Merseyrail's secret to hassle-free Eurovision travel: Extended late night trains
Merseyrail have announced special Eurovision timetable arrangements, including late night trains for The National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome on Sunday 7 May and The Grand Final on Saturday 13 May.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to join in the celebrations of the legendary song contest, with many from outside the region and the UK travelling to Liverpool to attend the event.
The largest numbers of visitors are expected to flock to The National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome on Sunday 7 May, and The Grand Final on Saturday 13 May.
Merseyrail will be extending its services to ensure that music fans can get back to their homes and hotels across the city region.
Special plans will be in place throughout the Eurovision Song Contest week, to ensure the safety of all passengers every day. This means that on some days city centre stations will close at certain times to help manage the large number of people expected to attend the events. Details on access to city centre stations are available here
Whether travelling to enjoy Eurovision, commuting to work, or taking the family for a day trip, passengers are asked to think ahead, plan journeys by checking timetables before and on the day of travel, and to leave more time for their journey as there may be queues and short notice changes to services.
Sunday 7 May to support The National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome: A Sunday timetable will run every 30-minutes on the Northern and Wirral lines, with additional trains running after midnight to help people get home after The National Lottery’s Big Eurovision Welcome. Liverpool Lime Street Low Level station will be closed all day due to its vicinity to the event. James Street station will be closed from 20:00.
Passengers wanting to travel from Liverpool city centre on the Wirral line after 20:00 must use Liverpool Central station only.
Passengers wanting to travel on the Northern line after 20:00 must use Moorfields station only.
Late night trains will run on Northern and Wirral lines on the evening of Sunday 7 May into the early hours of Monday 8 May calling at all stations.
Wirral line passengers will only be able to board late night trains at Liverpool Central, and Northern line passengers at Moorfields. All other stations will only allow passengers to alight and exit the station.
There are no passenger services into Liverpool city centre after the end of the normal timetable.
Monday 8 May – Friday 12 May to support the semi-final events: A normal weekday timetable will run on Northern and Wirral lines. James Street station will be closed from 20:00 each evening to ensure the effective management of large numbers of passengers expected to be travelling around the city.
Saturday 13 May to support The Grand Final: Trains will run to a 20-minute frequency on all parts of the Merseyrail network, except for the Ellesmere Port line which will run to a 30-minute frequency. This timetable allows trains to extend into the early hours of Sunday morning.
Liverpool Lime Street Low Level station and James Street station will be closed all day. This is to help manage the large number of people expected at The Grand Final.
Wirral line trains will only call at Liverpool Central in the city centre. Northern Line trains will only call at Moorfields in the city centre.
Late night trains will also run on Northern and Wirral lines on Saturday 13 May into the early hours of Sunday 14 May calling at all stations
Wirral line passengers will only be able to board late night trains at Liverpool Central, and Northern line passengers at Moorfields. All other stations will only allow passengers to alight and exit the station.
Passengers from Ellesmere Port who require services after midnight should use Hooton station where passengers can park and ride.
There are no passenger services into Liverpool city centre after the end of the normal timetable.
Timetables here