According to the combined authority, the new battery technology, which it claims is the first of its kind in the UK, could help deliver network expansion across the Liverpool City Region and beyond.
Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said, “These trains will help us to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, paving the way for a cleaner, greener integrated London-style transport network.”
In a phased roll-out to ease in the new technology, the station will initially be served by one Merseyrail service per hour to Liverpool Central, then services will gradually increase to four trains per hour.
The battery technology removes the need for a live third rail, which could enable the Merseyrail network to run to places previously inaccessible, including as far as Manchester, Wrexham, Warrington, Preston, and Runcorn.
Both the new station and the region’s publicly owned trains are central to the mayor’s plans to deliver a London-style transport network, which aims to make the region’s public transport quicker, cheaper, greener, and more reliable.