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Work to modernise the Liverpool to Wrexham line is going ahead. Upgrades on the line at Padeswood have been confirmed as the first major step to run more trains.

Transport and North Wales secretary Ken Skates and Welsh secretary Jo Stevens visited the site yesterday.

The Westminster government promised to support the work at Padeswood as part of last month’s Comprehensive Spending Review with investment in Welsh railways which will be worth at least £445 million, and allow a start to be made on creating Network North Wales.

There should be two trains an hour between Liverpool and Wrexham within three years. Padeswood also serves the Heidelberg Materials’ cement works, and the upgrade will make it easier for freight trains to use the site.

Ken Skates said: ’Delivering the upgrade at Padeswood will bring real economic benefits, helping the cement works and improving connectivity between Wrexham and Liverpool, increasing services to two trains per hour. 

‘Network North Wales is about an integrated, high-frequency public transport network. While Padeswood is predicted in the next three years, more immediate changes include 50 per cent more trains on the North Wales main line, more trains between Chester and Wrexham and the start of Pay as You Go.’

Readers’ comments

Welcome investment into the Wrexham-Liverpool via Bidston route. Ever since subsidy cuts in the late 1970s this line existed in a state of limbo with periods of poor reliability and performance. More recently TfW  have enhanced services with an additional daily diagram achieving an improvement both in reliability & performance, a welcome change for the better. The proposed infrastructure enhancement is a vote of confidence in one of the two major freight customers as well as enabling TfW to fulfil the ambition to run a half hourly frequency service. In the longer term the interface with Merseyrail is critical. Apart from the latter's proposal to build a new station at Woodchurch I'm sure the desirability of running through services into Liverpool is being explored. Merseyrail's class 777 units have already shown the potential to run on battery power off the 3rd rail. How far may determine if the current interchange between TfW & Merseyrail at Bidston will continue or if a revised location may be desirable dependent on battery range. As there is an underserved market at Deeside Industrial Park that TfW is already keen to exploit perhaps that may provide a suitable location. Also given its established connections into the highway network perhaps also a convenient park and ride location? Additional services for the North Wales main line is welcome news and also fulfilling TfW's ambitions. A timetable overhaul is long overdue. A critical challenge will be improving journey times especially during the time sensitive travel to work periods. For Merseyside/Manchester commuters the current offering from North Wales is a poor substitute for the car. Rail can surely do better especially if journey times can be improved. Let us be honest, especially given investment has been already been made to renew both TfW and Avanti services fleets, electrification will be a long term prospect, if ever. I would suggest a higher priority when investment funds is become available is to complete resignalling the line where operational costs remain inflated west of Llandudno Junction due to the necessary retention of manual signalboxes supervising level crossings.   

Chris Jones-Bridger, Buckley, Flintshire

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