Liverpool Central railway station

Liverpool Central
Two Class 507 trains at the Northern Line island platform
Location
Place	Liverpool
Local authority	Liverpool
Coordinates
Grid reference	SJ349901
Operations
Station code	LVC
Managed by	Merseyrail
Number of platforms	3
DfT category	B
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.982 million
2005/06	1.294 million
2006/07	7.170 million
2007/08	8.890 million
2008/09	19.635 million
2009/10	18.413 million
2010/11	17.958 million
2011/12	14.224 million
- Interchange	0.412 million
2012/13	13.522 million
- Interchange	0.408 million
2013/14	14.622 million
- Interchange	0.315 million
2014/15	15.273 million
- Interchange	0.399 million
Passenger Transport Executive
PTE	Merseytravel
Zone	C1
History
2 March 1874	Opened (High Level)
11 January 1892	Opened (Low Level)
17 April 1972	Closed (High Level)
28 July 1975	Closed (Low Level)
9 May 1977	Reopened (Low Level)
23 April 2012	Closed (Low Level Refurbishment)
25 August 2012	Partially Reopened (Concourse and Wirral line)
22 October 2012	Fully Reopened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Liverpool Central from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Liverpool Central railway station in Liverpool, England, forms a central hub of the Merseyrail network, being on both the Northern Line and the Wirral Line. The station is located underground on two levels, below the site of a former mainline terminus. It the busiest station in Liverpool, though considerably smaller than Lime Street station, the mainline terminus, and the busiest station to operate fully the Merseyrail network. In terms of passenger entries and exits between April 2010 and March 2011, Liverpool Central is the seventh-busiest station outside London. The station is the busiest underground station outside London serving 40,000 people daily. The station in passengers per platform is the busiest underground railway station in the United Kingdom at 5,217,547 per platform per annum and laying third in all stations, underground or overground.

Liverpool Central is one of nine stations on the Merseyrail network to incorporate automatic ticket gates. The main concourse is part of a shopping centre and includes a subway link to the former Lewis's department store.

History

High level terminal station

Main article: Liverpool Central High Level railway station

The original station, which was a large, above-ground terminal station, opened on 2 March 1874, at the end of the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) line to Manchester Central. It replaced Brunswick station as the CLC's Liverpool terminus, becoming the headquarters of the committee. The three-storey building fronted Ranelagh Street in the city centre, with a 65 feet (20 m) high, arched iron and glass train shed behind.

There were 6 platforms within the station, offering journeys to Manchester Central (in 45 minutes, making the route the quickest and most direct between Liverpool and Manchester), London St. Pancras, Hull, Harwich, Stockport Tiviot Dale, Southport Lord Street and an alternative London route to that of the Midland Railway, terminating at London Marylebone.

Until the nationalisation of Britain's railways, the station was always busy, but as with many other stations in the UK, it was closed under the Beeching Axe, as the routes served could be taken from nearby Liverpool Lime Street. In 1966, most services on the CLC route were diverted to Liverpool Lime Street via the Hunts Cross chord, leaving only a dozen urban commuter trains per day to and from Gateacre. These final services were withdrawn on 17 April 1972 with a promise to reinstate the Gateacre route when the Merseyrail network was completed in 1978.

The High Level station was demolished in 1973, having served a short time as a car park, although some former station buildings remained while work was in progress on rebuilding the underground station in the mid-1970s. The area of the train shed now forms the centre of the planned Central Village development.

Underground urban station

A 1909 Railway Clearing House Junction Diagram showing railways in the vicinity of Liverpool Central – low level station (Mersey Railway) in purple; high level station (Cheshire Lines) in orange

On 11 January 1892 Liverpool Central Low Level station opened, at the end of the Mersey Railway's route, via the Mersey Railway Tunnel from Birkenhead, when the route was extended from James Street. The Mersey Railway platforms were underground, accessed from stairs within the High Level station and situated in roughly the same position as the escalators accessing the Merseyrail Northern Line today.

The Mersey Railway tunnel entering Central Low Level from the north of the station was aligned with the high level station's approach tunnel from the south. This was to ensure minimum engineering work if ever there was to be a link up of the two tunnels – as did occur when the two tunnels were linked in the 1970s.

Merseyrail

In the 1970s, the Merseyrail network was created by merging separate railways into one comprehensive network. Central underground station would service the Northern Line and Wirral Lines.

A new loop tunnel was built in Liverpool city centre for Wirral Line trains, linking James Street with Moorfields, Lime Street, Liverpool Central and returning to James Street. A new deep-level underground platform was built at Liverpool Central as part of this loop tunnel.

The former CLC route was taken underground connecting to the underground Mersey Railway platforms. Another new tunnel, the Link Tunnel, allowed trains to continue northwards via Moorfields to the approach lines to Liverpool Exchange, creating one long line from Hunts Cross to Southport. Liverpool Exchange terminal station was closed in 1977. This route became the Merseyrail Northern Line. The rebuilt underground station opened by British Rail in 1977.

