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Friday 1 Apr 2016

Phase two of £12m Moorfields station refurbishment complete

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

Work to transform the second of three platforms at Moorfields station in Liverpool is set to complete tomorrow (Saturday 2 April 2016) in time for the Grand National meeting at Aintree the following weekend.

Platform 1 on the Northern line at Moorfields will re-open after a three-month closure for renovation. It means that once again, Kirkby, Ormskirk and Southport passengers will be able to get off trains at this station.

Network Rail is investing £12m to upgrade the station’s platforms and escalators to provide passengers with an improved facility to serve Liverpool's main business district.

The first platform to be refurbished (Wirral line, platform 3) re-opened last August. Work on the last platform (northbound, Northern line, platform 2) will take start on Monday 11 April and services will not stop at this platform until the work finishes in the summer.

The station, which is operated by Merseyrail, is the latest on Merseyside to be redeveloped as part of a £40m investment by Network Rail, working in partnership with Merseytravel and Merseyrail, to provide a better railway for the increasing number of people travelling by train. It will be completely refurbished but the station will remain open throughout the work.

Improvements will be made to platforms, walkways, and the upper and lower concourse areas. There will be new flooring, fresh enamel cladding on the walls and brighter lighting, which will give a cleaner, airy, less cluttered environment. Nine of the station’s escalators will also be refurbished to improve their reliability and lifespan. They currently carry 6.5 million passengers a year, a number which is predicted to double over the coming years.

Terry Strickland, area director, for Network Rail, said: “The upgrade of the first two platforms has made a huge difference to the look and feel of the station. The modern look on platforms 1 and 3 will be replicated on platform 2, completing the upgrade of the underground stations in the Merseyside area.

“The investment is part of our £40bn Railway Upgrade Plan to provide passengers with a better railway and modern stations in Merseyside that they can rely on and be proud of.

“We have carefully planned the work with Merseyrail and Merseytravel to limit disruption to passengers as much as possible and, by closing one platform at a time, we are able to keep the station open and keep trains running. Thank you to passengers for their patience while we upgrade their station.”

Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, Merseyrail’s managing director, commented: “Working with our partners Network Rail and Merseytravel, we have carefully planned the refurbishment work at Moorfields so that both Northern line platforms are available for the Grand National event this year. This will enable the station to operate at its maximum capacity for race-goers, reflecting the importance of local train services in getting large numbers of people to and from Grand National safely and quickly, and at an affordable price.”

Moorfields is the last of the five underground stations to be refurbished as part of Network Rail’s £40 million investment. The other stations were Liverpool Central, James Street, Lime Street and Hamilton Square.

This forms part of Network Rail’s £40bn investment in the railway by 2019 through the company’s Railway Upgrade Plan to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.

To plan your journey, please consult the Merseyrail website at www.merseyrail.org/lovemoorfields, the Merseyrail app and the rail operator’s social media channels. Information is also available at stations and passengers can plan their journeys at www.nationalrail.co.uk. 

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Customer Advice

The temporary closure of platform 2 on 11 April will mean that trains for Kirkby, Ormskirk and Southport will not stop at Moorfields station.

• Passengers getting on in the city-centre could start or finish their journey at Liverpool Central, which is a 15-minute walk from Moorfields.      
• Information will be provided on the station, advising passengers travelling towards Kirkby and Ormskirk which train they should get on to make their journey.
• Passengers for Southport should take a train from Moorfields platform 1 to Liverpool Central and change onto a Southport line service.
• Passengers travelling from Hunts Cross to Moorfields should travel to Sandhills and board another train for Liverpool Central or Hunts Cross, and get off at Moorfields. Or, they can alight at Liverpool Central and take any Wirral line train to James Street.
• Services from Moorfields to Hunts Cross are not affected by this phase of work.

 

Information on Merseyrail

 

• 110,000 passenger journeys are made on Merseyrail each weekday
• Merseyrail scores for reliability and punctuality averaged over 95 per cent during the last 12 months
• We operate one of the most intensively used networks in the UK with more than 800 trains per weekday
• Merseyrail is a 50-50 joint venture between Serco and Abellio
• Merseytravel is the transport executive body and delivery arm of the city region’s Combined Authority
• For further information, contact Alice Owen on tel 0151 955 2131.

 

About Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan

The Railway Upgrade Plan is Network Rail’s £40bn spending plan for Britain’s railways for the five year period up to 31 March 2019. The plan is designed to provide more capacity, relieve crowding and respond to tremendous growth the railways have seen – a doubling of passengers in the past twenty years. The plan will deliver a bigger, better railway with more trains, longer trains, faster trains with more infrastructure, more reliable infrastructure and better facilities for passengers, especially at stations