Collectively we in the WBRUA do have a great affection for our line and wish to encourage people to use it as much as possible. However, we do have to be honest and admit that the service is, at best, basic. It is "planned" - if that is the right word - with little regard of where the potential, as opposed to existing, markets lie.

The powers-that-be have a full-scale working model - traffic flow on the parallel road network - that shows them where they should running their trains and it is certainly not only between Wrexham and the Merseyrail station at Bidston. There should be an urgency bordering on desperation to get trains running through to Liverpool somehow. This could be from destinations additional to those on the present day Borderlands Line and not necessarily by means of electrification of the track.

Just upriver from our central interchange station at Shotton, Queensferry has been a by-word for traffic congestion for about half a century now. Wouldn't you think that this would give the rail planners just a little bit of a clue about the need to get trains running directly through from Liverpool to the North Wales Coast as quickly as possible? No, all that happens is that a third major road bridge gets built over the Dee near where our former freight branch from Shotton (High Level) to Connah's Quay Wharf - which adjoins the North Wales Coast main line - lies derelict...

Chester

Just five miles away from our line is Chester, probably the principal destination for motorists who live anywhere between Heswall and Caergwrle inclusive. In fact, the influence of Chester permeates through our entire residential catchment, most of which has a "CH" postcode these days. Until 1968, "our" trains ran through to the city's central station at Northgate, which would probably never have closed had the rest of the Dee Marsh railways been expected to survive. (Freight traffic kept the lines to Bidston and Wrexham open in the end and at least we can fairly safely claim that the threat of total closure has gone.)

Believe it or not, all but the southernmost tip of the Chester Northgate railway land remained vacant until the late 1980's, and this included the greater proportion of the sites of the passenger station and the (even larger) goods station which adjoined it, directly over Chester's main line where low level platforms could also have been built.

Not any more.

Well perhaps that is not quite true. While the split-level station can still be built (with the spacious pedestrian subway under the "fountains" roundabout forming one of its entrances and the Northgate long-stay car park serving another), the integrity of our trackbed through to the city centre has been soundly destroyed by the construction of expensive new housing. Ironically, much of the demand for city centre living has been created by former commuters who are no longer willing to tolerate the seemingly interminable journey to work by car...

Still, the possibility of restoring at least an approximation of the old New Brighton-Bidston-Chester service is being raised by very serious discussions about constructing a new freight chord at Shotton. Unfortunately, however, the passenger potential is not being included in these calculations. This is great pity because if the primary justification for any scheme proves marginally insufficient, the presence of a secondary function could tip the balance in favour of feasibility. In this circumstance it is the secondary consideration, not the primary one, which can be truly described as "vital".

Quite honestly there would be severe doubts about whether many mid-Wirral motorists would be tempted by travel to Chester on such a deviating route if not for one thing: the introduction of 40 mph speed limits along much of the Chester High Road from Heswall. This includes the very spot on the Cheshire/Merseyside border (opposite Boathouse Lane) where the largely derelict site of a former car dealer would make a perfect park-and-ride location.

Just a handful of years ago this had the potential to be just fifteen minutes by rail from Chester city centre. Yet very few motorists at present would even realise that they are driving over a railway just there, let alone one that could still prove so useful to them. Thanks to the slowing of the road, even a 25-minute train journey via Queensferry would easily outstrip the more "direct" option by car to a low-level-only Northgate station. 

And Liverpool could also be just over twenty tunnel-toll-saving minutes away...

Wrexham

Meanwhile the story in Wrexham is really the one which illustrates our constant dilemma: how do you stay positive when something so negative happens?

Wrexham Central station once stood just a narrow road-width away from the town centre shops, parallel to and just a minute's walk from the high street. During the Beeching era, its through service to Ellesmere and beyond closed down but a few yards of this remained in use for parking trains between the peak hours. (That was when we still HAD peak levels of service on the line). So there was one, just one, temporary reason for turning the town-side platforms over to rough car parking and making the rail users walk around it.

For far too many years, however, property developers had their eyes on the whole site, none of whom seemed remotely interested in incorporating a railway station into their plans. (Except, of course, to suggest that it should be moved away from the town centre in order to leave all the land for them).

We never opposed development of the site as such, in fact we were quite desperate for it to reach its full potential, but this would essentially have included restoring the platform which had originally been closest to the existing shops. Repeatedly, however, we were forced to fight the whatever was the latest moronic plan. Every time but once we overcame the opposition in our latest political or legal battle to secure the site for railway use.

Sadly, once is once too often: Click here to see what happened next.

Wrexham "Central" Station has now been moved to the furthest point beyond which it would be pointless even keeping it open. The only "plus" was that, to begin with, the new station looked very smart. This was a great improvement on the eventual sad state of the original station where if part of the last surviving platform became unsafe for the public to use it was simply fenced off, requiring passengers to walk past the eyesore to get to the train.

Unfortunately, the unobserved location of the new station between two warehouse-style retail outlets has proved to make it very vulnerable to the more destructive members of our society.

As we always said it would.

The station is quite well used, however, because at least it still adjoins the enlarged retail area. But we remain very saddened by the lost opportunity to make it the heart not only of the shopping centre but of the area's public transport system too...

... because elsewhere in the town centre, a brand new bus station has just been built. Very recently, Wrexham Central had not only ample space to accommodate this new facility, but also plenty of surplus trackbed to afford most of the local bus network segregated access to the town centre. AT A RAILWAY STATION!!! Like we said about Chester...

Not any more.

The Future

So there it is. The railway we foresaw in our early years has been consistently pushed away from us yet we remain committed to positive promotion of the service as it remains, still shuttling in its minimum viable frequency between Wrexham Not-So-Central and the remnants of Bidston Moss.

However, there has been one selling point which no-one can decry. Our fares! The last British Rail manager of the line, Steve Sharp, who was quite brilliant in what he was prepared to try, cut the fares by nearly half, found patronage rocketing and income increasing.

We have been delighted that much of the promotional work we have undertaken as a bunch of committed volunteers is now undertaken professionally by an official Community Rail Officer for the line. Despite limited resources the latest CRO, Mike Clutton, is doing an excellent job for the newly-branded Borderlands Line.

We now have our first integrated bus service from the rather remote Buckley station to residential parts of the town, which not only provides a much needed service but advertises the railway as it does so.

Other positive developments, on the other hand, have usually happened unintentionally. These include the now-convenient connections at Wrexham General to and from Birmingham and well-timed summer Sunday buses between from Shotton Station and Moel Famau! Through trains from North to South Wales have been diverted away from Crewe and now call at Wrexham, with at least one accidentally good daily connection from Bidston.

In contrast, with the exception of the Sunday morning train which runs for eight weeks in the summer, Shotton connections serving what would be our very biggest market - both ways between Merseyside and the North Wales Coast - are simply ABYSMAL. This is something we have complaining about for the entire life of the Association and short of chaining the rail operators' entire management to lamp-posts on the Queensferry By-Pass (or the new bridge to Flint) we won't hold our breath waiting for them to use their imaginations for once.

We have no great hope that including our line in the new Wales and Borders franchise will improve matters. We shall just have to wait and see if Arriva - the new holders of the franchise - deliver the goods in the years to come. It will be quite ironic if they do so, because when they operated our northern terminus as Merseyrail franchisees their attitude to a line that they saw as competitor for their market - when it was actually a contributor to it - left a great deal to be desired.

Still, let's think positive and anticipate better things to come!