City Line (Merseytravel)

The City Line (sometimes City Lines) is the brand name used by Merseytravel on commuter rail services connecting the Liverpool City Region (Merseyside and Halton) with Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Blackpool and Lancashire starting eastwards from the mainline platforms of Liverpool Lime Street railway station.

The City Line is Merseytravel’s method of asserting local transport authority over commuter rail within its boundary, short of owning or operating the trains. The City Line is defined by geography and authority, not by a train operator or traction. The line is not cosmetic being a statutory transport authority function. The City Line designation applies only within Merseytravel’s area - outside it services revert to ordinary regional or inter-urban services.^{[citation needed]}

A commuter rail service operated by any train operator becomes a “City Line” service the moment it enters the Merseytravel (Liverpool City Region) area. Ticketing is seamless across all lines within Merseytravel's area, all stations are branded with Merseyrail's yellow, with the line on Merseyrail maps. From a passenger perspective, when inside the Liverpool City Region the City Line is simply another Merseyrail line.^{[citation needed]}

The City Line covers most of the Liverpool City Region sections of the Crewe–Liverpool line, the two Liverpool–Manchester lines and the Liverpool–Wigan line, with services continuing to Warrington, Chester via Runcorn and Blackpool and Preston via Wigan.

It is mainly operated by Northern Trains, with additional long-distance services operated by TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains. Unlike the other two Merseytravel-supervised lines, the Merseyrail Northern and Wirral lines, the City Line is not operated by Merseyrail, however most of the line's stations within the Liverpool City Region are in Merseytravel's Merseyrail branding. The line is usually depicted on Merseytravel signage and maps using the colour red.

The City Line can trace its origins back to the dawn of the railway era, as it incorporates most of the route of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in 1830 and including Broad Green Station, the oldest operating station in the world. Other early railway companies whose lines are now part of the City Line include the Cheshire Lines Committee and the London and North Western Railway.

These disparate local railway services were not marketed under a common name until 1972, when Merseyside PTE introduced the Merseyrail brand for services which were operated by British Rail on its behalf. The PTE applied the City Line name to local services out of Liverpool's main station at Lime Street.

Around this time, ambitious plans were floated to electrify parts of the City Line and incorporate it into the Northern line, via the Wapping Tunnel from Edge Hill to Liverpool Central. However, after work started, they were abandoned, and to this day the suburbs of eastern Liverpool have no direct route to other suburbs of the city without changing to the underground network at Lime Street.