High Level terminus station The original station, which was a large, above-ground terminal station, opened on 2 March 1874, at the end of the
Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) line to
Manchester Central. It replaced station as the CLC's Liverpool terminus, becoming the headquarters of the committee. The three-storey building fronted Ranelagh Street in the city centre, with a high, arched iron and glass train shed behind. There were six platforms within the station, facilitating journeys to (in 45 minutes, making the route the quickest and most direct between Liverpool and Manchester), , , , , and an alternative London route to that of the
Midland Railway, terminating at . Until the
nationalisation of Britain's railways, the station was always busy but it was closed under the
Beeching Axe, as the routes served could be taken from nearby Liverpool Lime Street. 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 . These final services were withdrawn on 17 April 1972, with a promise to reinstate the Gateacre route when the Merseyrail network was completed in 1978. The High Level station was demolished in 1973, having served a short time as a car park, although some former station buildings remained while work was in progress on rebuilding the underground station in the mid-1970s. The area of the train shed now forms the centre of the stalled
Central Village development.
Underground urban station junction diagram, showing railways in the vicinity of Liverpool Central – Low Level station (Mersey Railway) in purple; High Level station (Cheshire Lines) in orange Liverpool Central Low Level underground terminal station opened on 11 January 1892, at the end of the
Mersey Railway's route, via the
Mersey Railway Tunnel from
Birkenhead, when the route was extended from . The Mersey Railway platforms were underground, accessed from stairs within the High Level station and situated in roughly the same position as the escalators accessing the Northern Line today. The Mersey Railway tunnel entering Central Low Level from the north of the station was aligned with the High Level station's approach tunnel from the south. This was to ensure minimum engineering work if ever the two tunnels were to be linked up, as did occur in the 1970s.
Merseyrail The Merseyrail network was created in the 1970s by merging separate railways into one integrated network. Central underground station would service the Northern and
Wirral Lines. A new loop tunnel was built in Liverpool city centre for Wirral Line trains, linking James Street station with , Lime Street and Liverpool Central stations, and returning to James Street. A new deep-level underground platform was built at Liverpool Central as part of this loop tunnel. The former CLC route was taken underground connecting to the underground Mersey Railway platforms. Another new tunnel, the Link Tunnel, allowed trains to continue northwards via Moorfields to the approach lines to , creating one long line from Hunts Cross to Southport. Liverpool Exchange terminal station was closed in 1977; this route became the Northern Line. The rebuilt underground station was opened by
British Rail in the same year. In the original 1970s Merseyrail plan, southbound trains would have continued to
Warrington and Manchester; however, services terminated at
Garston, then later extended to . Simultaneously, works to allow the Northern Line to be connected to the
Victoria Tunnel, called the Edge Hill Spur, to connect the eastern section of the city to the city centre underground section were undertaken, then later abandoned. Trains would have operated from Central station to the east of the city and out to
St Helens.
Refurbishment It was announced in September 2011 that, through a £40 million investment from
Network Rail, Liverpool Central was to have a major refurbishment programme to improve the concourse and platforms. Works included new lighting, flooring, new toilet facilities and new escalators to the Northern Line platforms. The entire station closed for refurbishment on 23 April 2012. The station partly reopened on 25 August 2012, with the refurbishment of the main concourse and Wirral Line platform completed. The station fully reopened on 22 October 2012 with the work on the Northern Line platforms completed. == Facilities ==