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Wednesday 29 Dec 2010

FRESH LOOK FOR FRESHFIELD STATION

Region & Route:

The platforms and west car park at Freshfield station are being given a makeover by Network Rail in a £1.1m scheme that will bring them up to modern standards. Stepping distances to/from the trains will be improved as will pedestrian access to the platforms.

Jo Kaye, Network Rail route director, said: “The platforms are in a dilapidated condition and the car park has an uneven cobbled surface. This scheme will bring Freshfield up to the same standards as other stations on the Merseyrail network and encourage more people to use the trains by making the station more passenger friendly.”

Work started on Christmas Day and is set to continue until the end of March.

The small west car park behind the Southport bound platform is closed until 15 March while the existing signs, litter bins and crash barriers are removed. New kerbstones, drains, barriers, bollards and bins will be installed and a new tarmac surface will replace the old cobbles. This will then be white lined.

The Southport platform will be closed for six weeks. During this time, the waiting shelter and seats will be removed so the platform can be resurfaced, tactile paving laid and new coping stones installed along the edge of the platform.

Lighting columns will be adjusted, the waiting shelter reset to its correct level and the fencing to the rear of the platform renewed.

Once this is finished, the Southport platform will reopen and the contractors will swap over to the Liverpool platform to carry out similar work.

Car park users had leaflets left on their windscreens advising them of the closure and letters were delivered to local residents.

Posters have been put up at all stations on the Northern line and announcements made on trains advising passengers to use Formby or Ainsdale as alternative stations.