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Friday 15 Jun 2018

VIDEO: Liverpool Lime Street major upgrade

Region & Route:

| North West & Central

Network Rail engineers have completed the first stage of upgrades in an eight week programme to remodel station platforms and upgrade signalling as part of Liverpool Lime Street station’s major transformation.

This has included building the concrete foundations for platform extensions, overhead line re-wiring, platform surfacing, track drainage, track renewals and track remodelling.

 

Platforms 1 & 2 reopened on Monday (11 June) and will remain open until Friday 13 July. This forms a key part of the transportation plan to keep passengers moving – a plan that has been built by Network Rail and the train operators for the last two years.

This has enabled direct services to run between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Victoria and Wigan for onward connections to Preston, Blackpool, Yorkshire and the North East.

Northern’s interim timetable is ongoing, effective since Monday 4 June, in order to start stabilising service levels and complete essential driver training. Passengers are advised to continue to check www.nationalrail.co.uk before travelling.

Other journey options are available, with advice on www.networkrail.co.uk/lcr to keep passengers moving and keep Liverpool open for business.

Martin Frobisher, Network Rail’s London North Western route managing director, said: “The Liverpool Lime Street upgrade is an integral part of the Great North Rail Project, a team effort across the rail industry to transform train travel for customers across the North by 2020 through track and train improvements.

“While we’re sorry for short-term disruption we’d ask customers not to lose sight of the transformative improvements that the wider Great North Rail Project will bring by 2020.

“Lime Street station’s major upgrade will significantly boost capacity, enabling longer trains, with more passengers, running more reliably.”

Liam Robinson, Transport Portfolio Holder for Liverpool City Region said: “We’re really pleased to see the first stage of the upgrade at Lime Street Station completed on time and would like to thank passengers for their patience and remind them to plan ahead before they travel, while the rest of the essential work takes place.”

Liverpool Lime Street’s major transformation will be fully complete in October this year. This work will enable an extra three services in/out of Lime Street every hour, including new direct services to Scotland. Remodelling and rebuilding station platforms will provide longer, more spacious platforms capable of accommodating longer trains and more passengers, more safely.

This vital upgrade is part of £340m of improvements across the Liverpool City Region and sits within the Great North Rail Project. Network Rail engineers are working around the clock to remodel station platforms, making them wider and longer to make room for longer trains and more passengers. An extensive signalling upgrade will also allow enable more trains to run, more reliably.

This capacity boost, also delivered by a wholesale signalling upgrade, is essential for the forecast doubling of peak-time travellers through the station by 2043.

Many mainline services (for Birmingham, London, Crewe, Runcorn, Manchester and Sheffield) continue to start/terminate at Liverpool South Parkway, with Merseyrail services running every 15 minutes to/from Liverpool City Centre.