Lime Street reopens after emergency repairs

Liverpool Lime Street station has reopened this morning after closing on Sunday for repairs to a structure carrying overhead wires over all four of the station’s lines.

Network Rail said it had found “severe corrosion” on the structure, meaning trains were unable to pass safely underneath. Rail engineers were deployed on Sunday to carry out emergency repairs, which were expected to take a minimum of 24 hours to complete.

A Network Rail spokesperson said the corrosion was “spotted by engineers carrying out routine inspection”.

The discovery of the damage caused severe disruption, with all services in and out of the station cancelled. Network Rail initially said the station would remain closed today, but the repair work completed overnight, allowing the station to reopen this morning.

A Network Rail spokesperson added: “We have worked as quickly as possible to carry out repair work to the structure today and have a schedule of work to complete overnight that will allow us to reopen Liverpool Lime Street [on Monday]. I would like to apologise for the disruption caused and thank passengers for their patience while we carry out the repairs.”

A report in December last year found Network Rail “did not have a suitable risk prioritisation in place to guide the scope and depth of examinations” into Lime Street’s supporting walls, part of which collapsed in March 2017.

According to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, Network Rail had not carried out an on-site inspection of land above tracks leading into the station since December 2014. Around 200 tonnes of rubble and soil fell 12 metres onto the tracks, resulting in the closure of the station last year.

The incident was caused by historic double-stacking of storage containers on the plot of land above the wall.

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Literally falling to pieces…

By OxBox

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