Outside Liverpool Central station

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 27th January 2012 by Liam Physick

One of the images donated to Metal by Ray Physick. Here we see the old entrance to Liverpool Central station, the station which lies at the centre of the Merseyrail network. Though smaller and less well known than Lime Street, it is the busiest station in Liverpool, and is located underground on two levels. The original station, which we see here, was an overground terminus, Liverpool Central High Level, opened on 2nd February 1874 on the Cheshire Lines Committee, and providing links to Manchester Central, London St. Pancras, Hull, Harwich, Stockport Tiviot Dale, Southport Lord Street and London Marylebone. On 11th Janury 1892, Liverpool Central Low Level was opened, at the end of the Mersey Railway from Birkenhead via the Mersey Railway Tunnel, following the extension of that line from James Street. Under the Beeching Axe, High Level was earmarked for closure (Southport Lord Street had already been closed, in 1952), as its services could be taken from Lime Street, just a five-minute walk away: in 1966, most CLC services were diverted to Lime Street via the Hunts Cross cord, and now there were left only 12 trains travelling towards Gateacre (the original southern terminus on the Northern Line), and when the final services were withdrawn on 17th April 1972, it was promised that the Gateacre route would be restored (Gateacre itself had closed two days previously, with Hunts Cross becoming, as it remains, the southern terminaus of the Northern Line) when the Merseyrail network was completed in 1978. In 1973, after serving as a car park for some time, the High Level station was demolished, though some former buildings remained in use as the Low Level station was rebuilt: the former site of the train shed is now the centre of Central Village, the under-construction shopping, leisure, commercial and residential development to be completed in 2013. Meanwhile, Liverpool Central Low Level was refurbished to prepare for the creation of Merseyrail: a new loop tunnel was built for Wirral Line trains in Liverpool city centre, linking James Street with Moorfields, Lime Street and Central, before going back to James Street, and a new platform, deeper underground, was built at Central to service this new tunnel. Additionally, the former CLC route was taken underground to connect to the underground Mersey Railway stations. The Link Tunnel allowed trains from Moorfields to travel on to the approach lines to Liverpool Exchange (closed in 1977), creating the Northern Line from Hunts Cross to Southport: the rebuilt Liverpool Central underground station was opened in 1977. It caters for services to Hunts Cross, Southport, Ormskirk and Kirby. From April to August 2012 it will close for refurbishment

Outside Liverpool Central station

Tagged under: tunnels, tunnels, ray physick, beeching axe, liverpool central station, liverpool exchange station, merseyrail, birkenhead station, liverpool lime street, james street station

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives

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