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Liverpool South Parkway railway station
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Liverpool South Parkway station is a railway station and bus interchange in Garston, Liverpool, England.
It is located towards the southern end of Merseyrail's Northern Line and on the junction of two main lines: the City Line from Liverpool towards Manchester via Warrington and also towards London via Crewe on the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Main Line. Allerton Traction Maintenance Depot is situated to the immediate east of the station.
History
The station was built to improve public transport access to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, and also to provide new journey opportunities for rail passengers in south Liverpool by allowing easy interchange between Northern Line, City Line and West Coast Main Line services. Proposals for the station, originally called Allerton Interchange, existed as far back as 1999, but it was not until 2004 that construction began.
The main line platforms at Liverpool South Parkway are on the site of the former Allerton station, which closed in 2005 to allow the required rebuilding work to take place. The Northern Line platforms are completely new, replacing a station at Garston which was slightly further west of the current station. The concourse, bus station and car park are built on land that was once the home of South Liverpool F.C.
At the time of opening, the City Line service (which had been hourly at the former Allerton station) was increased to half-hourly. The station also became an additional stop on the Liverpool-Birmingham service (then operated by Central Trains). Then, from 11 December 2006, the Monday-Saturday evening service on the Northern Line was increased to run every 15 minutes, instead of half-hourly as previously.
Features
- 6 platforms (4 on the West Coast Main Line, 2 on the Northern Line)
- A 5-stand bus station for local bus services.
- A 16-space taxi rank.
- Provision for a proposed extension of the now-shelved Merseytram system towards the airport.
- A 240-space car park for use as a Park and Ride facility.
- Storage facilities for 65 bicycles.
The station has been designed to use environmentally-friendly techniques wherever possible. Some of the building's electricity is provided by Photovoltaic cells. A 700,000 litre rainwater harvesting system has also been installed to reduce the use of mains water. This water will be used for cleaning and washing, as well as toilet flushes. All timber used has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being from a well-managed forest. The roof is made from recycled aluminium instead of virgin materials.[1]
In August 2006, Liverpool South Parkway won the Innovation Award at Network Rail's annual Environment Awards.[2]
Services
Merseyrail Class 507, unit 507011 working a Southport train, seen in platform 6.
On the Northern Line (platforms 5 and 6), trains run every 15 minutes, Monday to Saturday, to Southport via Liverpool Central, with a half-hourly service on Sundays.
On the high-level platforms (1 and 2), Northern Rail provide two trains per hour in each direction on the City Line between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Oxford Road. On Sundays an hourly service operates.
Most London Midland services from Liverpool to Birmingham New Street call at Liverpool South Parkway. The service runs hourly Monday to Saturday, with a train every two hours on Sundays.
There are no services booked to call at platform 3 (up slow) or 4 (down slow).
Bus services run from the station to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Aigburth, Dingle, Mossley Hill and Liverpool City Centre. Services are operated by Arriva North West, Stagecoach Merseyside and Supertravel. Combined bus-rail tickets are available for rail passengers wishing to travel to the airport.[1]
Criticism
Originally scheduled to open in December 2005, the project fell behind schedule, and finally opened on 11 June 2006. The construction cost, originally estimated to be £16 million, had doubled to £32 million by the time construction was completed. Merseytravel rejected criticism of the delays and cost increase, stating that it had been caused by factors beyond its control, such as the collapse of Railtrack, increasing steel costs and poor weather causing flooding at the construction site.[3]
Tom Wileman, regional director of bus operator Stagecoach, described Liverpool South Parkway is a "white elephant".[4] This is now notable considering East Midlands Trains, (a Stagecoach company), will begin calling here from December 2008. However, from 28 September 2008 Stagecoach service 82 was rerouted to serve the station.[5]
Future
Merseytravel have stated that they aim to work with the train operators to improve the train service at Liverpool South Parkway, introducing new services with each twice-yearly timetable change.
- The frequency of the Birmingham service will increase to two trains per hour, all serving Liverpool South Parkway, from December 2008.[6]
Other new services which have been proposed but not confirmed are:
- Additional shuttle services between Liverpool South Parkway and Liverpool Lime Street on the City Line
- More frequent Sunday services on the Northern Line
- An hourly First TransPennine Express service to Manchester, Leeds and the north east. Merseytravel spokesman Jim Barclay told Modern Railways that this service may start in December 2008, adding, "we are waiting to hear what Transpennine Express can do."[8] However, the December 2008 timetable, now available from online sources such as TheTrainLine, shows no TransPennine services at South Parkway.
- Services to Chester and North Wales. This would require upgrading of the Halton Curve to accommodate bidirectional working and is a long-term project.
Virgin Trains services to London Euston do not serve the station and there are no plans to do so in the near future. The platforms are not long enough to accommodate Virgin's Pendolino trains, and the location of this station, with a bridge at the north end and Allerton Junction at the south end, makes platform extension difficult.
On TV and Film
The scenes ending the long-running John Paul/Craig storyline in the soap opera Hollyoaks, which aired in September 2008, were filmed at Liverpool South Parkway. The scenes were broadcast on Channel 4 on 19 September 2008.[9]
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