Liverpool Central railway station

Liverpool Central railway station is a railway station in Liverpool, England, and forms the central hub of the Merseyrail network, being on both the Northern Line and the Wirral Line. In the years 2008/09, Liverpool Central station was shown to be the busiest station in Liverpool, despite being considerably smaller than Lime Street station, the mainline terminus. This may be because the majority of tickets are bought for "Liverpool Stations", which allow travel from either station. The station is located underground on two levels, on the site of a former mainline terminus.

Liverpool Central is one of nine stations on the Merseyrail network to incorporate automatic ticket barriers. The main concourse is part of a shopping centre and includes a subway link to the former Lewis's department store. Liverpool Central will be refurbished as part of the multi-million pound Central Village development. The station will close during April 2012 - August 2012 to allow necessary improvement works to take place, primarily to the platform area of the station.^[1]

History

High level terminal station

The original station, which was a large above ground terminal station, opened on 2 March 1874, at the end of the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) line to Manchester Central. It replaced Brunswick station as the CLC's terminus, and became the headquarters of the committee. The three-storey building fronted Ranelagh Street in the city centre, with a 65 feet (20 m) high, arched shed behind.

There were 6 platforms within the station, offering journeys to Manchester Central (in 45 minutes, making the route the quickest and most direct between Liverpool and Manchester), London St. Pancras, Hull, Harwich, Stockport Tiviot Dale, Southport Lord Street and an alternative London route to that of the Midland Railway terminating at London Marylebone.

Until the nationalisation of Britain's railways, the station was always busy, but as with many other stations in the UK, it was closed under the Beeching Axe, as the routes served could be taken from nearby Liverpool Lime Street. In 1966, most services on the CLC route were diverted to Liverpool Lime Street via the Hunts Cross chord, leaving only a dozen urban commuter trains per day to and from Gateacre. These final services were withdrawn on 17 April 1972 with a promise to reinstate the Gateacre route when the Merseyrail network was completed in 1978.

The High Level station was demolished in 1973, after having served a short time as a car park, although some former station buildings remained while work was in progress on rebuilding the underground station in the mid seventies. The area of the train shed now forms the centre of the planned Central Village development.

Underground urban station

On 11 January 1892 Liverpool Central Low Level station opened, at the end of the Mersey Railway's route, via the Mersey Railway Tunnel from Birkenhead, when the route was extended from James Street. The Mersey Railway platforms were underground, accessed from stairs within the High Level station and situated in roughly the same position as the escalators accessing the Merseyrail Northern Line today.

The Mersey Railway tunnel was aligned with the high level station's approach tunnel from the south. This was to ensure minimum engineering work if ever there was to be a link up of the two tunnels - as occurred when the two tunnels were linked in the 1970s.

Merseyrail

In the 1970s, the Merseyrail network was created by merging separate railways into one comprehensive network. Central underground station would service the Northern Line and Wirral Lines.

A new loop tunnel was built in Liverpool city centre for Wirral Line trains, linking James Street with Moorfields, Lime Street, Liverpool Central and returning to James Street. A new deep-level underground platform was built at Liverpool Central as part of this loop tunnel.

The former CLC route was taken underground connecting to the underground Mersey Railway platforms. Another new tunnel, the Link Tunnel, allowed trains to continue northwards via Moorfields to the approach lines to Liverpool Exchange, creating one long line from Hunts Cross to Southport. Liverpool Exchange terminal station was closed in 1977. This route became the Merseyrail Northern Line. The rebuilt underground station opened in 1977.

In the original 1970s Merseyrail plan, southbound trains would have continued to Warrington and Manchester; however, services terminated at Garston (but were later extended to Hunts Cross). At the same time, works to allow the Merseyrail Northern Line to be connected to the Victoria Tunnel were put in place, but were later abandoned. This would have allowed trains to operate to St Helens.

On 26 October 2005 a Wirral Line train derailed on the approach to Liverpool Central en route from Liverpool Lime Street.^[2] There were no serious injuries; however, the design of the Liverpool Loop meant that all Wirral Line services through the Loop were suspended for the remainder of the week, terminating at James Street.

The statistics for interchanges at this station excludes exchanges between trains, estimated at around 2 million,^[3] and concessionary pass holders.

Facilities

At street level is a travel centre opened in November 2009 which sells tickets, newspapers, food and drink, replacing the former ticket office and newsagents. There are also toilets, cash and food vending machines. Escalators and lifts lead to the two Northern Line platforms and the deep-level Wirral Line platform.

Future

There are plans to develop the car park behind Central Station (bounded by the rear of the station, Cropper Street, Newington and Bold Street) into Central Village. The 'village' will consist of a high rise tower for residential and business use, retail outlets, bars and restaurants and will also have a canal running the length of Bold Street. Planning permission has been granted to develop this area, which has been relatively derelict since the demolition of the High Level Station in the 1970s.^[4]

Station improvements

On 27 December 2007, Bart Schmeink, Merseyrail's managing director, pledged a major overhaul of Liverpool’s Loop Line underground stations.^[5] The plans would see makeovers at Liverpool Central, Moorfields and Lime Street stations, with Merseyrail stating that they were 'seeking ways to expand passenger capacity from around 35,000 a day to 50,000. Changes to the booking hall at Liverpool Central were implemented in November 2009. In 2009 the station was identified as one of the ten worst category B interchange stations for mystery shopper assessment of fabric and environment, and was set to receive a share of £50 million funding for improvements.^[6] Longer term plans suggested that there should be a new platform and an extra tunnel – or even a whole new station.^[7] The Liverpool Central upgrade plan was threatened with cancellation in June 2010, when the previously-announced funding was withdrawn as part of a £100 million cutback in Network Rail's spending ordered by the Con-Lib Dem coalition government.^[8] However, Merseytravel subsequently announced that alternative funding had been found and the redevelopment would go ahead, albeit on a reduced budget.^[9]

It was announced in September 2011 that all 5 of Liverpool's underground stations had secured £40 million investment from Network Rail to allow improvement works to take place, with half that amount earmarked for Central Station refurbishment. The station will close during April 2012 - August 2012 to allow necessary improvement works to take place, primarily to the platform area of the station although the concourse will also see minor improvements. Some of the improvements to take place specifically at Central Station include an additional lift, new escalators and refreshed wall cladding, amongst others.^[1]

Services

On the Northern Line, off-peak service level is as follows:

• 4 trains per hour to Southport
• 4 trains per hour to Ormskirk
• 4 trains per hour to Kirkby
• 4 trains per hour to Hunts Cross via Liverpool South Parkway

During late evenings, frequencies are reduced to 2 trains per hour on the Kirkby and Ormskirk branches; the Southport and Hunts Cross service retains 4 trains per hour.

Sunday services reflect the evening service, but the service from Southport to Hunts Cross is also reduced to 2 trains per hour except for summer Sundays when it remains at 4 trains per hour between Liverpool Central and Southport.

On the Wirral Line, off-peak service level is as follows:

• 4 trains per hour to New Brighton
• 4 trains per hour to West Kirby
• 6 trains per hour to Hooton of which:
  • 4 trains per hour continue to Chester
  • 2 trains per hour continue to Ellesmere Port

There are also extra services between Liverpool Central and Hooton during peak times. During late evenings and on Sundays, frequencies are reduced to 2 trains per hour on all branches.

References

External links

• Train times and station information for Liverpool Central railway station from National Rail
• Station information from Merseyrail
• History of Central station
• Report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch into 26 October 2005 derailment. (PDF format)