Four New Stations Are Planned Across the City Region. Only One Is Near Construction

Four new railway stations are in Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram's plans. Not one of them is being built yet, and only one is close to it.

The four are Liverpool Baltic, Carr Mill in St Helens, Daresbury in Halton and Woodchurch in Wirral. On Friday 6 November 2026, the Combined Authority is asked to approve the Full Business Case for Liverpool Baltic and move it into its building phase. The other three are still at study and design stage, with findings due in early 2027.

So the honest summary is one station near a construction decision and three proposals being worked up. Here is where each one actually stands, taken from the published decision papers rather than the press line.

What stage is each of the four stations at?

Those stages come from the Combined Authority's announcement of 30 October 2026. No opening dates have been announced for Carr Mill, Daresbury or Woodchurch.

Liverpool Baltic: what gets decided on 6 November

Liverpool Baltic would sit on the existing Merseyrail Northern Line at the former St James station site, between Liverpool Central and Brunswick. The entrance is proposed around Stanhope Street and St James Place, which would give the Baltic Triangle and the surrounding parts of L8 a train stop for the first time since St James closed.

The design includes step-free access from street to train, a waiting area, accessible toilets, secure cycle parking, and changes to the streets and public space around the entrance. Liverpool City Council granted planning permission on 22 April 2025.

Planning permission is not the same as permission to place the contracts. The published decision notice for 6 November asks members to approve the Full Business Case, the detailed assessment used to justify going ahead, and to delegate authority for the implementation phase.

The scheme was described as costing around £100 million when planning approval was announced in 2025, funded through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. Part of the supporting material for 6 November is marked exempt, so the current commercial and financial detail is not public.

Liverpool Baltic has already slipped twice

In April 2025 regional leaders said construction would begin in early 2026 and the station would open by the end of 2027. In January 2026, Place North West reported the mayor expecting completion after 2028, with 2029 discussed while the project looked for a main contractor.

The 30 October 2026 announcement says construction is expected to start in 2027, subject to approvals, and gives no opening date. The official Baltic project page still carries the older forecast, so treat the newer announcement as the live programme.

Part of the reason is the engineering. This is a station in a deep cutting on a railway that keeps running, not a platform in a field. L1Local has followed the Baltic station delay and why building over a live railway is hard, and the Baltic Triangle area guide covers what is already there.

The project information identifies possible disruption around Stanhope Street and Ashwell Street during construction. Specific closure dates have not been announced.

Carr Mill: a rail link for north St Helens

Carr Mill would improve rail access for communities in the north of St Helens, on the corridor that crosses Carr Mill Dam. The Combined Authority says initial plans and designs are complete, and that further work is planned with Network Rail, Northern and St Helens Council.

That is design progress, not a construction approval. The station entrance, the service pattern, the opening date and the cost are all still open. Until the site and the stopping services are agreed, nobody can work out what it would save a passenger in journey time.

Daresbury: studying access to the science campus

The Daresbury proposal is about getting people to and from the Sci-Tech Daresbury employment site and the communities around it in Halton.

In December 2025 the Combined Authority put Daresbury among the new-station proposals inside its £1.6 billion transport investment programme. That figure covers the whole programme. It is not the Daresbury station budget.

A contract award notice published on 2 October 2026 names WSP UK Limited as the consultant for feasibility work covering both Daresbury and Woodchurch. That work tests passenger demand, operating constraints, possible sites, outline costs and the initial business cases. Findings are expected in early 2027.

Woodchurch: the earliest-stage proposal

Woodchurch is the fourth location, and the furthest from a spade in the ground. The same commissioned study looks at site options, likely demand, how trains could serve it and what it would cost, with initial findings due in early 2027.

So a Woodchurch station is not a settled design. There is no fixed platform location, no named operator and no service frequency, because the work that would produce them is still being done. For anyone in that part of Wirral, the practical change this autumn was the bus network, not the railway: see the Wirral bus changes from 25 October and who gained and who lost under the new routes.

Are all four stations funded and approved?

No. Liverpool Baltic has planning approval and an announced funding package, and still needs its Full Business Case and implementation arrangements signed off. The other three have money to develop the projects through the next stage. A feasibility study does not produce a station.

There is also no guarantee every stop would run as an ordinary Merseyrail station. The Combined Authority says it is working with industry partners including Northern and Transport for Wales on what services could call there.

And the headline promise is narrower than it sounds. Mayor Rotheram's stated commitment is to begin work on four new stations by 2030. That is a different milestone from having four stations open by 2030.

What about the stations people already use?

Alongside the new builds, the Combined Authority says work is progressing on step-free access at Aigburth and Rock Ferry, with further schemes being developed at Port Sunlight and Walton.

It has also set out plans for better waiting areas, toilets, a modern ticket office and retail space at Runcorn, and potential changes at Moorfields. A separate £26 million programme covers signs, wayfinding and real-time information across the wider transport network. That £26 million is not the cost of rebuilding Moorfields.

For journeys this week rather than this decade, Merseytravel's travel information has the live picture, and the Northern Line is in the middle of engineering work: see the Hunts Cross to Liverpool Central closure. L1Local's guide to getting around Liverpool without a car covers the connections that exist now.

What happens at the 6 November meeting?

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority meets at 1pm on Friday 6 November 2026 at No. 1 Mann Island, Liverpool. The meeting is carried on the authority's webcasting service, and the station item is listed in the decision notice.

Three things are worth watching on the day: whether Baltic's Full Business Case is approved, what authority is delegated for contracts and construction, and whether a firmer programme with dates is published alongside it.

After that, the next real milestone is the early-2027 feasibility findings for Daresbury and Woodchurch. Carr Mill needs more design and railway-industry work before any construction timetable can be treated as real.

As of 30 October 2026, none of the four stations is open and none has a confirmed opening date. If you want to hear it first hand, the meeting webcast starts at 1pm on 6 November, and L1Local's Council Watch tracks decisions like this one as they are published.