Liverpool Baltic Station delayed but not cancelled, says Rotheram

Oh dear, another delay for the Mayor

Of course it’s delayed and not cancelled. We absolutely believe that completely

Steve will have no more excuses when his best mate is in Downing Street soon

All of this renders all other claims about masterplans, visions, development zones and, frankly, competence, null and void.
Breweries and ale-ups come to mind.

Baltic – Delayed
Hemisphere- Delayed
Pall Mall – Delayed
Littlewoods – Delayed
China Town – Still no idea what that’s going to be.
Festival Gardens – Nothing

Failure.

@ bob July 9th at 12.47pm

Totally agreed 👍🏻

A new station here would be transformational for the Baltic Triangle. Better rail access is one of the most tried and tested ways to unlock regeneration, increase footfall, support local businesses, and give people confidence to invest in an area.

That is why these delays are so frustrating. Local politicians and the council have repeatedly raised expectations, so residents and businesses deserve clear timelines, honest explanations, and accountability when promises slip. This project needs delivering, not endlessly delaying.

Everyone’s understandable frustration would be better directed to Network Rail than the mayor who is grappling with issues completely beyond his control.

Everyone in the city is fed up with the delays and non delivery of Steve Rotherham and Liverpool City Council. Not one major project is on site. Pall Mall yet another delay of at least nine months and even that won’t go ahead without a pre-let. Even our own councillor for economic development opposed the original proposals. We are constantly told Paddington Village is the key project for the city, yet the last thing built was a car park more than three years ago and no sign of Hemisphere getting off the ground. The once iconic Littlewoods building is now left a burnt out shell. The report to cabinet on Pall Mall laid out the abject failure to prioritise economic growth.Manchester has created 60,000 professional jobs, Liverpool just 6,000. Just two cranes now to be seen in the city centre.

Just spent a couple of days working in London , its bad enough seeing the amount of significant projects taking place and the north west feeding off scraps . Its made much worse for our city with the absolute gross incompetence we are witnessing from
Mr Rotherham and LCC. Only the ballot box and a fresh approach from new people can solve this malaise.

A shame about the ‘delay’ but is anyone remotely surprised? Just need to look at Broadgreen station where a relatively simple job of installing a lift has been delayed for 5 years!!

Same old same old
Half a step forward two steps back.
LCC. But the sheeples keep voting.

He is disappointed? What about 1.6mln residents living in this declining and grossly mismanaged urban mess, where travelling without a car is a logistic and expensive nightmare? Not a single project delivered by this incompetent and egocentric man. All he does it plastering his face on social media and announcing another empty promise and unrealistic vision that never materialises. Scousers, you can do WAY better than this!

Rotherham you are not fit for purpose

Which won’t come first then? Steve’s imaginary tidal barrage, or his hypothetical station?
Just as well he’s pressing ahead with with his pretend trams, or he’d have to illustrate his next election leaflet entirely with AI images and renders.

For heavens and all our sakes do the decent thing and resign now Mayor Rotheram and let somebody who knows what they are doing take your place!

It’s not a new station though is it. The platforms need a few new concrete slabs and the stairs might need a new handrail. Open it with a tap in entrance and enable those willing to climb the stairs to start to use the station – that won’t be much different from Stratford International when not using the lift. I doubt that would cost much money and if we’re talking millions for the safety assessment then someone somewhere is having a laugh. Build a lift when there’s time and money to build a lift.

LEAVE… STEVE… ALONE!

@ phil July 9th at 12.47pm

Totally agreed 👍🏻

Should some of the logistical issues he mentions not been ironed out before making a big announcement about the station. If this was a one off failure you could accept it but it’s one of a catalogue of failures.

After all the other failings we thought this project was nailed on, it was name checked by Rachel Reeves. So how can this go through years of costing, design, then through planning, for the Mayor and his team to realise there was no contractor lined up, it’s truly embarrassing and incompetent. The lack of urgency and planning around the Everton Stadium and Sandhills Station was bad enough but this is far worse as it’s looked on as a flagship scheme.
The Mayor was on Radio Merseyside a few days ago and a number of points were put to him regarding potential schemes that would benefit the City Region, such as:
Bringing a ferry terminal back to New Brighton, bringing back trams, extending new lines on Merseyrail, and so on, but all were rejected as unaffordable, but the Mayor doesn’t, or won’t, understand that you have to have grand visions to put to Goverment and keep hammering away at them,maybe year after year, until they acknowledge that this is what you want and you’re going to keep fighting for it because you believe in it.
But our Mayor just gives up ,or gives in, and accepts inferior options like bendy buses.

Too much moaning about Steve, look at all the well used , transformational cycle lanes he’s constructed.

Read into what he says. It’s cancelled. Poor excuses. He’s incompetent.

