Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram recently said Liverpool would need to build a brand new station to connect the city with Manchester via a mooted high speed rail link as ‘Lime Street is absolutely rammed’.
His comments came after the government officially scrapped the HS2 link to the north of England and focus shifted to connectivity between the Liverpool City Region and its neighbours.
As part of plans put forward in 2019 as Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), £12bn was offered to Liverpool and Manchester to improve connectivity between the two cities. However, Mayor Rotheram claimed a whole new major transport hub would need to be found to make the plans viable.
He said: “We’ve got to find a new station, to position it somewhere in Liverpool, because Lime Street is absolutely rammed. In fact, they took out the old Virgin departure lounge and put two new platforms in alongside that, so there’s nowhere for us to go in Lime Street.”
Lime Street has been Liverpool’s main station since it officially opened on August 15 in 1836 and has been changing ever since.
Designed by John Cunningham, Arthur Holme and John Foster Jr for Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the station proved so popular it became necessary to expand it within just six years of its opening.
Liverpool City Council have just recently completed the latest multi-million pound revamp of the Lime Street area.
Could it really be the end of Lime Street after almost two centuries serving the people of Liverpool? Well, the mooted £12bn is not scheduled to hit coffers until 2041, so there’s time yet for the old station to keep right on track.
Here we take a nostalgic look back over Lime Street Station’s long history with a series of fantastic images... and look forward to how it might look in 2041.
1. Lime Street,1820
The tunnel between Lime Street and Edge Hill, designed by William MacKenzie, was one of the first railway tunnels ever built. Photo: Print Collector/Getty Images
2. ‘New Station’, 1836
The entrance to the tunnel and booking offices what was then ‘New Station’ in 1836. When opened on 15th September 1830, it was the world’s first inter-city railway. From Liverpool to Manchester. Photo: Historica Graphica Collection/Getty Images
3. Station frontage, 1839
A period depiction of the original Lime Street Station frontage, circa 1839. Photo: Mechanical Curator collection/Flickr Commons/British Library/wikimedia
4. LNWR Hotel and station, 1890
The London and North Western (LNWR) Hotel and Lime Street Railway Station. Photo: London Stereoscopic Company/Hulton Archive/Getty Images