The ECHO was given rare access to the rail tunnels beneath Liverpool, where a £3.5m Network Rail project is strengthening and waterproofing four tunnels that bring services into the city from the south. During the visit, reporter Jamie Greer found the tracks cleaner than expected and encountered an unexpected smell in the maintenance depot under Liverpool Central station.
Services between Hunts Cross and Moorfields on the Merseyrail Northern Line are suspended until Saturday November 7 due to the essential engineering work. After meeting at Brunswick station, the ECHO was guided by figures from Network Rail and Merseyrail through the St James Tunnel, which runs from the station underneath the residential streets of Dingle and the busy road junctions of the city centre.
Surprisingly Clean Tracks
Greer admitted to feeling apprehensive before entering the St James Tunnel, expecting to see dead rats and substantial litter on the track. However, he found very few dead animals and no big piles of litter, aside from one dead bird. He noted that the windows on the new Merseyrail trains do not open, preventing commuters from throwing rubbish out, and assumed the tracks must be kept clean to ensure smooth train operations.
The reporter was impressed by the tunnel and archways, built by hand over a century ago without modern machinery and still in use today. Engineers were seen blasting off old concrete on the tunnel sides with a jet washer, which will be replaced with a new coating as part of the waterproofing work. A road rail vehicle, used to transport materials across the line, was also in action.
Waterproofing Work Explained
Helen Little, a works delivery manager at Network Rail, told the ECHO: "In these tunnels, we're undertaking some waterproofing works. Further down the blockade, there is also concrete spray work."
She added: "At the minute there are some wet patches on the tunnel. These tunnels are 100-years-old, so they naturally deteriorate. Any wet patches on the floor where the water is leaking, this can cause deterioration of the third rail. If the third rail stops producing power, the trains can't run."
Depot Under Central Station
After the St James Tunnel, the group was brought back to Brunswick Station before being taken to see the tunnels underneath Liverpool Central station. Central is the busiest underground station in the UK outside of London, yet most of the hundreds of thousands of passengers using it to reach the city centre, Southport, Ormskirk, Wirral and beyond will be unaware of the huge maintenance depot beneath it, located off Ranelagh Street.
The second surprise of the trip was the strong smell of Chinese food in the depot. The smell of fried rice lingered in the air, likely coming from one of the nearby restaurants above. Workers down there said they had got used to the smell, but the reporter and photographer found it hard to ignore as they thought about dinner.
The tunnel underneath Central was as impressive as St James, with the enclosed space feeling like an ideal bunker in an emergency. The visit emphasised that there is a living, breathing world underneath our feet that we do not see and rarely think about.
