Liverpool Central Station revamp moves a step closer
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis will today announce crucial funding to improve Liverpool's Central Station after it was named one of the worst in the country.
The station will share £50m that is being spread between the ten worst stations.
We should know this evening how much Central is going to get. Transport bosses have not yet been told how much Central will get out of the pot.
This is something which transport bosses and Riverside MP Louise Ellman have campaigned for a while now.
Frankly it is long overdue, the fact that Central has been named ninth worst station should come as no surprise.
It is cramped, damp, dingy and a dreadful advert for the city for arrivals.
It is such a shame that the busiest station in Liverpool, and for that fact the busiest underground station outside London, is in such a state.
Last year Mark Dowd, chairman of Merseytravel, labelled it a "tip" and warned of mounting safety risks if nothing was done to boost capacity.
"This is tremendous news, something for which I have campaigned and lobbied long and hard.
"We have brought a succession of Ministers to Central Station to see the situation for themselves and our persistence has been rewarded.
"I would also like to thank Louise Ellman MP for her assistance in lobbying Government on our behalf.
"Central Station is the busiest station on our network, with up to 60,000 passengers a day, and Merseytravel will contribute to the funding package to ensure it becomes a showcase on one of the country's best performing rail networks."
Cllr Chris Blakeley, chairman of Merseytravel's rail services committee, said: "Over £130m has been invested in Merseyrail Electrics during the past 15 years.
"Earlier this year we became the first fully secure stations network in the UK and we will strive to ensure it continues to be a network of which we can be justifiably proud."
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David Bartlett - City editor of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs. He was previously chief reporter of the Daily Post and here he gives his insight into the workings of regional politics.
The North-West has most of the worst. Wigan North Western & Warrington Bank Quay are truly dreadful. I've spent many a winter's hour stood on those platforms. It's like something from eastern Poland after Napoleon passed through. Preston is appalling too, with old stone stairways down to the grimy underpass that are a hazard to the able-bodied, never mind the elderly. Manchester Victoria gets a well-merited dishonourable mention. But I'd like to put in a word for Platforms 13 & 14 at Manchester Piccadilly. The main station is fabulous these days, with a moving walkway that ferries you up and along to the lines that connect to Liverpool. Everything is fine until you descend to platform 13/14. At this point you travel back in time nearly two centuries. Pop along there one bleak February evening. Wait until there's a decent easterly blowing, ideally with some snow in the air. Then stand on platform 14 waiting for the Liverpool train, and as the wind slices through you, tell me you wouldn't sooner be dead!
Rather extreme to say "Rather be dead" don;t you think. Is it really that bad??
Not as bad as Nuneaton, that's for sure. How Nuneaton never made the list is beyond me. A more godforsaken hole is impossible to imagine this side of the tundra