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City's rail station plan moving too slowly, says mayor

Claire HamiltonMerseyside political reporter
News imageLiverpool City Region Combined Authority CGI impression of how a Liverpool Baltic station might look. A woman stands in the foreground, in front a plaza filled with people in front of a modern train station. It is red brick, with a large sign saying Liverpool Baltic on the roof. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
A computerised impression of how the Liverpool Baltic station might look

The mayor of the Liverpool City Region has said delays to work beginning on a new £100m rail station in the city's Baltic Triangle area are "the bane of my life".

Liverpool Baltic station was due to open in 2027 but work is now not set to even begin until then, with the mayor not committing to a completion date.

Steve Rotheram told BBC Radio Merseyside the project "would not be cancelled" but described the delay as "debilitating".

Network rail has been approached for comment.

The new station will provide a link to the Merseyrail network for those living, working or studying in the Baltic Triangle and Toxteth areas of the city.

The scheme is being funded through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, which is allocated via the Department for Transport.

Rotheram said the project was moving "too slowly" for him and the "fragmentation" of the rail system was "debilitating".

It was revealed in January how despite planning permission being granted, a contractor had yet to be appointed.

The new station will be created by redeveloping the disused former St James Station, which lies beneath the Baltic Triangle – a former industrial area now filled with creative and hospitality businesses between the city centre and the Dingle.

News imageLiverpool City Region Combined Authority An ariel view of how the new station might look from St James Place. The station is made of red brick and you can see the word Baltic in large letters along one wall. The Cains Brewery can be seen in the distance, and beyond that the river Mersey. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
A view of how the new station could look from St James Place

The site involves an existing cutting to the Northern Line of the Merseyrail network, located midway between Liverpool Central Station and Brunswick Station, where an underground train station once stood but was closed in 1917 during World War One.

Rotheram said the work was made more complicated because "this station that we're going to build is on live rails".

He said the combined authority was trying to stop trains from running on the line while the work was carried out and run rail replacement buses instead.

"It's safer to do it that way but we have to get permissions from the rail authorities and that is a bureaucratic nightmare," he added.

Rotheram added "I'm disappointed every time we talk about this because I was so enthused about the plans that came forward and I wanted that to happen quickly, it's not happening as quickly as we wanted, but it's not going to be cancelled".

He said he wanted work to start by the end of this year, but that would not now happen, and work was due to start in 2027 instead.

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