The timetable now operates later into the evening than before since the summer 2018 timetable came into effect. A Sunday service (broadly hourly each way from late morning until 19:00) now operates - this was introduced at the May 2018 timetable change  At about 22:17 on 22 March 1945 a wagon containing depth charges in a southbound freight train caught fire on approaching Bootle. The train crew, driver H. Goodall and fireman Herbert Norman Stubbs, on becoming aware of the fire, stopped the train south of Bootle station. Despite the fierce fire, the crew isolated the burning wagon by uncoupling the rear portion of the train, then drawing it forward to before uncoupling the burning wagon. With the wagon isolated, the fireman went forward to protect the northbound line while the driver went back in a possible attempt to fight the fire. At this point the depth charges violently exploded, killing the driver and creating a crater 105 feet long to a depth of 50 feet. The line was closed for three days whilst the crater was filled in and the track relaid. Stubbs was subsequently awarded the George Medal and the Order of Industrial Heroism.