Two Mersey Tunnels Police officers, working separately years apart, are said to have reported seeing a mysterious young woman at the entrance to one of Merseyside's tunnels before she vanished without a trace. The legend claims she was killed in a motorcycle accident and returned as a ghostly hitchhiker, standing by the roadside and beckoning motorists to stop.
The story was investigated by paranormal researcher Rob Gandy as part of his research into phantom hitchhikers and road ghosts, a phenomenon between folklore, urban legend, and alleged supernatural encounters. The Mersey Tunnel legend dates back decades, with folklore researcher Theo Brown telling author Michael Goss in 1980 that she had first heard the story around 20 years earlier.
Kingsway Tunnel sightings
Local ghost stories claimed that in the 1960s, a young woman riding pillion on a motorbike in the Mersey Tunnel fell from the motorcycle and died from her injuries. Motorists then began seeing her ghost, standing in the middle of the road, apparently trying to thumb a lift. Some versions claimed that Tunnel Police had witnessed her and that motorists who swerved to avoid the apparition had subsequently crashed.
But Rob found that some details did not add up. The ghost story was usually associated with the Queensway Tunnel between Liverpool and Birkenhead, yet the sightings he investigated concerned the Kingsway Tunnel, which connects Liverpool with Wallasey. The Kingsway Tunnel opened in 1971 and has two parallel tubes. The mysterious woman was reportedly seen at the left-hand entrance to the south tube, dressed in black motorcycle leathers, with her arm out as though asking for a lift. She was described as young and blonde.
Police officers' accounts
Peter Bishop, who worked for Mersey Tunnels for 30 years and rose from technician to acting assistant engineering manager, told Rob he was aware of accounts from Tunnel Police officers who had encountered the figure. He was able to speak directly to officers involved in two separate incidents during the 1980s. The encounters happened around six to eight years apart and involved different police officers. In one case, the officer was alone, and in the other, there were two officers in the vehicle.
According to Peter, the officers appeared genuine in their descriptions, and both incidents followed remarkably similar patterns. The approach to the tunnel entrance is around 700 yards long and completely straight, with the final section passing beneath a high, arched canopy. Yet on both occasions, the officers only noticed the supposed hitchhiker at the very last moment. She appeared immediately to their left as they approached the tunnel, standing on the hard shoulder in front of the concrete wall, near the steps leading to the tunnel walkway. The location was significant because pedestrians, cyclists, and hitchhikers are not permitted to enter the tunnel.
In one incident, the police vehicle continued for about 40 to 50 yards before the officer turned back through the other tunnel to apprehend the woman. But when he reached the spot where she had been standing, she had disappeared. In the other incident, the police vehicle stopped around 50 yards inside the tunnel. One officer raced back towards the entrance to speak to her. Again, there was nobody there.
Questions and alternative explanations
Peter questioned the practicalities of the supposed ghostly hitchhiker. Standing directly at the tunnel entrance would be an unlikely place for someone genuinely trying to get a lift. There was nowhere for a driver to stop safely, and the location would have made it difficult for anyone to arrive unnoticed. Despite the long-running story that a young woman had died there in a motorcycle accident, Peter could find no evidence to support it. He had heard the story that a girl travelling as a pillion passenger had been killed at the location shortly after the Kingsway Tunnel opened in 1971, but he believed it was one of the many myths and legends that had gathered around the tunnels.
There was, however, a real fatal motorcycle accident in the 1960s. A motorcyclist came off his bike on a bend near the Birkenhead end of the Queensway Tunnel, hitting the tubular pedestrian guard rails and suffering fatal injuries. But that involved a different tunnel and a male motorcyclist. Peter suggested the ghost story may have become confused with the real accident over time. He also dismissed the suggestion that the supposed ghost had somehow caused later fatal crashes as “ridiculous”.
Rob also investigated another motorcycle-related encounter. One man from Moreton, Michael, described an incident in 1979 while riding his Honda 400/4 with a friend on the pillion. They were travelling through the rural hamlet of Frankby between 2.30am and 3am after a night out in Birkenhead. As they rounded a bend, Michael saw what appeared to be a long-haired man draped over a circular road sign in the glare of his headlight. The figure appeared to be more than 5ft 10 in tall, with a gangly frame, a long face, dark clothes, and heavy boots. He appeared to be facing Michael, with his arms and legs bent backward. Michael immediately stopped and asked his friend if he had seen it. He had not. They turned around and went back to the sign. There was nobody there.
Michael wondered whether it had been an optical illusion or perhaps a prankster hiding nearby, particularly because Frankby Cemetery was situated just beyond a wall beside the road. But he struggled to believe someone could have carried out such an elaborate prank in the middle of the night and disappeared so quickly. For Rob, that is where the mystery remains.
