Passengers urged to plan ahead during works
TRAIN customers from Halton have been reminded to plan ahead so they can stay on the move during a major transformation of Liverpool Lime Street station.
The facility will close for work from this Saturday (September 30) until Sunday, October 22.
The concourse of Lime Street mainline station will remain open for retail and tickets, but there will be no mainline rail services entering or leaving the station for nine days.
Customers will be kept on their trains wherever possible and many main line rail services will be diverted to Liverpool South Parkway so people can access the city on the Merseyrail network.
To support Liverpool South Parkway becoming the temporary main rail ‘hub’, there will be some service and timetable changes on the Merseyrail network and passengers are reminded to check before they travel.
Strikes by RMT members on the Merseyrail network and on Northern train services are due to take place on Tuesday, October 3, and Thursday, October 5, with plans being put in place to ensure that alternative travel arrangements for the Lime Street Station works will still be effective.
Liverpool City Region metro mayor Steve Rotheram said: “I welcome this scheme as an important stepping stone in improving the City Region’s capacity and connectivity.
“As the Lime Street station upgrade gets under way we’ll be continuing to make the case for the north to get the infrastructure commitment and funding it deserves, not least full high-speed rail connections westeast, joining up north-south HS2 infrastructure with Northern Powerhouse Rail into Liverpool.”
Over the 23 days, engineers will continue work to remodel station platforms, increasing them in number and in length.
Work will also take place to install overhead line equipment to power electric trains and upgrade track.
The Lime Street upgrade is the biggest transformation the station has seen since the 19th century.
It is one of 10 major railway upgrades that make up the £340m railway investment in the Liverpool City Region by the end of 2019, and sits within the wider Great North Rail Project to transform rail travel for customers in the North of England.
Network Rail’s London North Western route managing director Martin Frobisher said: “With passenger figures set to double during peak periods by 2043, the Liverpool Lime Street upgrade is vital to transform train travel for passengers in the future.
“Our work will enable faster, more frequent and reliable train services to run in and out of the station by 2019.”
For the first nine days of the closure, engineers will also be working to complete the installation of the fourth track between Huyton and Roby.
This will allow faster no-stop intercity services to overtake local stopping services along this route.
Merseytravel chief executive Frank Rogers said: “The alternative travel arrangements being put in place are a culmination of many months of work by Network Rail, the Liverpool City Region and rail operators with a brief ● that the city region must remain open for business.
“We’re doing what we can, now we’re calling on passengers to plan ahead and familiarise themselves with the alternative arrangements so they can continue to get about easily and seamlessly during the works.”
For more information visit www. networkrail.co.uk/lcr