New Undergroud Station in Church Street?

[Waterways]

Liverpool Central Masterplan

Phase 5 - Provision of additional platform Capacity

The long term solution may require the provision of additional platforms. This type of solution is going to require significant investment in order to create not only the additional platform capacity but also the additional rail tunnels track, electrification and signalling alterations necessary.

There are two options that have been considered for this phase which are:-

* Provision of an additional platform at Central Station.
* Relocation of the station.


The potential to provide a further platform at Central station may be possible. During the construction of the loop and link network an extra tunnel entrance was created at the Moorfields end of the platform. This has the potential to be excavated into a full tunnel which would provide a line that would run directly below the existing concourse through to the rear of the station. Considerable detailed study would be required to determine how cost effective this solution would be and how disruptive it would be to the operation of the existing station.

The option of relocation of the station is also possible. The railway between Central and Moorfields runs directly down the centre of Church Street. There would be an opportunity to excavate down to the railway tunnel and create 2 new wide platforms that would be sized for future passenger growth. The construction methodology would be similar to the construction of Conway Park Station. Whilst this option appears to more realistic there would be considerable issues regarding gaining approvals to such a large excavation in the heart of the city centre and also the need to secure land on which to construct the station entrance and ticket office. A new station at the corner of Church Street and Ranelagh Street could also be linked to the existing Wirral line platform.

These long term solutions are likely to be part of an overall network capacity assessment that will be required looking not only at station infrastructure but overall network capacity in terms of use of new rolling stock, train length/vehicle capacity, line speed, train frequency and overall train timetable.

By progressing the Masterplan in the proposed phases it is anticipated that even if a decision is made to construct an additional platform then the works carried out to the Wirral Line, Concourse and Northern Line platforms will complement this proposal and not detract from the previous phases and the significant investment made.