LDA Design has drawn up strategic planning document for the Baltic Triangle. Credit: LDA Design

Deal struck to unlock Baltic Triangle station

Proposals for the site of the disused former St James station on the edge of Liverpool’s heritage quarter have received £1.5m from the city region authority, which has agreed to acquire land to progress the scheme.

Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor for Liverpool City Region, has pledged to build a new Merseyrail station near to the former Cains Brewery, and early-stage proposals for the new station were contained in a strategic regeneration framework for the 93-acre Baltic Triangle district approved earlier this month.

In the latest signal of intent to deliver the scheme, the combined authority has agreed a £1.2m deal with operator Network Rail to move the proposals to the next stage of the design process.

The authority has also agreed a deal to purchase a plot of land adjacent to the railway cutting off Stanhope Street for £300,000, protecting a potential future site for a station ticket office building.

The former subterranean St James station closed in 1917, and a replacement over land station as proposed in the SRF would provide a direct rail link to the popular Baltic Triangle area and nearby Liverpool waterfront.

Funding for the land purchase and next phase of design has come from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s £175m Transforming Cities Fund, announced last September. An additional application for funding has been made for the station in the latest round of the Department for Transport’s New Stations Fund.

The Baltic Triangle has undergone significant redevelopment in recent years, and is now home to around 350 creative and digital businesses and more than 1,000 apartments. There are pipeline plans for at least 3,000 more residential units in the district, alongside various other creative and leisure facilities.

“Giving commuters and leisure visitors to the area a direct connection to the Merseyrail network would help to reduce car journeys to the area, contributing towards reducing traffic congestion and aspirations to improve air quality across the city region,” the combined authority said.

Architecture firm LDA Design drew up the Baltic Triangle SRF for the area south of Liverpool city centre, in collaboration with a project team that also included JLL, Mott Macdonald, DS Emotion and heritage specialist Robert Bevan.

The next stage of design will be led by Network Rail, which is undertaking a feasibility study with its in-house multidisciplinary design team, to assess all the design and engineering issues including architecture, civil engineering, structures, track, signalling and electrification.

The proposed St James station also forms part of Liverpool City Region’s Long-Term Rail Strategy, a 30-year plan last updated in 2018.

Rotheram said: “I’m working to deliver a London-style transport system across the city region that is quick, affordable and easy to use, as well as expanding our network so our communities can be better connected.

“The Baltic Triangle has undergone a radical transformation over the past decade and has become a fantastic place for people to live, work and enjoy themselves.

“While coronavirus continues to have a huge impact on everyday life, I am determined to keep investing in our region’s economic recovery. Today, we’ve taken another step towards delivering a new station for the Baltic, which will help connect people with jobs, opportunities and the wider city region.”

Andy Heath, managing director of Merseyrail, Liverpool’s local rail network, added: “These latest steps towards re-opening St James station are incredibly promising and fantastic news for those who work in, live in and visit this increasingly vibrant part of the city.

“Not only will this improve rail connectivity in the area, but it will also have a positive impact on the environment, reducing air pollution in the area by providing an alternative mode of transport.”

St James Station Baltic Triangle

The stretch of railway at St James as it looks today

Your Comments

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Weird wording. The platforms were always in a cutting and the buildings on one side. The replacement will likely be the same. The UoL architecture students produces some alternatives. Personally I’d put a building over the entire cutting but that would make the staion very expensive because of the required fire precautions.

By John B

Will HS2 be stopping here?

By Anonymous

This is really good news and exciting news actually. The walk from central station is at least 15 minutes at the moment!

By Anonymous

A good sign of progress here let`s hope it`s sooner rather than later , then get some other major stuff sorted like re-opening the Wapping Tunnel so trains can access Liverpool Central and onwards.
On a minor note is it not time the escalator at Moorfields Underground landed at street level instead of the defunct raised walkway, it would not cost the earth.

By Anonymous

Good to see this re-opening gaining pace now.

By Oh Mr Porter!

It is exciting! Would/could they ever reopen the one on Tithebarn st

By Anon

Any infrastructure planned for tuebrook or kensington? Or will we be relying on trickle down theory again to help

By michael mctalented

Fantastic news! The Baltic needs it

By David

So what’s wrong with a 15 minute walk? More ratepayers’ money being wasted.

By MFH

Good news….tho we need more residential stations on the Liverpool lines….. this would require major investment and land acquisition…..sadly not something that’s going to happen soon……but….great for the Northern Line and for the Baltic

By Tercol

So re a previous poster, would you like bus stops every 15 mins walk, this would save the ” ratepayers” the cost of paying for all those extra bus shelters.

By Anonymous

Why has no one been out and spoke to the residents of the flats on parliament street. Adjacent to the railway about all this which will surely affect them.

By Anonymous

great news for the Baltic and fast growing Digital Quarter

By Anonymous

Does Rotherham’s London style transport system mean bankrupt with a congestion charge, wait and see, these single lanes into the city are for a reason.

By MFH

From John Lennon Airport to South Parkway is a priority…..I would have thought

By Tercol

Baltic underground is a natural. The electrified trains already run through here every 15 minutes. It will be a 2 minute journey to Central and a 20 minute journey to South Parkway for the airport. The underground tunnels are about 3 miles long from this point, so this is certainly an underground route, although the station will be open-top like the original St. James. Liverpool’s Waterfront area, with adjacent areas like the Baltic and the North Shore were historically at the centre of Liverpool’s economy and they are becoming ever more so again today. This is a fast route from Hunts Cross to Southport through Liverpool Central, with only a couple of minutes add on for connections to Lime Street on Merseyrail.

By Red Squirrel

It is actually closer to 20 minutes, so what about elderly people, people carrying heavy shopping, and what about when it rains? (and one thing about living in the NW, is that it certainly rains). That 15-20 minutes has to be added on top of the journey to Lime Street, plus the journey to the first train station, so we could be adding between 30-40 minutes of the journey just on foot. Then again this has the advantage of avoiding that whole journey if you are taking a train from anywhere on the Northern line without having to change. It would allow a significant part of Liverpool to have direct access to the Baltic Triangle.

Public transport connectivity is a hugely important thing for cities, especially neighbourhoods like the Baltic Triangle, what with the entertainment options on offer, allowing a large number of people to quickly arrive and depart. It is also extremely good value for money as the railway line is already existing.

By EOD

An exciting development, and hopefully the first of many station re-openings across the city. The Baltic is at a delicate tipping point now if the cluster of creative and digital businesses is not going to be strangled by residential developments, some of which looks to be of dubious quality.

By Mark Gilbertson

There is still plenty of room in the Baltic for more residential development as it needs to become a neighbourhood that uses the bars and cafes, and not just a location for the digital sector. Yes, we want the digital companies to flourish, but not just to build taller premises but to make better use of the land in low-rise, ground floor premises.

By Anonymous

The Baltic has lots of space for expansion of both residential and digital. And the more popular it becomes the more the prosperity will spread to other areas. Baltic underground will be perfectly placed to nurture that expansion.

By Red Squirrel

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