Originally Posted by
bunf
does anyone have any info or pics of this long forgotten station?
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the only info i have is that it closed around 90(!) years ago and has been left ever since
we took this picture a couple of months back and would be fascinated if anyone could shed some more light
Hi Bunf.
St James closed around 1911 although you can still see the remains of the platforms and the cutting is used for maintenance access.
The station was on the old Cheshire Lines route into Central High Level station, which is now the Merseyrail Northern Line - Hunts Cross branch.
The tunnels into Central were designed for three tracks, although that would probably not conform to modern clearance requirements and there are only two nowadays.
Being in a deep cutting, access would have been a problem. The steel staircase will have been constructed long after the station closed. However, the railway used to own land on the North side of Parliament Street, so I suspect there would have been a subway under Parliament Street with steps down to the platforms. I believe there are some station building, or the remains of them in Ashworth Street at the top of the cutting.
I don't know why the decision was taken to close the station at such an early date but I suspect that it had to do with the competition from tramways, and the fact that the short commuter route into Liverpool Central would not have attracted much traffic. Add to that the inconvenience and unpleasantness of using a low level station in the days of steam motive power. It may also have been closed to allow more traffic through the tunnel into Central.
Merseytravel are interested in reopening St James as it is the closest station to the new Arena and Convention Centre and it would also serve the south end of Chinatown, the Anglican Cathedral and the Canning housing area.
There are now four trains per hour in each direction passing through the station site but this could be doubled if the Ormskirk service, which presently reverses at Central, could be extended to Liverpool South Parkway, something that Merseytravel is considering.
Reopening the station would not be cheap as modern lifts would be required down to platform level, much as at Conway Park in Birkenhead and a new ticket office.
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