New station manager welcomes record breaking Christmas at Liverpool Lime Street station

Friday 20 Dec 2024

New station manager welcomes record breaking Christmas at Liverpool Lime Street station

Region & Route:: North West & Central; | North West & Central: North West

Almost 10,000 more passengers chose to travel by rail through Liverpool Lime Street station for Black Friday shopping and leisure than the same period last year.

Network Rail’s figures this festive season show that Liverpool is more popular than ever among shoppers and day trippers looking for some Christmas cheer.

Not only that, passengers are splashing the cash in Liverpool Lime Street station while they are here as the most recent quarterly retail sales figures reveal a 20% increase in spending at the station.*

And with a new, home-grown station manager at the helm, the station is set to go from strength to strength. Rachel Rahbazare has worked for Network Rail for 15 years in a variety of customer roles and lives in Liverpool with her husband and children.

Rachel Rahbazare, station manager said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be taking up this position having started as a station retailer way back in 2009. Liverpool Lime Street station truly is the heart of the Georgian Quarter, and the hard work of our station team and retailers shines through in creating an experience that meets the needs of our passengers and station users.

The ongoing redevelopment work will only enhance what the station has to offer, and I’m immensely proud that passengers continue to choose Liverpool Lime Street.”

In December, January and February Liverpool Lime Street’s tourist information hub will be re-opening as a trial to help more passengers with wayfinding. Find them on Tuesdays and Fridays in December in the information point and in their pod on the south concourse in January and February.

Notes to Editors

*The most recent figures released for quarterly retail sales (Q2 covering July to September 2024), revealed a totalsales* uplift of +20% and +19% like-for-like sales at Liverpool Lime Street station (see notes to editor).
Station footfall on Saturday 30 November 2024 was 87,000 against a total of 77,325 in the same period in 2023.
Network Rail Property has released its latest quarterly retail sales figures (Q2 covering July to September 2024), revealing a total sales* uplift of +20% and +19% like-for-like (LfL) sales at Liverpool Lime Street station.
Set against the wider retail market, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) tracked a +1% increase of LFL sales for the same quarter. Sustained quarterly sales growth at Liverpool Lime Street underlines the resilience of retail performance at the station.
On a LFL basis, Liverpool Lime Street was the second best performing station for the quarter, with +19% LFL sales during Q2. Only Charing Cross outperformed Liverpool Lime Street, where LFL sales increased +23% for the period. Sales performances are tracked by Network Rail across retail, F&B and grocery categories, with Q2 seeing the strongest LFL growth in grocery.

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