Liverpool overcrowding: "Lessons will be learned" after 166,000 passengers use Lime Street on one day

Network Rail and rail operators in the North West say that “lessons will be learned”, after what a source described as a “perfect storm” of huge crowds, queues and delays over the Bank Holiday weekend of May 24-26.

A huge influx of passengers descended towards Liverpool over the weekend, with Network Rail estimating it managed nearly 166,000 passengers in and out of Liverpool Lime Street on May 26 alone, as the city hosted both BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and Liverpool FC’s champions parade on the same day.

Celebrations were marred when a car was driven into the parade crowd on Water Street in the city, injuring more than 100 people and putting an extra strain on the city’s already stretched resources.

RAIL understands that Network Rail and operators initially estimated that 30,000 passengers were expected to use the network that weekend.

When asked by RAIL, NR did not confirm whether this number was revised when the champions parade was announced in late April, or whether it was still based on preliminary estimations of attendees to the Big Weekend.

Large crowds at Liverpool Lime Street station (managed by Network Rail) later in the evening of May 26 prompted the temporary closure of the station for 15 minutes, as staff attempted to re-organise queues and to avoid crush-loading of services.

It had adopted a one-way system which it had used for 2023’s Eurovision Song Contest, although NR acknowledged that issues with signage and information caused more confusion among the waiting passengers and impacted delays. It has since promised a review of the issues seen at Lime Street station.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “The Liverpool FC homecoming parade was a challenging event for many reasons, and our thoughts remain with those affected by the incident on Water Street.

“We accept that some passengers experienced delays and problems with communication, and we will review this as part of our multi-agency post-event debrief so we can learn for the future.”

Extra services were added to the timetable at short notice, with Northern, TransPennine Express and Merseyrail all running more trains.

TPE operated extra services from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Victoria, while Northern added extra six-car services from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Oxford Road. Network Rail stated that 140 additional services ran to take passengers out of Lime Street on May 26 alone.

However, operators and Network Rail have faced criticism for allowing some services to leave the station at less-than-half capacity, although they maintained to RAIL that this was necessary to ensure the timetable was kept running on-time.

Away from the city, Avanti West Coast experienced long queues on the West Coast Main Line, with both Crewe and Warrington Bank Quay severely affected.

AWC told RAIL that “added pressures” that weekend had caused issues - including a line closure on the Trent Valley Line that meant a reduced service was in place with some southbound services re-routed through the West Midlands.

It said that its planned Liverpool services were operated in full, with six extra services added on May 26.

Avanti West Coast Head of Operational Readiness Andy Doyle said: “Together we must look at each event on an individual case-by-case basis - a music festival proposes different challenges to a sporting celebratory parade.

“After every event we review as an industry what worked well and what needs to be refined for next time, and these learnings are adapted into future plans.”