A look at services between Sandhills and Liverpool Central via the Cross City Link tunnel which opened in 1977. The lines are used by Merseyrail electric services from Southport, Ormskirk and Kirkby. The Kirkby service was recently extended to Headbolt Lane using battery powered 777/1 units on the unelectrified section.
These lines were all formerly part of the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway, the electrification of the Southport and Ormskirk lines dating from the early 20th century. The L&Y terminated at Liverpool Exchange which was closed in 1977 when the tunnel to Liverpool Central opened. Electrification to Kirkby was done to allow Exchange to close
Main line services from Exchange were progressively transferred to Lime Street between 1966 and 1970 leaving only local services to Wigan and Preston. These were truncated to run only to the limit of the Meerseyrail services from 1977.