A three-storey building fronted Ranelagh Street in
Liverpool city centre, with a high, arched shed behind. There were six platforms within the station, offering journeys to Manchester Central,
London St. Pancras,
Hull,
Harwich,
Stockport Tiviot Dale,
Southport Lord Street and an alternative route to that of the
Midland Railway terminating at
London Marylebone. The journey to Manchester Central took 45 mins, making the route quicker and more direct than those of the competing
Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway and
London & North Western Railway. On 11 January 1892,
Liverpool Central Low Level underground station opened at the end of the
Mersey Railway's route, via the
Mersey Railway Tunnel from
Birkenhead. The tunnel was extended from
James Street to Central. The Mersey Railway platforms were underground, accessed from stairs within the station; these stairs were situated in roughly the same position as the escalators accessing the
Merseyrail Northern Line today. The station was always busy, until nationalisation. Route closures that were part of the Beeching Axe in the 1960s closed three terminal stations: Liverpool Central High Level,
Liverpool Exchange and
Woodside Station in Birkenhead. • Long and medium distance routes –
Lime Street Station in Liverpool city centre was to remain, absorbing the long-to-medium-distance passenger traffic of the closed terminal stations. • Local urban routes – The local urban services served by the terminal stations would be absorbed by the new
Merseyrail urban network. New tunnels under Liverpool's city centre were scheduled to connect all the separate rail lines to create Merseyrail. In 1966, most services on the CLC route were diverted to Lime Street via the
Hunts Cross chord, leaving only a dozen urban commuter trains per day to and from the terminus at
Gateacre. These final services were withdrawn on 17 April 1972, with the High Level part of the station closed that day; it was later demolished, after having served briefly as a car park. However, the Low Level underground station remains open. The site was being developed into
Central Village, building over the underground station; however, in 2017, new owners Augur announced that they planned to develop the site into a mixed retail and leisure development known as 'Circus'. ==Layout==