Lime Street is Liverpool's largest station and a terminus of the West Coast Main Line though not the first terminus. The first was opened at Crown Street, Edge Hill in 1830 but was replaced by the much more centrally located Lime Street a few years later. Lime Street was opened by the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1836 [1].
Northern 150 124 at Lime St
Information
Type:
National Rail (West Coast Main Line &
Local Lines)
Station code:
LIV
Opened:
1836
Platforms:
9
The station is down a fairly steep incline from Edge Hill(up to 1 in 83). Early steam locomotives were not powerful enough to handle such an incline meaning that early trains were rope hauled as far as Edge Hill until 1870. The approach to the station was cut into the bed rock, originally a tunnel but later on opened out to allow for more tracks and for smoke (and later diesel fumes) to escape. The line was electrified in the early 1960s with electric services from Liverpool to Crewe starting in 1962 [2].
Over the station was built an arched roof in the 1860s to cover the concourse and most of the platform length. A second parallel roof was added in 1879.
An underground station was built at Lime Street in 1977 for Merseyrail Wirral Line services (Liverpool Lime Street Low Level), access to this is via the main concourse. Liverpool Lime Street is a busy station with services by Northern, Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern, East Midlands Railway, Transport for Wales and Trans Pennine Express.
Northern 142 048
Northern 319 375
Northern 195 114
Old and new at the buffer stops, Northern 150 226 and 195 102
A Transport for Wales 158
[1] Jonathan Cadwallader & Martin Jenkins, Merseyside Electrics (Ian Allan, 2010) p. 54 [2] Ibid p. 56
