Birkdale railway station opened as Gilbert's Crossing on 24 July 1848 when the Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway (LC&SR) opened its single-track line from Waterloo to Southport Eastbank Street.

[1] It was not open for long and by December 1848 had moved to where the road crossed the line at "Old Gilbert's", the OS map of 1847 showing the station between "Old Gilbert's Birkdale" and "Bond's House", approximately opposite the current Dunkirk Road.

[1] The station, described as "substantial and ornate" is located on the south side of Weld/Liverpool Road where the road crosses the railway via a level crossing,[c] in 1890 there were booking offices and waiting rooms on both sides of the line with gabled glazed canopies supported by iron columns, which once ran almost the full length of the platforms, sometime after 1954 they were shortened to six bays on the down platform and four bays on the up side, giving it the character of a small country town station rather than a suburban one, the two platforms were connected with a subway adjacent to the road.

[18] In 1978 the station became part of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line (operated by British Rail until privatised in 1995).

[20] Trains operate every 15 minutes throughout the day from Monday to Saturday to Southport to the north, and to Hunts Cross via Liverpool Central to the south.