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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Tom Houghton

How a waterfront overhead railway in Liverpool could look - and where it would stop

These exciting new images show how an overhead railway on the Liverpool waterfront may look and operate.

The CGIs - along with a proposed map - have been drawn up by Michael McDonough and the CGI Fantasist website - who say it's "high time" for a debate on the future of Liverpool's waterfront transport.

The map links Everton FC's new Bramley-Moore Dock stadium and Ten Streets with Dingle and Festival Gardens in the south of the city.

Mr McDonough described the removal of the former Liverpool overhead railway in the 1950s as "one of the city's greatest infrastructure losses".

The stations that could appear on the line:

- Bootle Strand

- The Silo

- Everton Stadium

- Ten Streets

- Liverpool Waters

- Pier Head

- Liverpool ONE/Albert Dock

- Baltic Triangle/King's Dock

- Brunswick/South Docks

- Dingle

- Sefton Park

- Festival Gardens

Mr McDonough said: "Today there is little to string together the landmark spaces and planned districts that are vital to the city’s ongoing growth.

"What CGI Fantasist envisages is the creation of a phased new route, similar in many ways to the successful London Docklands Light Railway.

"Later phases to improve and expand both the reach and business case could see extensions to Bootle and Aintree, as well as tunnelled extensions to both Sefton Park and also crucially a link to Liverpool John Lennon airport and the Speke/Garston area which despite heavy investment over the last 15 years still has no light or heavy rail link." 

The Liverpool Overhead Railway, which opened in 1893, was the world's first electric elevated railway, spanning five miles from Alexandra Dock to Herculaneum Dock.

It was closed in the 1950s due to expensive structural repairs required - despite public protests.

Mr McDonough's idea also came about due to "so many developments" planned on or near to the waterfront - from Festival Gardens in the south to Everton's new stadium project in the north.

His CGIs show how the inside of a station in Dingle could look - as well as the overhead rail running along the city's iconic waterfront.

He added: "It’s growing in both directions and there isn’t even a bus route connecting it all. 

"Today, Liverpool is thankfully in a much better position as a major British metropolitan city and again the city’s waterfront is arguably the lead focus of tourism as well as planned and onsite major development."

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