the closure of Banks railway station in 1964, the nearest railway station is , south west of the village, with trains to Liverpool, Wigan, and Manchester. The village has regular bus services linking it with Southport, Formby, Crosby, Bootle, Liverpool and Preston. Roads Ralph's Wife's Lane is the main road connecting Banks with Crossens to the south. Its name has two origins: one that Ralph was a fisherman lost at sea or Ralph was a smuggler, again lost at sea. His wife's ghost is supposed to be looking for him. It has been reported that people have seen the ghost on dark winter nights walking from by St Stephens Church to Fiddler's Ferry holding a lamp waiting for her loved one to return home. The story states that she lit a lamp in her window every night and sat by it so he knew that she was waiting for him to return home. The site of the house is occupied by two bungalows. Sugar Stubbs Lane is situated in Far Banks down the A565 road towards Mere Brow. The road was once a track across the marsh. In the 1980s the road was extended across the Banks Moss towards Hundred End and Tarleton. Its history is that it was the route taken by monks from Lancaster who travelled by boat across the marsh to Liverpool, and marked their way across the marsh and estuary by dropping the stubbs from the sugar canes along the way so they could find their way back giving the name to Sugar Stubbs Lane and Sugar Stubbs Farm where a small farm shop is run from the house. There are four properties on the lane, one, the former Mock Tudor gatehouse to Greaves Hall at the junction of the A565 road and Sugar Stubbs Lane. The driveway to Greaves Hall was restored in 2005 and is a public footpath. Education The village has two primary schools, Banks Methodist Primary School on Chapel Lane and Banks St Stephens Primary School on Greaves Hall Avenue. (Banks St Stephens school relocated to its present site from Hoole Lane in July 1998.) There is also a children's nursery on Station Road. There are no secondary schools in Banks and most children aged 11–16 attend Tarleton High School or secondary schools in Southport. In 1973 the education office announced that there may be the possibility of a new secondary school