Lime Street wall
Liverpool Lime Street station closes for one week after wall collapses onto running tracks.
ALL train services to and from Liverpool Lime Street were suspended for more than a week after a section of ten-metre-high retaining wall collapsed on the station approach.
An estimated 200 tonnes of debris fell onto the tracks and pulled down overhead wires at approximately 1745 on February 28, blocking all four running lines between the city’s Lime Street and Edge Hill stations.
Network Rail reopened the station in the early hours of March 8 following an extensive repair programme.
The precise cause of the structural failure is yet to be formally announced, but early indications and aerial images pointed to several cabins filled with concrete and other heavy materials (including washing machines) as the likely culprits, placed by a third party near the top of the Victorian-era cutting. These are thought to have exceeded the weight tolerances of the brick and sandstone-sided cutting, which was built almost 200 years ago.
Having devised a three-stage repair plan, NR said its first task was to remove 4,000 tonnes of material from the top of the cutting, plus five of the offending containers, to make the location safe and prevent any further fall of rubble. Some 200 tonnes of fallen material then had to be removed from within the deep cutting itself, before repairs could finally be made to track and the overhead line equipment.
A more permanent fix is likely to be required for the breached retaining wall, now that temporary works have been completed to secure it. Thorough structural inspections have been made.
The RMT union reported that at least one train had been in the cutting at the time of the collapse and narrowly avoided colliding with rubble strewn on the track, and that its 150 passengers were led to safety by an on-board guard.
Northern later confirmed that the driver of the 1640 Manchester Airport-Liverpool had hit the emergency brake while travelling at 50mph, after a red signal was activated by debris falling onto overhead wires. A second Northern service from Wigan was evacuated behind it, while a Virgin Trains service to Euston was apparently halted shortly after leaving Lime Street.
The closure of the city’s main line station unsurprisingly caused considerable disruption, with some operators advising passengers to avoid travel to Merseyside altogether.
East Midlands Trains services from Norwich terminated at Manchester Oxford Road, while Northern, London Midland and TransPennine Express services all ran as far as Manchester Victoria, Liverpool South Parkway, Huyton or Edge Hill, where rail replacement bus services were running onwards to Lime Street. All Virgin Trains services terminated at Runcorn.
Heavy traffic and roadworks then severely affected scheduled journey times into and out of Liverpool city centre, in some cases adding up to 90 minutes.
Most tickets were being accepted on Merseyrail services between Liverpool South Parkway and Liverpool Central. Crowd surges were reported during morning and evening peak periods, leading to platform access being temporarily restricted to ensure safety.
Operators also had to contend with large numbers of football fans travelling from London for the Liverpool vs Arsenal match on March 4 and returning from London after Everton’s fixture with Tottenham on March 5, as well as boxing fans returning from London after watching Liverpudlian Tony Bellew’s title fight at the capital’s O2 arena on March 4.
For all sporting fixtures Virgin Trains advised spectators to start and finish their journeys at Crewe, as the car park at Runcorn was not deemed large enough to accommodate the number of coaches required.
Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman paid tribute to the NR engineers who restored access to Lime Street station.
“As a local MP I have been really keen to see how the work is progressing on site, and as Chair of the Transport Select Committee I wanted to see how Network Rail is dealing with this major incident,”
she said.
“I’m really impressed to see how organised this is, and how hard people are working. And despite this massive event, within a few days trains should be back running in and out of Lime Street station. People are working very hard and I’m grateful to them.”