Network Rail and the six train operating companies (TOC) that serve Liverpool Lime Street are putting transport plans in place for when upgrade work closes the station later this year.
From September 30 to October 22, the station will be closed causing disruptions to journeys through the main city centre terminus.
Engineers will be constructing two new platforms, remodelling others, installing overhead line equipment to power electric trains and upgrading the track – all to enable the station to deal with a predicted doubling in peak passenger numbers by 2043.
The six train TOCs which serve Liverpool have worked together to develop a plan that will keep customers moving during the works, full details of which are due to be released in July.
Once work is complete, there will be three new services per hour in and out of Lime Street station, including direct services to Scotland.
This is the first of two phases of work at Liverpool Lime Street, with a further station closure planned in 2018.
Network Rail’s London North Western route managing director Martin Frobisher said, ‘Our Liverpool Lime Street work is the biggest upgrade of the station since the 19th century.
‘It will enable faster, more frequent and reliable train services by 2019. As Liverpool’s economy grows the railway is growing too.
‘We are working with rail industry and the Liverpool City Region colleagues to keep the people of Merseyside on the move throughout the Lime Street closure.
‘The short-term pain of re-routed commutes will be worth the long-term gain of transformed train travel in future.’
Built in 1836, almost 20 million passengers pass through Liverpool Lime Street every year.
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