Conway Park station in Birkenhead was opened in April 1998 by Neil Kinnock (yuck!) with a plaque, but then it didn't actually open until the 22nd of June of that year! In the Wirral Globe it was written that the station could get 7000 passengers a day, which seems very optimistic compared to the actual passenger usage of the station (https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/7435855.kinnock-puts-town-on-track-for-21st-century/ https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/7435283.conway-park-station-opens-plus-smart-bus-service/).
It was believed that the station would improve the business in the nearby Grange shopping centre, and the Birkenhead News described the station as "state-of-the-art" (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003738/19980624/027/0027). The Birkenhead News article also mentioned the potential 7000 passengers a day! I am unsure what the source of this number was!
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| An advertisement for the new station in the Liverpool Echo |
Wikipedia (reliable source) says that in 2023/24, Conway Park got 647,000 passengers. Dividing this by 365 gets the figure of 1772.6 passengers a day, quite a lot lower than the estimate provided at the time of opening!
The station provides easier access to the main shopping areas of Birkenhead for users of the West Kirby and New Brighton parts of the Wirral Line, as previously users of this line would have had to walk from Hamilton Square or Birkenhead Park, or change at Hamilton Square for access to Birkenhead Central.
