Originally Posted by
jc_everton
I have been following this thread intently today, as well as various other ones and I feel it is time for me to chip in.
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Someone said that the Wapping Tunnel/Uni Station line would not be very profitable at all. I strongly disagree.
As a student myself, I am 99% certain that a station around Smithdown Rd would be a gold-mine, and that road at rush hours can be an absolute nightmare. My bird lives in Greenbank halls by Smithdown, and it can take up to half an hour on the bus at 9am which is ridiculous.
Link Smithdown Road with a University station and what a result - what an incentive for students who are 50-50 about coming to a Liverpool University. Got to think about non-students too - there is no way that demand would ever be low.
Not only that, but if the tunnel that linked up 'Great Howard St' station was renovated, you could have a direct link to Byrom St uni and the large Avril Robarts Library. Yes this sounds all very well and good for students, but looking at the bigger picture, there is a fantastic opportunity to revolutionise the transport system in Liverpool, which isn't exactly fantastic is it?
Ok, a rail system would could cost many millions. well what about one of them shuttle systems that gets used in somewhere like Alton Towers?! Or in Vegas, that links you from hotel to hotel. Surely this (albeit not majorly fast) system would not cost so much?!
Just a thought.
Jonny, Smithdown Rd had a station on the bridge called Sefton Park - here are remnants of it still there. This runs to Edge Hill where access to the Stephenson Wapping and Waterloo Tunnels is. Smithdown Rd is on the London main line, so whether they will allow a Meseyrail station to use the same tracks is another matter. It would need to be 3rd rail electrified at this point to run Merseyrail trains, unless they use overhead and 3rd rail electric pickup rolling stock. The master plan for rail does include the station though.
You are right a station at the uni would make sense, also putting in stations would attract developments too. Students generally don't own cars, so they use public transport.
The abandoned underground Dingle station, the south end terminus of the old Overhead railway, was designed to extend inland, however it never did. A natural extension would be to Smithdown Rd. It is is quite easy to get the station back onto Merseyrail. Whether the cost of boring a tunnel miles inland is worth it is another matter. However the overground station is still there at Smithdown and getting them onto the system is not a great thing.
Liverpool had a fantastic transport system. There are more abandoned rail stations than any other city - there are two underground stations alone that are abandoned.
Get the transport infrastructure in place and the population will follow.
Below: the Smithdown Rd station (Sefton Pk) entrance was to the right.
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