electrification of the southport route was agreed in 1902. it was increasingly popular for commuting and pleasure trips but suffered from competition from the cheshire lines railway. electric traction was seen as cleaner than steam locomotives, and with coal prices rising, potentially cheaper. at the time concerns were being expressed, especially in the railway press, that engineering developments in britain was being overtaken by electrification projects in america and switzerland. preston-based dick, kerr & co. was responsible for the traction systems and the l&yr built the rolling stock. a 625 v dc four-rail system was adopted. a live rail was outside the running rails from the centre of the track and above the top of the running rails. a return rail, cross-bonded to the running rails, was positioned centrally between the tracks. the route was long and gaps were left at 46 level crossings. the l&yr built a power station at formby, generating 7.5 kv ac, conveyed to four sub-stations by underground cables. the first batch of trains were open saloons long and , initially in four-car sets. the two driving motor cars were third class, weighed powered by four motors. the traction current was controlled from driving cabs at both ends of the train. the two trailers were first class or third class and weighed . doors were provided at the ends of the cars and electric lighting was installed. the trains had an automatic vacuum brake. the line between liverpool exchange and southport opened on 22 march 1904. seven trains an hour left liverpool, one express and three stopping trains to southport, and three terminating at . electrification meant the journey time of stopping trains to southport was reduced from 54 to 37 minutes. in 1905–6 a further eight motor coaches, six first class trailers and six third class trailers were built to slightly different design, followed by six more long motor coaches in 1910. to cope with the heavy traffic to the grand national at three trains of ten coaches were converted to allow them to be marshalled between the southport direct-control motor coaches. the ly&r stock was replaced from 1940 by new that became british rail class 502 and all had been withdrawn by 1942.