Mayor says new Baltic station plan still stacks up

Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram has said the business case for a new railway station in the Baltic Triangle still stacks up, despite rising costs and delays.

Last month it was revealed that £160m would now be required to build the station, significantly higher than the £96m originally allocated by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA).

When the station was first proposed in 2022, the estimated bill was about £80m, with work due to be completed by 2025.

After plans were eventually approved last year, it was hoped construction would start by the end of 2025 and be finished in late 2027.

Work has still yet to begin.

LCRCA leaders approved capital funding last week of £144.4m for the station build and £15.7m for associated highway works.

Speaking on BBC Radio Merseyside, Rotheram said: "The business case stacks up enormously and it's much better than any of the stations we've got."

Rotheram said businesses and residents in the Baltic Triangle area of the city would benefit from a new station, despite the suggestion that other parts of Liverpool were now growing and expanding more quickly.

He said housing between Dingle and Chinatown was "densely populated" and residents would be able to travel more quickly and in greater numbers using the new station.

It will sit on the site of the former St James' stop on Merseyrail's northern line, between Brunswick and Liverpool Central.

The original station opened in 1874 and was named after a nearby parish church.

It closed during World War One as a cost-cutting measure but never reopened.

Now the area is known as the Baltic Triangle - a former industrial area around Jamaica Street which is now home to many independent creative and digital businesses.

Rotheram said a specialist firm had been appointed to carry out the project, Network Rail's preferred contractor, Swedish firm Skanska.

The delays and increased costs associated with the scheme have been criticised by opposition politicians.

The deputy leader of Liverpool's Liberal Democrats, Liz Makinson, also sits on the LCRCA transport committee.

She said the spiralling costs "highlights a catalogue of errors" and was "not a good look" for the region.

Makinson said people in the region might lose faith in the speed of delivery of public transport projects.

Rotheram said he hoped to see "the hoarding go up in the first quarter of 2027".

He added: "People will start to see we're taking over the land, we'll section it off and then the engineering works are scheduled to follow on but of course it's about getting possession of the line, so what that means is trains are still going to be running live through this cut."

The metro mayor said the LCRCA and Network Rail had been through costings "line by line" for the past six months to ensure everything was accounted for.

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