Liverpool Lime Street railway station

Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station, and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest grand terminus mainline station still in use in the world. A branch of the West Coast Main Line from London Euston terminates at the station, as does the original Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Services from this station serve a wide range of destinations across England and Wales, with direct services to Scottish destinations to be reintroduced in autumn 2019.

Having realised that their existing Crown Street Station was too far away from the city centre, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) commenced construction of the more central Lime Street Station in October 1833. Designed by John Cunningham, Arthur Holme, and John Foster Jr, it was officially opened in August 1836. Proving to be very popular with the railway-going public, within six years of its opening, expansion of the station had become necessary. The first expansion, which was collaboratively produced by Joseph Locke, Richard Turner, William Fairbairn and John Kennedy, was completed during 1849 at a total cost of £15,000. During 1867, work upon a further expansion of Lime Street Station commenced, during which time the present northern arched train shed was built. Designed by William Baker and Francis Stevenson, upon completion, the train shed was the largest such structure in the world, featuring a span of 200 ft, as well as the first to make extensive use of iron. During 1879, a second parallel southern train shed was completed.

Following the nationalisation of the railways during 1948, Lime Street Station was the subject of various upgrades and alterations, installing new signalling systems in and around the station, a redeveloped concourse, along with the building of new retail and office spaces. In 1962, regular electric services between Lime Street and Crewe were officially started and in 1966, the station hosted the launch of its first InterCity service, which saw the introduction of a regular 100 mph service between Liverpool and London. During the 1970s, a new urban rail network, known as Merseyrail was developed, while all other long-distance terminal stations in Liverpool were closed, resulting such services being centralised at Lime Street for the whole city. In October 2003, the Pendolino service operated by private rail operator Virgin Trains, introducing a faster service between Liverpool and London, was ceremonially unveiled at the station. During May 2015, the electrification of the former Liverpool and Manchester Railway's route was completed, as well as the line to Wigan via St Helens Central.

Lime Street Station is fronted by a large building designed in the Renaissance Revival style, the former North Western Hotel, which has since been converted to apartments. Since the 1970s, the main terminal building has also provided direct access to the underground Lime Street Wirral Line station on the Merseyrail network. Between the 1960s and 2010, an office tower block named Concourse House, along with several retailers, stood outside the southern train shed; these have since been demolished and new facilities built elsewhere. Lime Street is the largest and oldest railway station in Liverpool, and is one of 18 stations managed by national infrastructure maintenance company Network Rail. During 2017, work commenced at Lime Street Station upon a £340 million remodelling programme. In Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations, written by columnist and editor Simon Jenkins, Lime Street Station was one of only ten to be awarded five stars.

Station layout
Liverpool Lime Street is divided into two sections: the mainline station, which offers national inter-city and regional overground services including local City Line routes, and services on the Wirral Line on the Merseyrail network, located underground between the mainline station and St George's Hall.

Mainline station
The mainline station is still covered by the vast iron and glass roofs dating from the 1870s. Platforms 1 to 5 are shorter than 6 to 10, the latter dealing mainly with long-distance services to London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Norwich. Access to platforms 1–5 is through a ticket inspection barrier similar to airport passport control, while former platform 7 was gated with the creation of new shops and facilities. Former Platforms 8 and 9 were still "open".

In 2009, new buildings were erected in the old "cab road" area between former platforms 7 and 8. Until the 2018 station remodelling, these housed customer lounges, the Virgin Trains customer service point, and an ATM, and there were retail units which had coffee shops amongst the units.

There were also four non-passenger tracks. Three of these were headshunts, created in the northern trainshed to turn locomotives around: Track A, in between former platforms 1 and 2; track B, serving former platforms 3 and 4; and track D, for former platforms 5 and 6. There is also a platform with no passenger service between former platforms 6 and 7, known as platform E, or sometimes affectionately as platform 6¾.

