[DeeMersey]

Hello Folks,

I've been off-forum for a week or two with other commitments, so I'm quite interested to see this thread today. As a Scouser I feel able to comment a little.

I've often myself wondered how we could improve services into Lime Street. In fact, there is still a reasonable amount of capacity along the WCML Liverpool Branch through Runcorn; it doesn't carry nearly as much freight as it once did (and possibly less once the Olive Mount Chord is reinstated any week now), and the four-track line south of Edge Hill Junction usually only carries two LM and generally less than one VT service an hour; traffic from the Cheshire Lines via Warrington Central can still use the slow lines.

I suspect the issue for Liverpool will not be the branch but the main line itself; I reckon that HS2 will probably not seem cost effective for Merseyside. However, the plus from that is that more direct paths may become available on the existing WCML, which may well prove almost as good as having HS2.

Of course, the other missing link here is the former Liverpool Overhead Railway. It would probably be cheaper than a tunnel to re-instate a raised railway from Liverpool South Parkway above the Merseyrail Northern Line (thus creating platforms 6 and 7) to Brunswick, where it could pick up the course of the former LOR and re-join the existing railway at Seaforth & Litherland. This has the advantage of giving three northward options; directly north to Southport, or following the almost disused line to Aintree, and from there continuing north to Ormskirk and Preston, or past the famous racecourse to the former Fazakerley Junction onto the Kirkby-Wigan line.

This is all probably pie-in-the-sky, but its nice to think that people have the intelligence and vision to consider better options for Liverpool. I hope other places in Britain get similar consideration in this forum as well.

Take care all,

DeeMersey.