175003 pauses at Helsby station with the 07.34 Manchester Airport

to Llandudno TfW service. This photograph, taken from lower Rake Lane, shows the junction to the immediate east of the station with the Ellesmere Port line off to the right. Until relatively recently, this line was a passenger route and, technically, still is but with a bus now replacing rail services serving Ince & Elton, Stanlow and Ellsmere Port stations. As part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Long Term Rail Strategy document of October 2017, it is stated that by 2020 Merseyrail battery (hybrid) trains should be terminating at Helsby as an expansion of the Wirral Line. It's now 2022 and with their new trains not even in service yet I fear that this remains an ambition aim and is still a fair way off!