January start for £80m Kirkby station
Work can begin on construction of a railway station at Headbolt Lane after consent was granted for the combined authority-backed scheme.
The decision was made at Knowsley Council’s 9 December planning committee meeting. Work will begin in January 2022, with the opening of the station planned for spring 2023.
The Seed Architects-designed scheme is being delivered by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in partnership with Knowsley Council, Network Rail, Merseyrail and Northern. Funding has come from the Transforming Cities Fund.
The new station plans include:
- Step-free access throughout the station
- A bus interchange
- Cycle parking
- Links to local cycling and walking networks
- Passenger waiting facilities and toilets
- Approximately 300 park & ride spaces
The plans for the project were lodged in September. The full scheme includes the extension of the Merseyrail network beyond the existing Kirkby station and will see Merseyrail services run into the new station. Northern services from Wigan and Manchester will also operate to and from the new three-platform station.
This will be the first station to benefit from battery technology on the new trains for the Merseyrail network, removing the need to extend the third rail beyond the existing Kirkby station.
The scheme is also designed to support future plans to build a new rail link to Skelmersdale, a long-term plan for the Combined Authority and partners Lancashire County Council, West Lancashire Borough Council and Network Rail.
As well as improving rail access to several residential areas, Headbolt Lane is also aligned to plans to support workers and visitors to one of Knowsley Business Park.
Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said: “Coming from Kirkby, I’m always proud to see the work we are doing to help get the area back on the up again.
“From the tens of millions that we have invested in the Townie, to the construction of this new station, it’s a great example of how we’re making a real difference because of devolution – and the ability it gives us to make more decisions locally.
“This is just one step on the journey towards delivering my ambition for a London-style transport system that will make getting around our region quick, cheap and reliable wherever you live.”
Headbolt Lane will become the terminus for Kirkby. Credit: LCR Combined Authority
£80m for this!???? Good god! Looks like it should be more like £10m tops! What a waste of public money!
By IMHO
Glad to see this …..now let’s move on with the link to skelmesdale
By George
Great stuff, and next bring forward the Baltic Triangle Station because the area needs it. There is so much potential for transport, land, property and integration with other services with the Merseyrail network.
By Anonymous
That cant be right, £80m, that must be a mistake, £25m an acre?
By Geoff
Will there be drop-off charges? If not, why not?
By James Yates
@IMHO: what’s your £10m estimate based on, sorry? Don’t need detail – rough headings will do
By Cost Engineer
Re: comments about the £80m price tag, we reached out to the combined authority to confirm (again) and they said the figure is correct. The £80m figure incudes the work that will be done to re-double the line between Kirkby station and Headbolt Lane including a new bridge being put in to enable that. Some of the money will also go towards buying new Merseyrail trains and the battery plans for those trains.
By Julia Hatmaker
Sounds good
By J devereux
Very good much improved area.
By J devereux
The split is circa as follows:
£25M for the new station development (site clearance, service diversions, new-build station building, waiting rooms, three platforms, all associated car parking, access roads, hard and soft landscaping, new incoming main services, signage, street furniture).
£10M for adaptions and remodelling to existing Kirkby station plus circa 1,000m of new permanent way (earthworks, track, sleepers, ballast, electrical, signalling, new bridge).
Not sure about land acquisition costs, say £5M tops.
Obviously lots of various other consultants and parties taking their professional fee slices totalling another, say, £4M or £5M.
That all sums up to around £45M so there must be around £35M in there for new Merseyrail rolling stock.
By Jess Arnott