Reports in the Liverpool Echo that an outline planning application could be submitted later this year for a new railway station in central Liverpool have been described by industry sources in the city as being premature.
The site for the new station is said to be on Mount Vernon Rad, where a soon to be vacated school presently stands. The site is directly above the disused Wapping railway tunnel.
However, the station would be about 1km from Lime Street station, and thus of little use as an interchange, although cross-city services through the tunnel could possible help release capacity at Lime Street.
A Merseytravel spokesman said: “A number of possible new stations were identified in the LTRS, and we are currently going through a station prioritisation process for the potential sites identified in that strategy, but we are not currently at the stage to take any decisions in respect of new city centre stations.”
The LTRS says that among the long-term aims are “re-use of Wapping tunnel and new underground connections into burrowing junctions south of Central on the Northern Line to allow trains to run between Central and Edge Hill and beyond; and connecting the Wirral, Northern and City Lines via the Stock Interchange and Wapping tunnel. It is considered important to create cross-city connectivity on the City Line, providing as a by-product operational relief at Liverpool Central, by linking the Northern and City Lines via Wapping tunnel.”
Wapping tunnel (2km, 1.25 miles), runs from Edge Hill cutting to Park Lane Goods Station near Wapping Dock, and passes beneath the Merseyrail Northern Line approximately 400m south of Liverpool Central station. The tunnel opened in 1830 and closed on May 15 1972.
Andrewjgwilt1989 - 12/09/2015 10:22
If the Wapping Tunnel is to reopen then it could be a new route for linking the Northern and Wirral lines and linking with Liverpool Central and Edge Hill and even Liverpool Lime Street plus with the new station to be built which could be a interchange which would be Crossrail for Liverpool and would help reduce the impact of rush hour in Liverpool with Merseyrail to order brand new trains in 2019/2020.