Chester & Connah's Quay Railway

The Chester & Connah's Quay Railway ran from Northgate station in Chester, Cheshire, England to Shotton, Flintshire, Wales. It was built by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (which later became the Great Central Railway) and was opened on 31 March 1890.

At Dee Marsh Junction it connected with the North Wales and Liverpool Railway. It then crossed the River Dee by means of Hawarden Bridge before joining the Wrexham, Mold and Connah's Quay Railway at Shotton.

The only section of the Chester & Connah's Quay Railway which remains in use is between Dee Marsh Junction and Shotton, forming part of the Borderlands Line. The rest of the line closed to passenger trains in 1969 and to freight trains in 1992. The closure was precipitated by the closure of Ravenscraig Steelworks in Scotland, as latterly most trains using the line ran between Ravenscraig and Shotton.

Since the line between Chester and Dee Marsh closed, the track has been lifted and the route is now a cycle path, forming part of Route 5 of the National Cycle Network.

External links

• Dee Marsh and Mickle Trafford (photographs by David Sallery)
• National Cycle Network Chester to Connah's Quay
• Railscot article on the Chester & Connah's Quay Railway

'A Virtual Stroll Along the Mickle Trafford Railway' is a photographic and descriptive journey along the old line, now the 'Millennium Cycleway'. It also extensively discusses a controversial plan by Chester city Council to construct a 'guided busway' along the currently green and peaceful cycleway in order to link a huge new park-and-ride site with the city centre:

• http://www.bwpics.co.uk/railstroll/railindex.html

The site forms part of 'Chester: a Virtual Stroll Around the Walls' (http://www.bwpics.co.uk/chester.html) by Steve Howe.