If they made a biopic at the new Hollywood-of-the-North film studios in the old Littlewoods building about Steve Rotheram’s time as Metro Mayor it would likely be a slapstick comedy.
Not that such a thing would be possible as Steve hasn’t delivered on that scheme either and probably never will.

So many other things they spend money on ,but there is nothing wrong with central station 5 billion ? Makes no sense typical of all the Liverpool councils over the years pull down nice buildings put up rubbish clueless .

Why would anyone trust Rotherham or local labour with the 5bn central station project, if they can’t get this or a multitude of other right ,

When will it stop goodness me it’s truly awful how this city is managed

Does Rotheram not realise that his failure to sort the Baltic out weakens the case for Central?

Socialist city to its core

At this rate the planning permission will expire before they get around to putting a spade in the ground!

Like all his other plans!!!!

I blame the Mayor too, not the diversified privatized railway companies. Surely the mayor is a dictator. If thngs dont happen, it must be because he did not order them to happen. Eveything is his fault, obviously.

I am not some planning consultant just someone who lives in and loves our amazing city but even I could have foreseen the issues around working around ‘live rails’ before the development even got to being given planning consent. Why has it taken so long for such an issue to be raised? It should have been done ages ago and not when all of us who love the city were expecting spades to be put in the ground and the station actually built. Hopefully this won’t be just another mayoral fantasy project that will never see the light of day. I strongly suspect as many others do that ‘delayed’ is just mayoral speak for cancelled. I suspect the ‘Festival Gardens’ project will be next on the list to be ‘delayed’ along with the Littlewoods building development. Sadly the current LCC are the guardians of a city where nothing happens or gets done and the city is stagnating thanks to them!

Does anyone know of another station that’s been built around “live rails”? By which I mean, what’s the solution?

Sad an hard to believe that this very important is delayed with no commitment when to start construction. After so much promoting it. Just another glorious project like Merseytram going down the drain. The region no longer able to biild a major new urban rail station.

The longer the delay the more expensive it will get. Hard to believe that Liverpool is no longer capable to build a new city centre station. Sad for all people and businesses in the Baltic triangle.

This mayor couldn’t get his head round 50,000 people going to and from a footy game might need more from the local train station than a new staircase!!! Oh, and his excuse for not developing a decent strategy around Bramley Moor? Everton takeover hadn’t been confirmed in time. Mate, see the huge concrete, glass and metal building that has been growing for three years!!????!!!.

Still can’t fathom how it’s £100m at last year’s price. Are the escalators made of gold?

Engineering difficulties are the least of the problems. It’s taken 20 years so far, but they are yet to realise that it’s doesn’t come cheap or that it wont be overflowing with passengers when and if its completed. It is what it is, a stop in a once industrial estate, that’s seen better days, no matter how they wax lyrical….any industry has long since left the area that provided employment for the indigenous. I know because I was once one.

I remember him promising a station on the woodchurch estate on the Wirral when he was canvassing for mayor, soon forgotten once he was in though.

Waste of money…try repairing the roads, or even deep them for that matter.

This was very important to that area and look what’s happened . Like so many failed developments in Liverpool it’s becoming an international embarrassment

The image looks wonderful but loving liverpool( my birthplace) I become increasingly dismayed at the go slow speed of any regeneration compared to the rate that projects are completed in Mancbester. Has anybody seen the state of the ladies toilets in Lime Street station? although clean are grim, with duck tape sealing floor grids etc and don’t appear to have been updated for decades. This is a mainline station – if money or time can’t be found for a comparatively small project what hope is there of updating Central

Anon 7.16am, yes Lime St station, I think it’s Network Rail which is responsible for that but over the years you realise they only do the minimum to maintain it. Ok it was given a makeover a few years back but wasn’t that more to do with signalling than upgrading, and anyway it took out the then platform 1, and for me failed to reconfigure a platform next to platform 6, which could have given us another useful platform. It is baffling too that there are no ticket barriers at platforms 6-10, which means anyone can board London bound trains without being checked. As regards the general feel of the station it’s all a bit ad hoc with just one coffee outlet near busy platforms 6-10, while also in that location there is no large overhead information/dot matrix board giving full details of train arrivals/departures. Compared to say ; Glasgow Central , Edinburgh, Manchester Picc. , Norwich, London Kings Cross, then Lime St is a bit of a shambles, and more or less shows Network Rail’s piecemeal commitment to the area proven by the mess they made at Broadgreen Station.

Trains will run from 5th of never

Rotheram a litany of failure – Castore, Wirral owners who move from Liverpool to Manchester praising Burnham for the move, BNY Melon – move offices from Pier Head to Manchester, BT now closes office 601 jobs gone – keep up your own back slapping Rotheram!!

Given that devolution will give Steve more powers it should be hugely worrying to everyone who loves our great city. Everything the man touches turns to dust.