Developing Rail in the Liverpool City Region …Supporting Growth in the Sub-Regional, Regional and National Economies
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- Rail in the Liverpool City Region
- Connectivity
- Recent Trends
HS2 will bring London and the global connectivity offered by Heathrow Airport (via Old Oak Common) much closer to Liverpool with the prospect of considerable economic benefits for the LCR. But these benefits will only be fully realised if HS2 is integrated with a high quality, high capacity fast and frequent regional rail network. Specific details of HS2 are still at the planning stage, but the recent report of Sir David Higgins has highlighted the issue of poor connectivity in the North, not just between the region and London, but also east-west between Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Hull. He argues the case for the integrated planning of regional rail networks as key to realising the full potential of HS2 on the economy. It will also be essential that the benefits of HS2 to the LCR are fully recognised to ensure that Liverpool is firmly established on the UK’s high speed rail network.
Rail in the Liverpool City RegionThe Liverpool City Region is served by an extensive rail network, which, with over 100,000 passenger journeys per day, is one of the most heavily used in the UK outside London7 . Liverpool’s urban rail system is a much more extensive and better integrated system than the rail networks that currently serve comparably sized cities, such as Leeds. The core of the LCR commuter rail network is formed by the Merseyrail network, which comprises three lines. The two third-rail electric lines (the Northern Line and the Wirral Line) are comparatively well used by LCR’s population, having one of the highest rail mode shares in the country. This is a reflection of the strong local growth that has occurred following the innovation of the locally managed concession which was awarded to Serco-Abellio in 2003 for a 25-year term. Both of these lines operate through underground sections (opened in 1977) providing access to the heart of Liverpool city centre. The Wirral Line connects the city centre with the Wirral Peninsula via a tunnel under the Mersey. Merseyrail Northern and Wirral Line services are operated using Class 507 and Class 508 electric multiple units that date from the late 1970’s. The ‘City Line’ to the east of Liverpool comprises a number of local services that operate between the city and Blackpool, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport and Crewe and serve the towns of St Helens, Widnes, Runcorn and Warrington. City Line services are operated by Northern Rail, a franchise let by the Department for Transport. Most are currently operated by diesel rolling stock dating from the 1980s, but some will benefit from conversion to electric operation by 2016 as part of the North West electrification programme. In addition to the Merseyrail network, a number of other local services serve parts of the LCR. These include services between the Wirral and Wrexham (operated by Arriva Train Wales) and the Southport-Wigan and Ormskirk-Preston services (operated by Northern Rail). Intercity services to London Euston are provided by Virgin Trains (1-2 trains per hour). There are also direct services to Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, York and Newcastle. There is also an hourly cross-country to Norwich via the East Midlands. There are currently no direct services from Liverpool serving North or South Wales, South or South West England or Scotland. ConnectivityThanks to the investment made in the 1970s in developing a cross-city network in Liverpool City Centre, most parts of the LCR benefit from a relatively high level of rail connectivity. However, with average speeds on many routes below 25mph and even less than 20mph on some, journey times are relatively uncompetitive with other modes. Whilst frequent rail services operate to neighbouring Manchester (3 ‘fast’ trains per hour), services to other significant regional centres (e.g. Wigan, Preston, Blackpool and Manchester Airport) receive no more than an hourly service and with average speeds of typically around 35mph and thus are also uncompetitive with road. Liverpool has benefited from the major upgrade of the West Coast Main Line and is now connected with London Euston every hour in just under 2¼ hours (average speed 88mph). By comparison, the journey time from Manchester and from Leeds to London are also very similar. However, these cities benefit from higher frequencies (every 20 minutes and 30 minutes respectively) which reflects the higher levels of demand on those routes. Compared to other UK major cities Liverpool has comparably poorer city-to-city connectivity. Liverpool has direct train services to only 7 of the 11 other largest cities in Britain. By contrast, neighbouring Manchester has direct train services to all 12 of Britain’s largest cities and at an average frequency twice that of Liverpool as illustrated in Table 1 below. Table1: Direct Train Services per Hour
Recent TrendsDespite the shortcomings of the LCR’s passenger rail services, rail patronage in Merseyside has been steadily growing in recent years. The growth in rail travel in the LCR has significantly outstripped rail growth in Great Britain in recent years and has grown faster than in Manchester, Birmingham (West Midlands), Newcastle (Tyne and Wear), West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. During the last 10 years mode share of private cars in Liverpool city centre has been decline, whilst rail has seen a rising trend over the same period as illustrated in Figure 7 (the dip in 2012/13 was due to underground station closures for refurbishment). Figure 7: Liverpool City Centre Mode Share (%) AM Peak 
Source: Merseyside Mode Share Surveys There is a significant level of freight traffic using rail to access the Port of Liverpool and industries in the LCR. Key commodities carried by rail include intermodal, coal, automobiles, and metals:
Intermodal – Seaforth provides linkage to the UK rail network for shipping lines calling at the Port of Liverpool. Coal – with traffic operating from the Liverpool Bulk Handling Terminal primarily serving Fiddlers Ferry power station (near Widnes). Automobiles – growing levels of traffic generated from two major car production plants, one at Halewood (Jaguar/Land Rover) and one at Ellesmere Port (GM). An automobile terminal at Speke also forms a key point for imported cars to the region. Metals - Dee Marsh receives a stable flow of three steel trains per day from South Wales. The Port of Liverpool also deals with metals for recycling and paper in addition to the intermodal traffic. Directory: request request -> # Received Requester request -> Education Funding Agency Sanctuary Buildings request -> Request for proposal: case study on drip pool programme, gujarat request -> Request for special format materials and request -> Request for Scientific/Technical Information Routinely Available Under the Environmental Protection & Enhancement Act (epea) request -> The Carleton Clinic Cumbria Partnership nhs foundation Trust request -> Ip justification request -> Following your operation Download 0.78 Mb. Share with your friends:
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