Controversial plans to redevelop Liverpool Street station will result in almost a decade of chaos, campaigners believe.
Network Rail’s £1.2bn scheme to expand the country’s busiest train station is due to be considered by the City of London Corporation’s planning committee on February 10, with the City’s planning officials recommending approval.
The proposals – which involve building a 19-storey, 97m tower block over the concourse to fund about £500m of capacity and accessibility improvements to the station – have attracted almost 2,500 objections but more than 1,100 supporting comments.
Key documents submitted as part of the planning process outline the extent of disruption that commuters would face, as the station would remain open during years of demolition and construction work.
Liverpool Street is the busiest train station in the UK, largely because of the growing popularity of the Elizabeth line. In 2024/25, there were 98m “entries and exits”.
The station’s subterranean Elizabeth line platforms would be unaffected by the proposals but there will be an impact on the London Overground’s Weaver line and on Greater Anglia services, potentially including the Stansted Express.
This would include “service thinning” – which is likely to result in greater overcrowding for Overground passengers at rush hour, when the 10 Weaver line trains an hour arriving or departing at Liverpool Street from Chingford, Cheshunt and Enfield Town are standing-room only.
Campaigners want the planning committee hearing to be deferred until there is independent analysis of the scheme’s funding and costs.
Network Rail insists there are no “hidden costs”, such as having to pay rail operators compensation for platform closures.
Documents drawn up by Network Rail consultants state that platforms 1 and 2 – both used by London Overground trains and occasionally the Stansted Express – would be closed for up to two years, and possibly longer.
The proposals also indicate that, in a later phase of the work, the area between platforms 9 and 10 would be required to enable a new upper concourse that would run the length of the station to be built.
However, Network Rail says that platforms 9 and 10, as well as platforms 16 and 17, on the Bishopsgate side of the station, will remain open throughout the work.
John McAslan, an architect who has proposed an alternative scheme, told a campaign group meeting last week that the disruption could last for 10 years.
James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, has asked for the February 10 planning meeting to be deferred until the scheme’s finances are independently verified.
He told The Standard: “This scheme, if it does go ahead, will cause years of disruption - and the amount of disruption is incredible.”
But Network Rail said platforms 1 and 2 would only close for a “short period”. It said trains could use other platforms within the station “with minor timetable changes”.
It said that it had retained the right to make a “minor number of peak hour service changes” during the works, but this was not directly linked to platforms.”
A spokesperson for Network Rail told The Standard: "The scheme has been carefully designed and phased to ensure that the station remains open and operational during the works.
“There will be changes to entrances and routes and the only platform closure can be accommodated across the remaining platforms for that short period.
“We are engaging with our transport partners and ensuring customers can continue to use Liverpool Street with as little disruption as possible during the works is as important as the transformation for the future."
The Standard understands that there has only been one meeting between Network Rail and TfL to discuss potential changes to London Overground timetables.
However this is not unusual as the practical impact of the proposed works is still more than two years away.
TfL has a wider aspiration to increase services on the Overground to cater for growing demand.
According to documents submitted to City planning officials, phased demolition of Liverpool Street station is due to start in the last quarter of 2028 and take four years to complete.
Construction would start at the beginning of 2029 and last seven years, with the new station completed by mid-2036.
Within this schedule, works to the train station – as opposed to the overhead office block – would be due to be completed by “Christmas 2033”, while improvements to the London Underground station should be finished by “Easter 2033”.
Between 2031 and 2033, platforms 1 and 2 would be closed to enable a new mezzanine to be constructed along Sun Street Passage.
The Bishopsgate entrance to the station would be closed for two years. It is unclear whether buses would be able to access Sun Street during the works.
The “outline construction logistics plan” prepared for Network Rail by Aecom states: “To both reduce commuter traffic during construction and enable material delivery by rail, platforms [during phase one of the work] will be closed to provide some service thinning and stem some of the pedestrian flow from the platforms east of the service lane.”
A separate “financial viability statement” drawn up for Network Rail by the consultants JLL states: “As instructed by Network Rail we have not included train operator compensation costs within the appraisal.”
The work includes the partial demolition of the grade-11 listed station, the total demolition of 50 Liverpool Street (the building that contains the McDonald’s takeaway), the removal of 60 per cent of the station’s 1990s roof and replacement of the lower and upper concourses.
“Pit lanes” for HGV construction lorries would be created by blocking parts of Liverpool Street, Bishopsgate and Sun Street. There will be up to 350 lorry movements a day.
Network Rail says the changes are needed at the station because passenger numbers are forecast to rise to 158m a year by 2041.
A City Corporation spokesman said the financial viability document would be assessed as part of the report prepared for the planning committee by City officials.
