There is a BT Payphone on Platform 1. Limited seating exists on Platform 1 and 2. The station has won numerous Best Kept Station awards. A Customer Information System has been installed and is operational, allowing passengers to view departures and their calling points. If a train service is delayed, the CIS automatically shows the expected arrival time. There is no disabled access to trains calling at this station due to the low platforms. Platforms for the Manchester and Ellesmere Port services can also only be reached by using the footbridge.
Services
The station is on the Chester to Manchester Line between Manchester Piccadilly and Chester. It has been operated byArriva Trains Wales since 2005 until the franchise was handed over to Transport for Wales in 2018, but is unstaffed requiring passengers to purchase tickets from the ticket vending machine Iocated on Platform 1 or the conductor, on board the train. The nearest station with additional ticketing facilities is Chester. Penalty fares do not operate here. There is a basic hourly service in each direction between Manchester and Chester/North Wales and between Chester and Liverpool Lime Street via the Halton Curve. There is also a service to Leeds that calls at Helsby three times in a morning and twice in an evening that is operated by Northern. Most westbound trains towards Chester continue to . There are two services that run to Holyhead rather than Llandudno on weekdays and one service on Saturdays runs to Bangor. Certain northbound trains are now extended through to. On Sundays the Manchester service operates between Chester & Manchester Piccadilly only, although on the same hourly frequency as during the week. The station is also the junction of the branch line to Ellesmere Port. This service sees three trains daily in each direction, - two in the early morning and another in the early evening. Two of these trains continue to Warrington Bank Quay and beyond to Manchester and on weekdays only. Northern Trains operates this service.. There is no Sunday service on this line. The summer Saturdays only Chester to Runcorn parliamentary train via the Halton Curve passed through the station but did not call when operating. A regular service between Liverpool Lime Street and Chester on this route, calling here and serving and commenced at the May 2019 timetable change. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Long Term Rail Strategy document of October 2017, page 37, states that a trial of new Merseyrail battery trains will be undertaken in 2020, in view to put Helsby onto the Merseyrail network. If successful, Helsby will be one of the terminals of the Wirral line giving direct services to Birkenhead and four underground station in Liverpool's city centre.
Helsby has several bus links operated primarily by Arriva North West and Stagecoach Merseyside. Route X30 operates between Chester and Warrington hourly.
Route X2 operates between Runcorn and Chester via Ince & Elton, and Ellesmere Port, hourly. *On Sundays, service 21 is operated on behalf of Cheshire West and Chester Council by Stagecoach Merseyside Limited service. Services terminate at Frodsham and do not serve Runcorn.
Trains
Passenger
operates Class 150, Class 153, Class 158 and Class 175 DMUs on its services, as the Chester to Warrington line is not electrified. The services to and from Ellesmere Port are operated by Northern. Northern use various types of rolling stock, including Class 142, Class 150 and Class 156.
Goods
Occasional goods trains run through Helsby. Freight services used to operate to Stanlow Oil Refinery but these services no longer run. Regular freight workings still operate to and from Ellesmere Port,the Encirc Glass Plant at Elton along with periodic goods services towards Chester. These mostly run to/from the Kronospan chipboard plant at or the Tata Steel mill at Dee Marsh.
Adopt-a-station
The North Cheshire Rail Users' Group has adopted this station and regularly ensure the station is clean and tidy. The station has won the "Best Kept Station" six times, and the plaques commending this are fixed to the signal box located on the island platforms,.
