The newly refurbished Ainsdale station on Merseyrail’s Southport line re-opened with an official ceremony.






The station is now the most environmentally friendly on the network after extensive renovations. The previous booking office was demolished to make way for a new building, complete with solar panels, low energy LED lighting with smart controls and rainwater harvesting tanks to serve the toilet facilities.

The design achieved a CEEQUAL (Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme) rating of ‘Excellent’ in recognition of its green credentials.

The station is now open to the public and includes a re-developed car park. Passengers can enjoy a modern and bright booking office, improved waiting facilities and customer information screens with the state-of-the-art equipment.

Andy Heath, Managing Director at Merseyrail said:

“Ainsdale station has been a collaborative effort between Merseyrail, Merseytravel, Network Rail and the Department for Transport, and the final product is something we can all be really proud of. It represents the best in being environmentally friendly and provides our passengers at the station with better technology, facilities and an overall improved experienced.

Merseyrail have taken significant steps in recent years to be as environmentally friendly as we can and I’m really pleased that we’re continuing to lead the way in that respect with projects like Ainsdale.”

Cllr Liam Robinson, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Transport Portfolio Holder, said:

"These new facilities will be of huge benefit to the community and with the green technology that has been incorporated, are a great representation of the forward-thinking that is taking place across the Merseyrail network.

"We have further ambitions for improving the city region rail network over the coming years and will continue to do so with the plans we have set out in our Long Term Rail Strategy.”

Funding for the station redevelopment has come from the National Station Improvement
Programme (NSIP) and further contributions from Merseytravel and Merseyrail.

The new station is part of several significant developments on the Merseyrail network, including the recent opening of the new Maghull North station and the introduction of new state-of-the-art trains from 2020.

A complete Dogs Dinner, it's taken an age to pull down a couple of sheds, no improvements have been made to the Liverpool platform and the booking office has been moved halfway to Freshfield.