Notes: The grand terminus that was Southport Lord Street opened as part of the Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway on 1.9.1884.

The line which ran from Aintree Central to Southport Lord Street was designed to give access to the lucrative holiday market at Southport as an alternative to the L&Y route. From the beginning the line was served by trains from Liverpool Central and from Manchester the former following a circuitous route that could not hope to compete with the direct Liverpool Exchange to Southport Chapel Street Route.

The station had a grand frontage building complete with a clock tower. It had five platform faces covered by a glazed overall roof.

Most unusually for a terminus Southport Lord Street had a footbridge connecting its platforms. Situated about halfway along the stations platforms it seemed to serve very little purpose as it would hardly be likely that arriving passengers would want to change platforms for another service when the only option was to go back in the same direction.

It has been suggested that the CLC had installed a bridge as they had hoped that another line would come in from the north and then interchange between services would be possible. However it seems to have been an expensive installation considering that the proposed line had never even had Parliamentary approval, and as things turned out it never did.

The station closed to passengers on 1.1.1917 as a war time economy measure. It re-opened on 1.4.1919.

The Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway never really delivered the traffic levels that the CLC had hoped for. During the Second World War the line did see intensive use for a period during 1940 when the former L&Y Southport to Liverpool line was damaged by enemy bombing close to Liverpool Exchange Station. Damage was such that the line was out of use for a number of weeks and so a number of specials were run from Liverpool Central to Southport Lord Street.
The CLC became part of British Railways in 1948 and shortly afterwards the platforms at Southport Lord Street were extended so that longer trains could be accommodated. However within a couple of years the line was to close. It was decided that long distance trains could be diverted to use Southport Chapel Street and that the Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway could close in its entirety. Southport Lord Street closed to passenger services on 7.1.1952 and to goods six months later.

This was not the end of the station's life as a transport hub as it became Southport's 'Ribble' Bus Station. It remained almost entirely unaltered, except for the leveling of the areas between the platforms where the tracks had been. The bus station lasted until 1987 after which the trainshed was demolished. In the early 1990's a Morrisons Supermarket was built on the site but the station frontage building was restored and still stands today complete with a plaque informing shoppers of its former use.

For stations on Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway click on the station name: Birkdale Palace, Ainsdale Beach, Woodvale, Mossbridge, Altcar & Hillhouse, Lydiate, Sefton and Maghull & Aintree Central