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Monday 17 Mar 2025

£500k investment to improve drainage on Merseyrail Network

Region & Route:

North West & Central

| North West & Central: North West

Network Rail is upgrading the drainage at a Cheshire flooding hotspot for passengers travelling between Liverpool and Chester.

Services passing through Ledsham near Hooton have been subject to delay in recent months following heavy rainfall in the North West.

Engineers have designed a solution to improve the drainage in this area, which will make Liverpool to Chester services more reliable for passengers.

The work will mean that the line between Liverpool Central and Ellesmere Port and Chester will be closed from 2am on Sunday 30 March and will reopen on Tuesday 1 April at 5am.

Paul Owen, Network Rail’s area director for Merseyside and Cheshire, said “We are seeing more extreme weather events and during autumn and winter 2024, the track at Hooton has been blocked due to flooding for several days on three occasions. We recognise that this isn’t good enough and have invested in some work that we hope will solve the problem and keep passengers on the move. Unfortunately we need to close the railway to carry out this work and we thank passengers for their patience.”

Greg Suligowski, Head of Corporate Affairs at Merseyrail said “We know how disruptive the flooding in and around the Hooton area has been to Merseyrail customers. We have been working closely with partners including Network Rail, who own and maintain the track on which we operate, to find a solution to this long-standing issue”.

“We do know that these drainage works will cause some further disruption,  however we hope that they will help significantly improve the reliability of the rail service we can offer to our customers travelling on the Wirral line. A comprehensive rail replacement bus service will be in operation during the works to help customers complete their journeys. We will continue to work with partners to measure the effectiveness of the new drains and to continually improve the reliability of our railway”.

By installing purpose built catch pits the water will be diverted and stored away from the railway track, which reduces the likelihood of delays and cancellations in poor weather. 

Network Rail is working with Merseyrail to keep customers moving during the work.