Facilities
Toilets, booking offices, shops, a left-luggage office, taxi ranks and coffee bars are amongst the facilities provided. The main booking office is operated by Northern. The concourse of the station contains several shops, including branches of M&S Simply Food, Caffè Nero, Costa Coffee, Boots and WHSmith. Car parking is managed by APCOA. The station also has two taxi ranks.

Public transport links
The station has direct bus services to the Liverpool One bus station on the 10A, C4 and C5 routes (Until July 2017), and from the bus station for Liverpool John Lennon Airport use services 86A (frequent & night services) and 500. The bus services are provided by Arriva North West, and Cumfybus.

Services
The main station is currently served by six train operating companies serving a wide variety of destinations, but the service has been much reduced in recent times. For example, it is no longer possible to travel directly to Edinburgh, Plymouth, Southampton and Cardiff without changing trains. Services out of Lime Street are as follows:



East Midlands Railway
East Midlands Railway operate an hourly service to Norwich via Warrington Central, Manchester Piccadilly, Stockport, Sheffield and Nottingham. Late afternoon and evening services terminate or start at Nottingham.

TransPennine Express
TransPennine Express operates an hourly service to Newcastle via Manchester Victoria, Leeds and York as well as an hourly service to Scarborough which since May 2018 goes via the same route. Late services start or terminate at York and Manchester.



London Northwestern Railway
Since May 2019, London Northwestern Railway operate an hourly service to London Euston via Birmingham New Street and an hourly service to Birmingham International.



Northern
Northern is the main train operating company at Lime Street, operating the ticket office. Services include:
 * Half hourly service to Manchester Oxford Road (via Warrington Central, most local stations)
 * Hourly service to Manchester Airport (via Warrington Central and Manchester Piccadilly, limited stop)
 * Hourly service to Blackpool North (limited stop)
 * Half hourly service to Wigan North Western (via St Helens Central, all stations)
 * Hourly service to Crewe (via Newton-le-Willows, Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport, all stations)
 * Hourly service to Warrington Bank Quay (via Earlestown, all stations)



Virgin Trains
Virgin Trains operate an hourly Pendolino service to London Euston calling at Runcorn, Crewe and Stafford (peak services call additionally at Lichfield Trent Valley, Tamworth, Nuneaton, Rugby, Milton Keynes Central and Watford Junction).

Transport for Wales
Transport for Wales operate an hourly service to Chester via Runcorn, using the Halton Curve with peak-hour extensions to Wrexham General, as of May 2019.

CrossCountry Trains Consultation 2018
The Department for Transport's 2018 consultation on the future of the CrossCountry franchise, which was due for renewal in 2019 but was later cancelled in September 2018 but cited Liverpool as a potential new destination for CrossCountry train service. If adopted this may restore some of the services lost in 2003. The Consultation closed in August 2018. Despite the cancellation of the competition, the consultation responses will be used to help develop options for the future of the franchise so Liverpool may be considered as a potential destination in the future.

Long Term Rail Strategy Proposals
In a long term rail strategy by Merseytravel, new direct services to Cardiff, Bristol, Leicester, Derby, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley have been proposed.

Virgin Open Access Proposal
In June 2019, Virgin lodged an application for an open access service from London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street calling at Nuneaton, Tamworth, Lichfield Trent Valley, Liverpool South Parkway and Liverpool Lime Street to rival the future West Coast Partnership franchisee from May 2021.

West Coast Partnership
In August 2019, it was announced that FirstGroup Trenitalia would operate the West Coast Partnership franchise from December 2019. As part of the award, the new operator will look at providing up to two trains per hour between Liverpool Lime Street and London Euston from December 2022, subject to approval by the Office of Rail and Road.

Future Northern and TransPennine Franchises
In November 2018, it was revealed by Transport for the North several options for the future Northern and TransPennine franchise. Some options for Liverpool include extension of Liverpool to Crewe services towards Stoke-on-Trent and Alsager, increasing Liverpool to Blackpool North services and a new Liverpool to Leicester service via Crewe, Stoke-on-Trent, Uttoxeter and Derby. The Leicester service could be operated by either TransPennine Express or the future East Midlands Franchise.

TransPennine Franchise Agreement
As part of the TransPennine Express (TPE) franchise agreement (awarded to FirstGroup which started services in April 2016), there will be three new direct services per day to Glasgow Central via Preston along the West Coast main line. The current hourly TPE Newcastle route will also be extended via Morpeth to Edinburgh Waverley.

In 2005 Renaissance Trains proposed a twice-daily service from Lime Street to Glasgow Central, with weekend trains running instead from Blackpool to Glasgow. The proposal did not get enough investment backing, but was revived in 2014.

Chester, Wales and Shrewsbury via the Halton Curve
The completion of the upgrade of the Halton Curve in 2018 provides a second rail route between Liverpool and Chester, and permits the introduction of new direct services from Liverpool to Wrexham, Llandudno and other parts of North Wales. As part of the new Wales & Borders franchise services to Chester were introduced in May 2019 with future services to Llandudno and Shrewsbury every hour and services to Cardiff every two hours planned.

London Euston
It was also proposed by 2016 that London Midland will also operate an hourly service to London Euston (as an extension of its existing Trent Valley semi-fast service).. From May 2019, its successor London Northwestern Railway operates a London to Liverpool service via Birmingham New Street.

Northern Franchise Agreement
As part of the Northern franchise agreement (awarded to Arriva, which started in April 2016), from December 2019 there will be a new "Northern Connect" service to Leeds via Manchester Victoria and Bradford Interchange (replacing the current all-stations local service to Victoria). This is the first time there is a direct service through to Rochdale, Halifax and Bradford Interchange since the timetable change on 10 December 2006 when Northern terminated all services at Manchester Victoria.

Withdrawn services
Certain direct trains to and from Liverpool Lime Street station have been withdrawn since 2000. These include the following services:


 * Wales & West services to Cardiff and Milford Haven via the Welsh Marches.
 * Virgin CrossCountry services to Edinburgh, Poole, Weymouth, London Paddington, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Brighton.
 * First North Western services to Chester via Warrington Bank Quay.
 * Central Trains services to Cambridge and Stansted Airport.

In addition, former British Rail services to Scotland, Wrexham and other parts of North Wales, Bradford Interchange, Harwich and Leicester no longer operate.

Underground station


The underground station consists of a single platform (sometimes referred to as Platform L, alongside the 1970s Liverpool Loop tunnel and a ticket hall above. The station, opened in 1977, is connected to the mainline station by means of a pedestrian subway and escalators, accessed via a long passageway which crosses beneath Lime Street itself, and by a lift from the main concourse.

2013 refurbishment
Network Rail announced in early 2013 that Lime Street was to be the third station to be refurbished as part of the £40 million investment which would see all Merseyrail underground stations excluding Conway Park refurbished. This included the refurbishment of the platform and the booking hall. The station refurbishment work took place between April and August 2013.

Subway refurbishment
The subway linking the underground station to the mainline station was refurbished in June 2014. The subway was fitted out with new tiles, lighting, flooring and automatic doors to some of the entrances.

Recent history
The underground station had WiFi installed in January 2016.

In March 2016, it was announced that the Wirral Line loop would be having its track renewed. The underground station was closed between 3 January 2017 and 18 June 2017 whilst the works took place.

Services
Services operate on a 5-minute frequency Monday-Saturday, and between 5- and 10-minute frequency on Sundays in the winter. All trains travel through to Liverpool Central and Birkenhead of which:


 * 4 trains per hour continue to New Brighton
 * 4 trains per hour continue to West Kirby
 * 2 trains per hour continue to Ellesmere Port

To reach destinations on the Northern Line of the network, passengers must either use the Wirral Line and change at Liverpool Central station or walk the short distance to the station.