West Coast Main Line and Merseyrail Trains at Liverpool Lime Street on March 9th 2023

1st visit to Liverpool Lime Street which is the terminus of the West Coast Main Line's Liverpool Branch, Chat Moss Line, City Line and Merseyrail's Wirral Line.

Featuring services from Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, Transport For Wales, Transpennine Express and Merseyrail

Liverpool Lime Street opened on August 15th 1836 although it wasn't until the following year when construction was completed

The first terminus was at Liverpool Crown Street which originally opened by the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in September 1830 however it only last just under 6 years because it was too far out of Liverpool and was converted into a goods yard after Lime Street opened lasting until it's closure in 1972.

In the years after Liverpool Lime Street opened which proved popular at the time of opening it would expand several times first rebuilt between 1846 and 1849 by Edward Woods.

Other expansions that have followed over the years include one in 1857, another in 1879 when a second parallel shed was added.

In 1955 the station was modernised although it wasn't until 1962 when electric trains from the West Coast Main Line began running although between Liverpool Lime Street and Crewe and it wasn't until 1966 when the first intercity direct between Liverpool and London Euston began running.

Electric trains began operating on the Liverpool to Manchester Line via Newton-le-Willows in March 2015 when the line along with the city line to Wigan North Western via St Helens Central was electrified.

On February 28th 2017 a landslide occurred inside the Edge Hill Tunnel which forced all the lines into Liverpool Lime Street to close whilst over 200 tonnes of debris was cleared and overhead lines had to be repaired and wasn’t reopened until March 8th.

The station was completely remodelled between September 2017 and June 2018 which also enabled replacing signalling equipment which dated back to the 1940s which also enable retail outlets to be accommodated into the station.

New platforms were also added with 10 Platforms in operation now on the mainline platforms although whats surprising is Platforms 1-5 are gated whilst Platforms 6-10 are easily accessible without gates.

Avanti West Coast services are hourly to and from London Euston which since 2003 been provided by Class 390 Pendolinos built by Alstom which from late 2023 will share services from London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham New Street and Blackpool North alongside 7 car Class 807s which the latter built by Hitachi at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

Northern services with electric services provided by Class 331s and recently joined Class 323s being maintained at West Allerton whilst the Class 319s are in their last months of operation before they were due to go off lease whilst at present Class 150s, Class 156s and Class 195s operate the diesel services to Manchester Oxford Road and Warrington Central respectively.

Transpennine Express services mostly provided by Class 185s, Class 397s and Class 802 Novas were facing a uncertain future regarding their franchise

East Midlands Railway services are operated mostly by Class 158s to and from Norwich

London Northwestern Railway runs an hourly service to and from Birmingham New Street served by Class 350s although likely to change with new Class 730s likely to share some services.

Transport For Wales operates 1 every 2 hours to Chester via Runcorn which at the time of filming new Class 197s built by CAF in Newport were taking over operations of the route.

Below ground is full of activity served by Merseyrail's Wirral Line via the Liverpool Loop which opened in 1977 which surprisingly there is only one platform with services averaging every 5 minutes to West Kirby, New Brighton, Ellesmere Port and Chester.

Since 1982 Merseyrail been operated by Class 507 and 508s which at the time of filming in their last year of operation and being replaced by Class 777s which will be maintained on Merseyrail's Northern Line at Kirkdale C.S

At the time of filming replacement was ongoing on the Northern Line however Class 777s aren't due to start operating on the Wirral Lines until later 2023 with full replacement of the entire Merseyrail fleet expected to complete in early 2024.

Although Times have changed however it's not surprising that whatever time of day let alone the weather the station can always be busy.

Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS

Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
   • JJD - Adventure | Glitch Hop | NCS - Copyr...  

Filmed on Thursday March 9th 2023 on iPhone 14 Pro and edited on iMovie

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