LIVERPOOL LOOP LINE by bike (Trans Pennine Trail)

Take a bike ride along the Liverpool Loop Line
The line was built by the Cheshire Lines Committee, branching from the Committee’s Liverpool to Manchester line at Hunts Cross in the south of the city, running north skirting the eastern edge of Liverpool, finally arriving at the Walton Triangle junction. One line continued north to Aintree, another curved west through the Rice Lane to Kirkdale tunnel which brought the line facing south, towards Liverpool Docks. The line ran alongside the already existing LYR line before terminating at Huskisson railway station, just after Sandhills railway station. A small line left Huskisson, retracing the route northward before turning towards the river and the Midland Railway’s Sandon and Canada Dock Goods station. The line opened between 1879 and 1880.

The Aintree branch was extended to Southport in 1884.

The route closed in stages. In 1960 the line closed to passengers between Aintree and Gateacre.

In 1972 passenger trains from Liverpool Central High Level to Gateacre were withdrawn. The Gateacre service was proposed to be reinstated in 1978, with the station being the terminus of the new Merseyrail Northern Line. However this never materialised, with the terminus being cut back to Hunts Cross station on the southern Liverpool to Manchester line. The line continued to carry freight to Liverpool’s docks until it was lifted in 1979. The trackbed of the main section of line now forms part of the National Cycle Network Route 62 and the Trans Pennine Trail