Olive Mount chord

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A view of the north end of the disused trackbed alignment, where it meets the Canada dock branch

The Olive Mount chord in Liverpool, England was a 300-metre stretch of railway track that provided access to the Canada Dock Branch. It was removed in the 1970s as dock traffic declined. The delays resulting from its removal have now become a limiting factor in access to the Port of Liverpool.

On 27 June 2006, Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport, revealed that the Olive Mount Chord was one of several projects to be included in the government's productivity transport innovation fund.^[1]

On 20 January 2008 the green light was given to reopen the line to make the ferrying of freight between the Port of Liverpool to the West Coast Main Line easier. The works will remove the need for reversing at Edge Hill and for crossing lines in and out of Lime Street and it is hoped will remove large vehicles from congested areas, including Switch Island. The project is due to be completed by the end of 2008 and will cost an estimated £7.9m, of which Merseytravel will put £2.1m towards the costs.^[2]

[edit] Reinstatement

Over the Bank Holiday weekend of early May 2008, the Chat Moss line was closed to rail traffic to allow a facing crossover to be installed between the inbound (to Liverpool) and outbound (to Manchester) lines. This crossing was placed on site on Sunday 4 May 2008 and is located east of Mill Lane bridge.