Liverpool Central High Level railway station

Liverpool Central
Location
Place	Liverpool
Area	Liverpool
Grid reference	SJ350902
Operations
Original company	Cheshire Lines Committee
Pre-grouping	Cheshire Lines Committee
Post-grouping	Cheshire Lines Committee
Platforms	6
History
1 March 1874 (1874-03-01)	Station opened
17 April 1972 (1972-04-17)	Station closed
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
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Cheshire Lines Committee
Legend
Merseyside Lines  Southport Lord Street Birkdale Palace to Southport Ainsdale Ainsdale Beach Northern Line Woodvale Freshfield to Liverpool Central Liverpool, Southport and Preston Junction Railway Barton Mossbridge Hillhouse Junction Altcar and Hillhouse Lydiate Sefton and Maghull to Ormskirk Old Roan Aintree Junction Southport Junction Aintree Central Aintree Northern Line Warbreck Orrell Park Walton to Kirkby Rice Lane to Liverpool Central Fazakerley Junctions Walton on the Hill Huskisson Clubmoor West Derby Knotty Ash & Stanley Broad Green City Line Childwall Gateacre Northern Line Liverpool Central Liverpool Central High Level St James Brunswick(original) Egerton Street Junction Brunswick St Michaels Otterspool Aigburth Cressington to Lime Street Garston Liverpool South Parkway Hunts Cross West Junction Hunts Cross to Manchester Central

Liverpool Central High Level<ref "Name=DisusedCentral">"LIVERPOOL CENTRAL HIGH LEVEL". Disused Station. Retrieved 2009-07-21. </ref> opened on 1 March 1874,^[1] at the end of the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) line to Manchester Central. It replaced Brunswick as the CLC's Liverpool passenger terminus, becoming the headquarters of the committee.

The three-storey building fronted Ranelagh Street in Liverpool city centre, with a 65-foot (20 m) high, arched shed behind.^[2] There were six platforms within the station, offering journeys to Manchester Central (in 45 mins, making the route quicker and more direct than those of the competing Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway & London & North Western Railway), London St. Pancras, Hull, Harwich, Stockport Tiviot Dale, Southport Lord Street and an alternative route to that of the Midland Railway terminating at London Marylebone.

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

The station was always busy, until nationalisation. Route closures that were part of the Beeching Axe in the 1960s closed three terminal stations: Liverpool Central High Level, Liverpool Exchange and Woodside Station in Birkenhead.

• Long and Medium Distance Routes - Lime Street Station in Liverpool city centre was to remain, absorbing the long- to medium-distance passenger traffic of the closed terminal stations.
• Local urban routes - The local urban services served by the terminal stations would be absorbed by the new Merseyrail urban network.

New tunnels under Liverpool's city centre were scheduled to connect all the separate rail lines to create Merseyrail.

In 1966 most services on the CLC route were diverted to Lime Street via the Hunts Cross chord, leaving only a dozen urban commuter trains per day to and from the terminus at Gateacre. These final services were withdrawn on 17 April 1972 with the High Level part of the station closed that day;^[1] it was later demolished, after having served briefly as a car park. However, the Low Level underground station remained open.

The site is being developed into Central Village, built over the underground station.

References

Sources

• Welbourn, Nigel (2008). Liverpool and the Mersey (Lost Lines). Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-3190-6. 

Coordinates: 53°24′17″N 2°58′49″W / 53.4046°N 2.9802°W / 53.4046; -2.9802