services Ellesmere Port saw frequent freight traffic until 1996 with branches to several wharves as well as Eastham Oil Terminal. In 2005 a single track line to Manisty Wharf in Ellesmere Port was reopened for a regular coal flow to Fiddlers Ferry power station. This freight route enters Ellesmere Port from Helsby. Freightliner Heavy Haul currently operates the service, with two trains per day. In 2008 Quinn Glass was planning expansion and wanted to serve their site at Elton which outputs 1.2 billion glass containers per year for the food and beverage industry near the Ince & Elton railway station by rail. Network Rail Route Strategy states that Quinn Glass is interested in additional passenger and freight services on this line. It is also thought that planning permission requires Quinn Glass to maximise upon existing public transport links. A trial service ran on 7 April 2011 and a twice-weekly service every Wednesday and Friday commenced on 13 April 2011. Those services were operated by Freightliner Heavy Haul and transported sand from Sibelco's Middleton Towers Quarry in Middleton, Norfolk. At present the sand is transported by road the final five miles to the Quinn Glass plant from a former Cawoods siding in Ellesmere Port beside the Manchester Ship Canal, south of Manisty Wharf, but from November 2011 trains were due to begin using a dedicated terminal at the plant itself. It was announced during this month that construction work had been delayed due to the discovery of a badger sett on the proposed site. Completion of the new line was set back to the end of June 2012 with a reported total cost of more than £2 million. In November 2012 it emerged that Quinn Glass had broken a planning condition requiring the rail terminal to be operational by November 2011. The company cited additional demands by Network Rail and the Environment Agency's decision to switch off the Frodsham Marshes pumping stations as causes of delay. Quinn Glass have since been granted an extended period by Cheshire West and Chester council during which to complete the project. Stations Hooton; opened October or November 1840; still open; Sutton; opened 1 July 1863; renamed Little Sutton 1886; still open; Overpool; opened 15 August 1988; still open; Whitby Locks; opened 1 July 1863; renamed Ellesmere Port 1870; still open; Stanlow & Thornton; opened 23 December 1940 for refinery workers; opened to public 24 February