Liverpool Port Rail Link Go -Ahead

[Kev]

A MAJOR £10m scheme to open up the booming Port of Liverpool to extra freight trains could be at risk from the same government red tape that killed off Merseytram. more

[AK1]

The proposed rail link, linking Liverpool Docks directly to the west coast mainline has been given the go-ahead. This is great news for Liverpool's economy.

[Kev]

Sound, what will the route be?

[AK1]

Sound, what will the route be?

I really don't know. I was trying to think about it earlier, but I couldn't think of any obvious route. Anyone else know?

[Waterways]

I really don't know. I was trying to think about it earlier, but I couldn't think of any obvious route. Anyone else know?

The trains from the docks had to reverse at Edge Hill to get onto the main lines. They had to lay 500 metres of track to make the link seamless. That may be it.

Yes, 500 metres of track put the container terminal at a disadvantage.

[Waterways]

The trains from the docks had to reverse at Edge Hill to get onto the main lines. They had to lay 500 metres of track to make the link seamless. That may be it.

Yes, 500 metres of track put the container terminal at a disadvantage.

I was right...

Go-ahead for £7.6m rail freight scheme

A CRUCIAL £7.6m scheme to build a direct rail link between Liverpool Docks and the main West Coast line has been given the green light by the area’s travel executive, Merseytravel.

It will enable thousands of tonnes of cargo and freight to be moved directly from the dockside to the country’s rail network, in what is one of the biggest local transport schemes since the creation of the Merseyrail network.

The scheme, which is being developed in partnership with Network Rail, Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and Northern Way, would mean more freight could be moved in and out of the docks quickly, and ease congestion on the roads leading into the docks.

The increasing levels of trans-Atlantic freight being shipped from Seaforth means hundreds of heavy container transporters crowding the road network towards Switch Island every day.

Merseytravel is to spend £240,000 on detailed design work on the scheme, which includes re-opening a disused stretch of railway line known as the Olive Mount Chord.

The leg of railway will link the line to Bootle with the London-Manchester lines.

Olive Mount Chord is only about a quarter of a mile long, but has been closed for the past 20 years.

Neil Scales, chief executive and director general of Merseytravel, said last night: “This scheme will bring tremendous economic and environmental benefits to both Liverpool Docks and the region.

“It will create a fast route into the port, allowing it to expand and create more employment, and it will ease both congestion and pollution by transferring vast amounts of container cargo from road to rail.”

Once the detailed design work is complete, work is expected to begin in August next year with overall completion in December 2008.

A spokesman for MDHC said last night: “We have been pressing for some time for this development. We encourage the freight industry to move as much of their goods as possible by rail, and this will enable us to increase the volume of rail freight.

“Currently, there are about 15 trains a day out of the port using an existing link to Edge Hill, but that is nearing capacity.”

The Port of Liverpool has one of the region’s biggest railway hub systems, with five railheads serving different parts of the dock system.

The existing link means that freight trains have to engage in shunting operations at Edge Hill to access the main routes to London and the South as well as Manchester and beyond to the East.

The re-opening of the Olive Mount Chord will give direct access to the main West Coast Line, as well as the Trans-Pennine routes at Edge Hill.

The MDHC is also seeking to build a new riverside terminal at Seaforth to accommodate the world’s largest container vessels, which are too big to enter the Seaforth dock system. That development would dramatically increase the potential for rail traffic.

[Kev]

Go on, some one show us using a map please

[snappel]

About time they did that... don't know why they ever pulled it up. Does seem stupid the diesels running round the trains at Edge Hill. Still, if they're coming in on the Mossley Hill / Allerton line then they'd have no choice anyway...

[Waterways]

About time they did that... don't know why they ever pulled it up. Does seem stupid the diesels running round the trains at Edge Hill. Still, if they're coming in on the Mossley Hill / Allerton line then they'd have no choice anyway...

Many things were done to kill Liverpool. Reduce or eliminate its competitiveness is one way. The Thatcher government wanted to kill the city Geoffrey Howe's paper " Managing The Decline of Liverpool as a major Metropolitan area". This prompted Hatton and all to act - who were castigated as ruining the city.

For 40 years the world's two largest liners had Liverpool on their sterns. Not once did the Queen Mary or Elizabeth sail up the Mersey because a government contract said they must use southern ports. Liverpool's Martins Bank was "merged with Barclays and immediately stripped of its identity and all moved to London.

The recent Brunswick Quay Tower is another example were Westminster put in the dig. The London based media in the 1980s and 90s character assassinated the city to deter investment.

You could write a whole book on these little chinks into the Liverpool mountain to bring it down.

[Paul D]

I think this is great news I'm very pleased with this,in the vioce of the Echo section yesterday it said "there will be no excuse for freight carriers to use the roads when there is a viable underground option available to them",Is it an underground or more shoddy journalism from the Echo?

[Waterways]

I think this is great news I'm very pleased with this,in the vioce of the Echo section yesterday it said "there will be no excuse for freight carriers to use the roads when there is a viable underground option available to them",Is it an underground or more shoddy journalism from the Echo?

There is a load of very short tunnels and bridges around there. That is about all.

[Paul D]

There is a load of very short tunnels and bridges around there. That is about all.

Thanks John that's what I thought.

[Waterways]

The Olive Mount Curve is I think it. 1905 map. This section was taken up 20 years ago. Why, I don't know. The trains from the outer link came in from Seaforth on the left hand line at top of picture. This meant the trains had to reverse and shunt about to get onto the main line. Now Olive Mount is back up, it seamlessly takes trains onto the main line and out to the left via the Olive Mount Tunnel.

[Paul D]

Thanks John this bodes well for the new terminal at Seaforth they're hoping to build then.

[Waterways]

Thanks John this bodes well for the new terminal at Seaforth they're hoping to build then.

Currently they can only have about 10 trains a day serving a port like Liverpool, which had the most comprehensive train network in the world. Currently trains had to wait for a quite time to get on the main lines. This means they can double trains at least. They have to work at night when the passenger trains are off the main tracks, so the time window is short. The throughput must be maximised through the junction.

The place hardly coped with current traffic, never mind when post Panamaxes come.

I see Felixstowe is increasing rail throughput to cope with post Panamaxes.