Sunak expected to reveal station cash

CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak was expected to announce funding for the redevelopment of Runcorn Station as part of a £710m package of improvements for the Liverpool City Region (LCR) in yesterday’s budget speech.

Media including the BBC and Liverpool Echo reported that Mr Sunak was due to confirm the cash in an effort to create a “transport revolution”.

In the city region, £710m was expected to be announced to be spent on projects including rebuilding two stations at Runcorn as well as bringing Liverpool’s St James station site back into use and opening a new station at Headbolt Lane, Kirkby.

Redeveloping the station will dovetail with the £23.6m Runcorn Town Deal regeneration funding, which includes the Runcorn Station Quarter, and the upgrade to the Halton Curve rail line in 2019.

The Echo reported that the LCR schemes were part of ambitions to create a London-style integrated transport network in the region.

Funding equated to £458 per head in the LCR, it said.

Other projects to be backed include a £500m fleet of electric trains operating on the Merseyrail network including potentially extending services to areas including Widnes.

Three “Green Bus Routes” through Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton and St. Helens are to be created, featuring infrastructure geared towards prioritising buses, and £600m will be spent on developing an active travel network for cyclists and people travelling on foot.

The funding was due to be announced following lobbying from the region’s politicians including Derek Twigg, Labour MP for Halton, who earlier this year called on the Government in the House of Commons to back the redevelopment of Runcorn Station to “complement” the “superb” Station Quarter project.

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram welcomed the funding package news.

He said: “Good public transport is vital for connecting our communities with opportunity and with each other, but too many people face being left behind by a transport system that does not work for them.

“I want our region to have what London has had for decades: a network that is quick, cheap, reliable and makes getting around as easy as possible.

“Through our hard work and lobbying we have forced the government to take those plans seriously and the £710m we have secured is testament to that.

“This funding means we can get on with delivering some of the projects that are central to that London-style system.”