Merseyrail Expansion

[Fawkes Cat]

So, is London Paddington for the 'city centre'?

Depends on your definition of London's city centre.

It will be interesting to see what the HS2 station at Old Oak Common is called. And I note from another current thread that tickets to Birmingham Stations aren't valid at Birmingham International...

 

[Jack Hay]

Depends on your definition of London's city centre.

It will be interesting to see what the HS2 station at Old Oak Common is called. And I note from another current thread that tickets to Birmingham Stations aren't valid at Birmingham International...

True, and 'Liverpool stations' tickets aren't valid to Liverpool South Parkway, and 'Manchester stations' are not valid to Manchester Airport - but they are valid to Deansgate and to Salford Central, neither of which includes 'Manchester' in the name. This is thoroughly confusing to passengers who are not ticketing geeks. Simplification is long overdue.

 

[urbophile]

True, and 'Liverpool stations' tickets aren't valid to Liverpool South Parkway, and 'Manchester stations' are not valid to Manchester Airport - but they are valid to Deansgate and to Salford Central, neither of which includes 'Manchester' in the name. This is thoroughly confusing to passengers who are not ticketing geeks. Simplification is long overdue.

There'd be a riot if you added 'Manchester' to the Salford name, wouldn't there? But either all stations within a city should be given the city name, or none of them except the main termini/interchange ones. For Manchester, Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria do just fine. The ticketing thing would be avoided if all cities adopted a zonal system. All tickets to London should be valid anywhere in zone 1; and similarly elsewhere.

PS being a bit pedantic here, but at least tickets from the south or the CLC line should be valid to Liverpool S Parkway since it's en route.

 

[CaramellDansen]

So, is London Paddington for the 'city centre'?

I don't know, I'm not from there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm focused on what could make sense for Liverpool!

 

[Djgr]

I notice that 'Liverpool Baltic' now appears on the line diagram on the Northern line platforms at Central. That could be encouraging, if slightly confusing because work seems nowhere near starting.

I wonder how long the station name will survive. 'Liverpool Central' makes sense to distinguish it from Birkenhead Central, and to identify the main Merseyrail station in the city. 'Liverpool Lime Street' is of course the main terminus for passengers elsewhere in the country, but 'Lime Street' alone is used on the Wirral line. Moorfields or James Street don't usually get the 'Liverpool' prefix. So why should Baltic? Some countries (eg Italy) make a point of prefixing the city name to the individual station name, for all stations within the city limits. British custom has never been to do that, otherwise we'd have Liverpool Sandhills, Liverpool Kirkdale, Sefton Bootle Oriel Road (!), Knowsley Kirkby etc. If Merseyrail becomes (officially or otherwise) distinct from the national network there would be even less justification for it.

Of course it's inconsistent but it's a much better name than Headbolt Lane! What about Liverpool South Parkway? Shouldn't that really be South Liverpool Parkway?

 

[urbophile]

What a strange comment! Whoever suggested calling Baltic Headbolt Lane!!??? Anyway arguably that should be Kirkby Headbolt Lane.

 

[CaramellDansen]

Anyway arguably that should be Kirkby Headbolt Lane

I'd argue Tower Hill, or Kirkby Tower Hill (to avoid confusion with the other station), would be better. I think using road names should be a thing of the past, or at least avoided when there are other options available.

 

[Djgr]

What a strange comment! Whoever suggested calling Baltic Headbolt Lane!!??? Anyway arguably that should be Kirkby Headbolt Lane.

I meant that the selection of the name Liverpool Baltic as a choice for this station is much better than the choice of Headbolt Lane for THAT station.

With Liverpool Baltic, everyone, whether local or not, has a pretty good idea where it is.

Headbolt Lane, 99% clueless.

 

[BrianW]

Depends on your definition of London's city centre.

It will be interesting to see what the HS2 station at Old Oak Common is called. And I note from another current thread that tickets to Birmingham Stations aren't valid at Birmingham International...

I don't know, I'm not from there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm focused on what could make sense for Liverpool!

Indeed- what and where is a city centre; does a city, or 'city region', 'finish' at a political boundary; and as you stated upthread, Fawkes cat, what works operationally, and what makes sense, esp to those unfamiliar with places.

I note that London Old Oak Common has a certain LOOC about it; better than smelly London Old Oak ... ;-(
'Central' was a good 'marketing' name (and 'accurate') for not necessarily very central stations served by the Great Central Railway.

 

[Jack Hay]

There'd be a riot if you added 'Manchester' to the Salford name, wouldn't there? But either all stations within a city should be given the city name, or none of them except the main termini/interchange ones. For Manchester, Piccadilly, Oxford Road and Victoria do just fine. The ticketing thing would be avoided if all cities adopted a zonal system. All tickets to London should be valid anywhere in zone 1; and similarly elsewhere.

PS being a bit pedantic here, but at least tickets from the south or the CLC line should be valid to Liverpool S Parkway since it's en route.

You're right about tickets to LSP from the south, so there the problem is different. I was queuing recently to buy a ticket from the machine at Hartford and the passenger in front of me wanted to travel to Liverpool South Parkway, so on the initial 'Frequent Destinations' screen she pressed the button for 'Liverpool Stations'. I realised then that it was the obvious thing do to if you didn't have the ticketing knowledge that we on this forum do. I intervened and saved this passenger a few pounds.