Liverpool Baltic station set to overcome planning hurdle
Next week, Liverpool City Council is expected to grant planning approval for the highly anticipated project, the latest milestone in a drawn-out process to provide enhanced public transport provision in the lively district.
Consent from the planning committee would pave the way for the three-year construction project to begin.
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s £100m station will be delivered on the site of the old St James station, which closed in 1917 after 40 years of operation.
The station aims to increase both employment and footfall within the Baltic Triangle, Liverpool’s creative district. A planning statement compiled by WSP suggests the economic benefits of the transport hub could rise to £155m over the next 60 years.
Ticket offices, gates, and the station concourse would be found at ground level, with escalators, lifts, and stairs ferrying passengers down to the platforms.
The shafts of the four proposed lifts would rise above the station’s roof to create four ‘beacons’ at each corner of the single-storey hub building.
An external forecourt to the east and south of the station has been proposed to provide a soft and hard landscaped public realm about the station’s entrance.
Planned highway improvements include redesigned junctions, carriageways, pedestrian crossings, and the provision of cycle lanes.
Construction is set to start this year, with completion targeted for the end of 2027
Construction alone would contribute almost £28m GVA to the local economy, according to planning documents.
Funds for the scheme will be derived from the £710m City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement allocated from Westminster. Credit: via LCRCA
The station will serve the class 777 trains already put into service by the LCRCA and Merseyrail.
WSP has agreed with Liverpool City Council that a second application concerning the temporary use of a construction site to the station’s south would be determined in parallel with the main scheme.
In September, LCRCA secured almost £100m in funding for the station from the government’s £710m City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement.
Owen Ellis Architects is the principal designer, with Mott MacDonald as project manager.
To view the application, use the planning reference 24F/2999 on Liverpool City Council’s planning portal.
