchased by the Wirral Railway Company Limited in 1884. The network was extended to West Kirby, New Brighton, and Seacombe, and to Birkenhead Park station where it joined the Mersey Railway, enabling through trains through the Mersey Railway Tunnel to Liverpool. In the 1923 grouping the Wirral company became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, which electrified the line in 1938, allowing passenger services to be integrated with the Liverpool urban system. Most of the Wirral Railway network is still in use today as part of the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail commuter rail network.

Wallasey is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England, on the mouth of the River Mersey, at the northeastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula. At the 2011 Census, the population was 60,284.

The Liverpool City Region is an economic and political area of England centred on Liverpool, which also incorporates the local authority districts of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, and Wirral. Other, wider, definitions of the city region also exist, in some cases extending into Wales. Depending on the definition used, the region's population is between about 1.5 million and 2.3 million.

Wirral line Commuter railway line in Merseyside, England

The Wirral line is one of two commuter railway lines operated by Merseyrail and centred on Merseyside, England, the other being the Northern line.

Bidston railway station is a railway station in Bidston, Birkenhead, on the Wirral, England. The station is situated at the junction of the West Kirby branch of the Wirral Line, which is part of the Merseyrail network, and with the Borderlands Line from Wrexham Central, operated by Transport for Wales. Bidston is the northern terminal of the Borderlands Line.

Birkenhead Woodside was a railway station at Woodside, in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire.

Wallasey Pool was a natural tidal inlet of water that separated the towns of Wallasey and Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Originally flowing directly into the River Mersey, it was converted into the sophisticated Birkenhead Dock system from the 1820s onwards by land reclamation, with the main portion of the pool becoming known as the Great Float. In 1933, with the exception of a small lake, the head of Wallasey Pool at Poulton was converted into Bidston Dock. By 2003, this dock had been filled in.

Twelve Quays is a ferry terminal and business park which is located between East Float and the River Mersey at Birkenhead, in England. Twelve Quays separates Woodside from Seacombe.

Wirral Transport Museum is a museum situated approximately 0.5 miles (800 m) from the Mersey Ferry service at Woodside, Birkenhead, England.

Birkenhead Transport commenced operating on 12 July 1919 with a service from Rock Ferry to Birkenhead Park station, this service was extended to Moreton in the August of that year. The buses supplemented an earlier tram service.

Wirral Tramway is a heritage tramway opened in 1995 by the Wirral Borough Council and Hamilton Quarter partnership and was operated by Blackpool Transport Services until 2005 when the council took over the licence to run the tramway.

References

↑ "Wirral Street Car". Wirral Waters . Retrieved 23 September 2018.
↑ "How to find us". Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
1 2 "Peel reveals streetcar plan for Wirral Waters". Liverpool Echo. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
1 2 "Wirral Streetcar: Pioneering small-start systems in the UK" (PDF). Sun Link. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
↑ "Wirral Streetcar". Wirral Waters . Retrieved 23 August 2018.
↑ Houghton, Tom (20 November 2018). "This is when trams will FINALLY return to Merseyside". liverpoolecho. Retrieved 21 November 2018.

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[1] "Wirral Street Car". Wirral Waters . Retrieved 23 September 2018.

[2] "How to find us". Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society. Retrieved 23 September 2018.

[echoecho-3] 1 2 "Peel reveals streetcar plan for Wirral Waters". Liverpool Echo. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2018.

[SLSC-4] 1 2 "Wirral Streetcar: Pioneering small-start systems in the UK" (PDF). Sun Link. Retrieved 23 August 2018.

[5] "Wirral Streetcar". Wirral Waters . Retrieved 23 August 2018.

[Liverpool_Echo_-_Streetscape_2018-6] Houghton, Tom (20 November 2018). "This is when trams will FINALLY return to Merseyside". liverpoolecho. Retrieved 21 November 2018.