In the original 1970s Merseyrail plan, southbound trains would have continued to Warrington and Manchester; however, services terminated at Garston (but were later extended to Hunts Cross). At the same time, works to allow the Merseyrail Northern Line to be connected to the Victoria Tunnel were put in place, but were later abandoned. This would have allowed trains to operate to St Helens.

On 26 October 2005 a Wirral Line train derailed on the approach to Liverpool Central en route from Liverpool Lime Street. There were no serious injuries; however, the design of the Liverpool Loop meant that all Wirral Line services through the Loop were suspended for the remainder of the week, terminating at James Street.

The statistics for interchanges at this station exclude exchanges between trains, estimated at around 2 million, and concessionary pass holders.

2012 Refurbishment

It was announced in September 2011 that, as part of the Central Village multi-million pound development, as well as a £40 million investment from Network Rail, Liverpool Central was to have a major refurbishment programme to allow improvement works to take place. All the underground stations, excluding Conway Park would be involved in the investment, with half that amount earmarked for Liverpool Central allowing necessary improvement works to take place, primarily to the platform area of the station, although the concourse will also see major improvements including new lighting, flooring, new toilet facilities and new escalators to the Northern Line platforms.

On 23 April 2012 the entire station closed foe refurbishment. The station partly reopened on 25 August 2012 where the refurbishment of the main concourse and Wirral Line platform was completed, however the Northern Line platforms remained closed. The station fully reopened on 22 October 2012 with the reopening of the Northern Line platforms.

Recent History

On 22 October 2015, free WiFi was installed and introduced at the station.

Facilities

Liverpool Central Sign

A street level travel centre opened in November 2009 which sells tickets, newspapers, food and drink, replacing the former ticket office and newsagents. There are also toilets, cash and food vending machines. Escalators and lifts lead to the two Northern Line platforms and the deep-level Wirral Line platform.

Future

There are plans to develop the car park behind Central Station (bounded by the rear of the station, Cropper Street, Newington and Bold Street) into Central Village. The 'village' will consist of a high rise tower for residential and business use, retail outlets, bars and restaurants and will also have a canal running the length of Bold Street. Planning permission has been granted to develop this area, which has been relatively derelict since the demolition of the High Level Station in the 1970s.

The DfT (Department for Transport) has announced funding for a second lift at the station.

Services

Wirral Line platform before refurbishment

Wirral Line platform after refurbishment

A Northern Line train at Liverpool Central before refurbishment

Northern Line platform after refurbishment

On the Northern Line, off-peak service level is as follows:

• 4 trains per hour to Southport
• 4 trains per hour to Ormskirk
• 4 trains per hour to Kirkby
• 4 trains per hour to Hunts Cross via Liverpool South Parkway

During late evenings, frequencies are reduced to 2 trains per hour on the Kirkby and Ormskirk branches; the Southport and Hunts Cross service retains 4 trains per hour.

Sunday services reflect the evening service, but the service from Southport to Hunts Cross is also reduced to 2 trains per hour except for summer Sundays when it remains at 4 trains per hour between Liverpool Central and Southport.

On the Wirral Line, off-peak service level is as follows:

• 4 trains per hour to New Brighton
• 4 trains per hour to West Kirby
• 6 trains per hour to Hooton of which:
  • 4 trains per hour continue to Chester
  • 2 trains per hour continue to Ellesmere Port

There are also extra services between Liverpool Central and Hooton during peak times. During early hours, late evenings and on Sundays, frequencies are reduced to 2 trains per hour on all branches. These services are all provided by Merseyrail's fleet of Class 507 and Class 508 EMUs.

Northern to Wirral services

Empty Coaching Stock (non-passenger) services have to reverse at Liverpool Central station, when going from Kirkdale Depot to Birkenhead North TMD and vice versa, making use of a single track chord known as the "Stock Interchange Line" linking Liverpool James Street station (Wirral Line) and Liverpool Central (Northern Line). No passenger services are scheduled to use the link, although it could be used.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Moorfields towards Southport, Ormskirk or Kirkby		Merseyrail Northern Line Hunts Cross-Southport		Brunswick towards Hunts Cross
		Merseyrail Northern Line Liverpool-Kirkby/Ormskirk		Terminus
Liverpool Lime Street (one-way operation)		Merseyrail Wirral Line		James Street towards New Brighton, West Kirby, Chester or Ellesmere Port

See also

• List of underground stations of the Merseyrail network

External links

• Train times and station information for Liverpool Central railway station from National Rail

• Station information for Liverpool Central railway station from Merseyrail
• History of Central station
• Report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch into 26 October 2005 derailment. (PDF format)