Plan to reopen city centre railway station after a HUNDRED YEARS moves closer

St James Station closed in 1917 but could reopen to serve Baltic Triangle and Toxteth

A plan to reopen a station in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle that’s been closed for a CENTURY could soon move a step closer.

Business leaders say that if St James station was reopened it could bring more jobs and investment to the area.

Now the ECHO has learned that a Merseytravel report into plans for a new station in the Baltic or in Chinatown could be released within days.

St James Station shut in 1917 and never reopened. The site of the station is still visible to passengers travelling on the Merseyrail line between Liverpool Central and Brunswick.

But the Baltic Triangle has now become a popular destination for visitors and is still growing, with the new Baltic Market bringing in the crowds to the former Cains brewery just down the road from the station site.

Cains site owner Sudaghara Dusanj is among the business leaders who have been calling for the station to reopen. He says that a new station could bring a tech giant on the scale of “an Apple or a Google” to the Baltic to open a northern base.

He said: “It’ll be transformational for the whole area, from Toxteth to Kings Dock.

“Look at Apple going to Battersea. Why couldn’t we see a 50,000 sqft occcupier based in the listed brewery building? It could become a ‘tech village’.

“A station could really put us on the map.”

And Mr Dusanj said a station would also benefit nearby residents from Toxteth and Dingle , as well as Baltic firms.

He said: “Toxteth needs employment. It needs connectivity.”

Baltic Creative has redeveloped several buildings in the area to house creative and digital firms and the popular Unit 51 cafe.

Managing director Mark Lawler said the station would be “a fundamental piece of the jigsaw for Baltic”.

He added: “It’s a fundamental piece of the jigsaw for Baltic.

“If the station opens it effectively means we can attract businesses that employ more than, say, 40 people.

“The problem we have with bigger companies is that when they come to Baltic they love it, but they immediately say ‘How do we get our workforce there?’

“You could argue Central Station is only a 20-25 minute walk. But we want to try and cut that down to a 10-minute walk.

“The reopening of the station would be a catalyst for further massive investment, not least from Baltic Creative.

“The development of the station unlocks that opportunity, not just for Baltic Creative but for other developers who want to support the growth of this creative and digital cluster. And we’re excited about that.

“The station would be I think a catalyst for massive further investment into the Baltic, not least its impact on the Cains Brewery Village.”

St James station opened in 1874 but was closed during World War I due to economic pressures and never reopened. Its entrance was on Parliament Street.

In 2015, architecture students from the University of Liverpool produced visions of what a reopened station could look like.

A spokesperson for Merseytravel said: “Merseytravel recently commissioned an ‘Initial Demand and Benefit Study’ to look at the potential opening of a new station at either St James or Chinatown.

“With the number of proposed and confirmed new developments such as Kings Waterfront, New Chinatown and Cain’s Brewery Village which would all, combined, introduce significant new footfall into the area, a new station could provide a vital transport hub directly to employment sites.

“The findings of the report will be confirmed once it has been finalised and reviewed during the next few weeks.

“We would then be in a position to consider next steps that include prioritisation within wider Liverpool City Region Combined Authority programme and could then involve commissioning feasibility studies and development of an outline and full business case.”