Next stop construction after £100m Baltic station clears planning hurdle
Liverpool will see work on the highly anticipated rail station begin early next year following the city council’s unanimous approval of the scheme.
Construction of Liverpool Baltic station is expected to complete in 2027. Highway works will start by autumn this year.
The £100m project is predicted by planner WSP to contribute economic benefits amounting to £155m for the city region.
Liverpool Baltic will sit in the heart of the city’s Baltic Triangle and act as a jumping off point into an area of Liverpool regularly cited as both one of the country’s “coolest neighbourhoods” and as a socio-economic hotspot for creative, tech, and entertainment industries.
Mott MacDonald is the project manager and principal contractor for the project, while the station’s design has been conceived by Owen Ellis Architects.
Situated on the Northern Line, between Liverpool Central and Brunswick Station, the station will benefit from existing rail infrastructure – rail lines and tunnelling – left over from the site’s historical use as St James Station, which closed in 1917.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool City Region, called the approval of the project by Liverpool City Council’s planning committee “another major milestone”, adding that the station is key in the vision for a “London-style transport system”.
He said: “I believe good quality public transport is a right, not a privilege.
“Investing more than £100m at the heart of one of the UK’s most vibrant areas will help to make this part of the city more accessible to all while easing congestion and helping us achieve our net zero targets.”
Ticket offices, gates, and the station concourse would greet passengers at ground level, with escalators, lifts, and stairs ferrying them down to the platforms.
The shafts of the four proposed lifts would rise above the station’s roof to create four visually distinct ‘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 around the station’s entrance.
Redesigned junctions, pedestrian crossings, and cycle lanes would reset the highway surrounding the station.
Passengers will enter the station from the ground floor concourse before descending to the platforms. Credit: via LCRCA
Tom Roberts, technical principal for urban design, Mott MacDonald, added: “The design addresses the regeneration of the southern gateway to Liverpool, rather than just creating a new station in isolation.
“We have designed this project with the client, rather than for them.”
Liverpool Baltic is set to serve the class 777 trains already put into service by LCRCA and Merseyrail.
The LCRCA received financial backing for the project in September 2024, derived from the government’s £710m City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement.
Others working on the scheme include Infinite 3D, Merseyrail Electrics 2002, and Skanska.
The Baltic Triangle itself is subject to numerous developments, such as Davos’s 59 apartments off Blundell Street, and the completed £50m One Baltic Square project by Nexus Residential.
To view the application, use the planning reference number 24F/2999 on Liverpool City Council’s planning portal.
That’s great news, looking forward to seeing this come to fruition
By Anonymous
Fantastic
By Anonymous
Wish Steve would stop going on about a ‘London Style’ transport network, if that’s his goal he needs to expand the Merseyrail network a lot quicker and wider than he is at present, nonetheless this is good news for commuters and local residents. You only have look at the London Overground network and Crossrail to work out that where new stations are built then generally investment in residential will follow.
By Anonymous
Good. Hopefully the attentions of Merseytravel and political leaders in Liverpool can now turn to a similar scale of investment to the woeful facilities at Sandhills in order to facilitate easy transport to Bramley Moore stadium and to drive investment to the Ten Streets and Liverpool Waters.
By Jeremy Pieface
A World Class development
By World Class Worzel
This is great news, however Mr Rotherham can’t claim this station is good for business then state that there is no business case for a station at Ten Streets to the North of the City Centre. The new Everton Stadium, Liverpool Waters and the Ten Streets desperately need a new station yet he claims that the development of North Docks can happen without improved appropriate transport links.
By Graham Brandwood
All steam ahead!
By Oh, Mr Porter!
Great news, but agree with the comments, Liverpool needs another ten new stations to really make a big impact to large areas of the city which have no Merseyrail provision and would hugely benefit from it.
By GetItBuilt!
@Graham Brandwood – nailed it.
By Wigan Kebab
LCC are anti development and business
By Anonymous
I am genuinely interested to hear and understand why its necessary to have this station at Baltic for future needs when there is a clear and present need for a suitable station at Sandhills to serve a stadium and surrounding area . It further highlights the incompetence of doing no works except a cattle pen at Sandhills then fumbling around with attempted quick fixes that should have been 5 years in the planning. Everton FC and the surrounding businesses need to be asking some serious questions .
By Paul M - Woolton
Can u all stop whinging goodness sake !!!!!!!!
By Anonymous