The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has authorised significant upgrades to Lea Green station in St Helens, Merseyside. The station improvements include a new station building and multistorey car park, and are part of a larger project which includes improvement to local transport infrastructure.
ORR’s authorisation covers the new station building, which replaces the previous building constructed in 2000. It also includes the integrated multistorey car park, which more than doubles parking capacity at the station, as well as the new station forecourt, public realm improvements, passenger information systems, and other upgrades.
ORR’s authorisation is a key milestone in getting new, upgraded, or renewed infrastructure, such as Lea Green Station, ready to open. It confirms that standards on areas like health and safety, accessibility, environmental protection, and reliability and availability have been met.
ORR has worked closely with Network Rail’s Safety Review Panel to support Northern, which operates Lea Green station on behalf of Merseyrail, and the wider project team, through the authorisation process, ensuring that important checks and surveys were carried out. Northern shared its final documentation with ORR on 4 August, and ORR worked quickly so the station could be authorised on 7 August.
Steve Fletcher, Deputy Director, Engineering and Asset Management at ORR, said:
