A £6bn station is being proposed for the UK city of Liverpool which will link the city to the future High Speed 2 rail link and Northern Powerhouse Rail.
Steve Rotheram, the Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, announced the formation of a Station Commission chaired by Denise Barrett-Baxendale, the chief executive of Everton Football Club, to oversee the project.
He said: "What we envisage is more than just a station and a world-class transport hub. It has the potential to be a destination in its own right, architecturally stunning and featuring leisure and recreation facilities, commercial, retail, high-quality office accommodation, residential facilities and much more." Â
Plans for a station in Liverpool, are included in the Transport for the North’s Strategic Transport Plan, which aims to ensure that Liverpool will benefit from the Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2.
The station, if built, would be part of a drive to reduce journey times between Merseyside and the rest of the country. Once connected to Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2, it would take travellers 23 minutes to reach Manchester and 89 minutes to reach London. Passenger and freight capacity would also be increased.
According to the project’s business case, once completed it will increase the local economy by £15bn, and generate 24,000 jobs, 11,000 homes, and attract a further 3.6 million visitors to Liverpool a year.
Liverpool currently has one mainline railway station – Lime Street – and four underground stations on the Merseyrail network. Construction of the new station will take 10 years.
Image: Liverpool Lime Street (Rodhullandemu/CC BY-SA 4.0)
