Undergound Stations In Liverpool
I took these pictures so I would have a record of the underground stations, as they are at the present time.
They are all clean, modern stations, that can handle two Class 507/508 trains, working as a six-car.
The pictures give a good idea of the size of the tunnels, which are 4.70 metres in diameter.
Compare this to other underground railways.
- Crossrail – 6.20 metres.
- Victoria Line – 3.81 metres.
- Northern City Line – 4.90 metres.
- Waterloo and City Line – 3.89 metres.
I would think that like the Northern City Line in London, that they may have the problem that trains need to be specially built for the tunnels.
So would this rule out a train like an Aventra, which has been designed to work in the larger tunnels of Crossrail?
On Liverpool’s Northern Line
I took these pictures on Merseyrail’s Northern Line.
Note.
- Merseyrail have been updating the platforms and step-free access, but usually there is a small step up into the train.
- There are several stations with wide island platforms.
- Compared to the London Overground, there don’t appear to be many coffee stalls on the platforms. Transport for London encourages independent stalls.
- All platforms, that I saw, could handle two three-car Class 507/508 trains, working as a six-car train.
- The Northern Line has various branches and it seemed that the system has been designed to go down one branch and then do a quick change to go up another.
The only thing the line needs is new faster trains.
Currently, journey times are as follows.
- Southport- Hunts Cross – 64 minutes
- Kirkby – Hunts Cross – 44 minutes with a change.
- Ormskirk – Hunts Cross – 72 minutes with a change.
It strikes me,that if trains could get Southport to Hunts Cross in under an hour, this might have knock-on effects, as to the number of trains needed.
The Victoria Line in London has now simplified its diagrams, by removing a few bottlenecks and the outcome is increased frequencies on the line.
I suspect that Merseyrail engineers have been following the Victoria Line works with interest.
At present four trains per hour (tph) go to each of the Northern terminals, with 8 tph terminating at Liverpool Central station and four tph at Hunts Cross station.
Could Liverpool be seeing a Thameslink style service where perhaps twelve or perhaps more tph ran on the core route between Sandhills and Hunts Cross stations?
Twelve tph would need twenty four three-car trains if all round trips could be within an hour, with popular services perhaps run with six-car trains.
Modern trains with a lot of driven axles can do so many more round trips in a day.
The Anonymous Widower 