Ince and Elton Railway Station - History

History

Ince station was opened on 1 July 1863 by the Birkenhead Joint Railway. It was renamed Ince and Elton on 17 April 1884.

This station was earmarked for closure, along with Stanlow and Thornton, Helsby and Ellesmere Port, under the proposals made by Dr. Beeching, see (Beeching Axe). This was never implemented, although services gradually began to reduce. Services originally operated regularly between Helsby and Hooton via Ellesmere Port, with some services running through to Rock Ferry prior to the electrification of the line between there and Hooton in 1985. Once electric trains began running to Hooton, the service was revamped to run between Chester and Helsby via Hooton (with a reversal there) every 30 minutes on weekdays & Saturdays. Convenient connections were available at Helsby for Warrington & Manchester and at Hooton for Liverpool. However, following the extension of the third rail southwards to Chester in 1993, the service east of Ellesmere Port was cut back substantially – most trains ran as a shuttle to Ellesmere Port only, with only a two-hourly service beyond there. The pattern was then altered again when electrification of the Hooton to Ellesmere Port section was completed in 1994 – from that point onwards, all services from Helsby terminated at Ellesmere Port but ran beyond Helsby to Warrington Bank Quay and Liverpool Lime Street (every two hours Mon-Sat), calling at all stations en-route. The new service was poorly patronised though, and by 1996 it had been cut back to the current pattern of two pairs of services each way in the early morning and mid afternoon.