Track upgrades to impact majority of Liverpool Lime Street trains

Monday 2 Nov 2026

Track upgrades to impact majority of Liverpool Lime Street trains

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

Rail passengers planning journeys in or out of Liverpool this Sunday (8 November) are being advised to check before they travel while essential railway upgrades take place.

Most overground train services at Liverpool Lime Street will be affected by track maintenance in the Mossley Hill area.

It will see track foundation stone, known as ballast, being strengthened and secured by specialist tamping trains*.

So the improvements can safely take place, no passenger services can travel through Mossley Hill, a key approach to the North West's second busiest station.

It means very few trains will serve Lime Street that day, with many operators terminating at other stations**.

Passengers affected will still be able to access Liverpool city centre by rail replacement bus or by using the Merseyrail network.

People are being urged to check nationalrail.co.uk so they know what to expect and can allow extra time to travel.

Extra staff will be on hand at Liverpool Lime Street station to help passengers on the day.

Paul Owen, Network Rail's area director for Liverpool, said: "With less than a week until these essential railway improvements take place, we're encouraging passengers to check National Rail Enquiries in advance and understand how services will be affected this Sunday."

"We know there is never an ideal time to close the railway, so I'd like to thank people for their patience while we make these important improvements at Mossley Hill. We're working closely with train operators and Merseyrail to provide alternative travel options and get people to where they need to be."

To learn more about how Network Rail maintains track and railway infrastructure, you can visit: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/our-work/looking-after-the-railway/track/.

For the latest travel information, please visit nationalrail.co.uk.

Notes to Editors

* Tamping is where large machines raise train tracks in the air and vibrate the foundation stone (ballast) underneath them and compact the individual stones together.

** The following train operations are affected by track maintenance on Sunday 8 November:

Avanti West Coast: Trains to/from Liverpool Lime Street will run to an amended timetable and be diverted via Earlestown.
East Midlands Railway: No trains will run between Liverpool Lime Street and Sheffield. You should use alternative train operators between these stations.
London Northwestern Railway: Trains will start/terminate at Liverpool South Parkway. You can use your ticket at no extra cost on alternative services between Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool South Parkway.
Northern: Trains will run between Hunts Cross and Manchester Oxford Road. A replacement bus service will run between Liverpool Lime Street and Hunts Cross.
TransPennine Express: Trains between Liverpool Lime Street and Cleethorpes will start/terminate at Warrington Central. A replacement bus service will operate between Liverpool Lime Street and Warrington Central.
Transport for Wales: For the latest travel information, please visit nationalrail.co.uk.

Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway services will also be affected by planned engineering work between Stafford and Crewe.

Meanwhile £3.5m of railway upgrades are continuing this week on the Merseyrail network, with closures on the Northern Line until Saturday 7 November.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Christian Walker
Communications Manager, North West route
Network Rail
0330 854 0100 (Option 3)
christian.walker48@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.