Liverpool South Parkway railway station

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Liverpool South Parkway
for Liverpool John Lennon Airport

Location

Place

Garston, Allerton

Local authority

Liverpool

Operations

Station code

LPY

Managed by

Merseyrail

Platforms in use

Live departures and station information from National Rail

Passenger Transport Executive

PTE

Merseytravel

Zone

History

11 June 2006

Opened

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Liverpool South Parkway station is a railway station and bus interchange in Garston, Liverpool, England. It is located towards the southern end of Merseyrail's Northern Line and on the junction of two main lines: the City Line from Liverpool towards Manchester via Warrington and also towards London via Crewe on the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Main Line. Allerton TMD is situated to the immediate east of the station.

1 History
2 Features
3 Services
4 Criticism
5 Future
6 External links

[edit] History

The station was built to improve public transport access to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, and also to provide new journey opportunities for rail passengers in south Liverpool by allowing easy interchange between Northern Line, City Line and West Coast Main Line services. Proposals for the station, originally called Allerton Interchange, existed as far back as 1999, but it was not until 2004 that construction began.

The main line platforms at Liverpool South Parkway are on the site of the former Allerton station, which closed in 2005 to allow the required rebuilding work to take place. The Northern Line platforms are completely new, replacing a station at Garston which was slightly further west of the current station.

At the time of opening, the City Line service (which had been hourly at the former Allerton station) was increased to half-hourly. The station also became an additional stop on the Central Trains CityLink service to Birmingham. Then, from 11 December 2006, the Monday-Saturday evening service on the Northern Line was increased to run every 15 minutes, instead of half-hourly as previously.

[edit] Features

6 platforms (4 on the West Coast Main Line, 2 on the Northern Line)
A 5-stand bus station for local bus services.
A 16-space taxi rank.
Provision for a proposed extension of the now-shelved Merseytram system towards the airport.
A 240-space car park for use as a Park and Ride facility.
Storage facilities for 65 bicycles.

The station has been designed to use environmentally-friendly techniques wherever possible. Some of the building's electricity is provided by Photovoltaic cells. A 700,000 litre rainwater harvesting system has also been installed to reduce the use of mains water. This water will be used for cleaning and washing, as well as toilet flushes. All timber used has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being from a well-managed forest. The roof is made from recycled aluminium instead of virgin materials.

In August 2006, Liverpool South Parkway won the Innovation Award at Network Rail's annual Environment Awards.

[edit] Services

Merseyrail Class 507, unit 507011 working a Southport train, seen in platform 6.

On the Northern Line, trains run every 15 minutes, Monday to Saturday, to Southport via Liverpool Central, with a half-hourly service on Sundays.

On the high-level platforms, Northern Rail provide two trains per hour in each direction on the City Line between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Oxford Road. On Sundays an hourly service operates.

Most Central Trains CityLink services from Liverpool to Birmingham New Street call at Liverpool South Parkway, except on Sundays when none of these services call.

Bus services run from the station to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Halewood, Mossley Hill and Liverpool City Centre. Most services are operated by Arriva North West. Combined bus-rail tickets are available for rail passengers wishing to travel to the airport.

[edit] Criticism

Originally scheduled to open in December 2005, the project fell behind schedule, and finally opened on 11 June 2006. The construction cost, originally estimated to be £16 million, had doubled to £32 million by the time construction was completed. Merseytravel rejected criticism of the delays and cost increase, stating that it had been caused by factors beyond its control, such as the collapse of Railtrack, increasing steel costs and poor weather causing flooding at the construction site.

Tom Wileman, regional director of bus operator Stagecoach, has said that Liverpool South Parkway is a "white elephant". [1] No Stagecoach services call at the interchange.

[edit] Future

Merseytravel have stated that they aim to work with the train operators to improve the train service at Liverpool South Parkway, introducing new services with each twice-yearly timetable change.

From 20 May 2007, the Central Trains CityLink Sunday service between Liverpool and Birmingham will serve Liverpool South Parkway.

From December 2008, all Central Trains CityLink services between Liverpool and Birmingham will serve Liverpool South Parkway. This requirement was included in the Stakeholder Briefing document for the new West Midlands Franchise, issued by the Department for Transport. [2]

The Stakeholder Briefing Document for the East Midlands Franchise indicates that the hourly Liverpool-Norwich service, currently operated by Central Trains CityLink, will serve Liverpool South Parkway from December 2008, "if Network Rail can robustly timetable it". [3]

Other new services could include:

Additional shuttle services between Liverpool South Parkway and Liverpool Lime Street on the City Line
More frequent Sunday services on the Northern Line
The hourly Transpennine Express service to Manchester, Leeds and the north east
Services to Chester and North Wales. This would require upgrading of the Halton Curve to accommodate bidirectional working and is a long-term project.

There are no plans at the present time to stop Virgin Trains express services to London at this station. The platforms are not long enough to accommodate Virgin's Pendolino trains, and the track layout at this station precludes any platform extension.

Preceding station		Following station
Hunts Cross towards Hunts Cross	Merseyrail Northern Line	Cressington towards Southport
Hunts Cross towards Manchester Oxford Road	Northern Rail Liverpool to Manchester Line (Southern Route)	West Allerton towards Liverpool Lime Street
Runcorn	Central Trains West Coast Main Line *denotes not all services call here	Mossley Hill*

edit Merseyrail Northern Line Stations
Hunts Cross – Southport Branch
Hunts Cross Liverpool South Parkway Cressington Aigburth St Michaels Brunswick Liverpool Central Moorfields Sandhills Bank Hall Bootle Oriel Road Bootle New Strand Seaforth & Litherland Waterloo Blundellsands & Crosby Hall Road Hightown Formby Freshfield Ainsdale Hillside Birkdale Southport
Ormskirk Branch
Liverpool Central Moorfields Sandhills Kirkdale Walton Orrell Park Aintree Old Roan Maghull Town Green Aughton Park Ormskirk
Kirkby Branch
Liverpool Central Moorfields Sandhills Kirkdale Rice Lane Fazakerley Kirkby