Northern line (Merseyrail)

Northern line
A Northern line Class 507 at Liverpool Central
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Liverpool North West England
Termini	Southport Hunts Cross
Stations	35
Operation
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Merseyrail
Depot(s)	Kirkdale TMD
Rolling stock	British Rail Class 507 British Rail Class 508
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Loading gauge	W6
Electrification	750 V DC third rail
Operating speed	60 mph (97 km/h) maximum

The Northern line is one of the two commuter rail lines operated by Merseyrail in Merseyside, England, with Wirral line being the other. A third line, the City Line, is not owned or operated by Merseyrail. All three lines are funded by Merseytravel.

The Northern line passes underground through Liverpool city centre with termini at:

The line runs from Hunts Cross via the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) route towards Liverpool Central. Brunswick station between St Michaels and Liverpool Central was added in 1998 to provide a connection to the Brunswick Business Park. Just south of Liverpool Central, the line leaves the CLC route, in tunnel at that point, into a 1970s tunnel that drops to a lower level into the underground Mersey Railway Liverpool Central (Low Level) station. North of Central the line uses the Mersey Railway tunnel for about half of the route to Moorfields, an underground station built in the 1970s to replace the surface-level Liverpool Exchange. North of Moorfields the route emerges from the tunnel to join the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway lines from the former Exchange station.

After Sandhills, the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway branches off towards Southport, while the other routes continue to Kirkdale on what was a joint section of track between Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway and the Liverpool and Bury Railway. After Kirkdale, the Ormskirk and Kirkby lines diverge.