When completed, Merseytram was meant to loop around Liverpool city centre before branching in three directions, connecting Liverpool Airport and unserved parts of the region.
Proposed in 2001, the project won government backing in 2002 but was scrapped for good nine years later, having already suffered a number of delays and funding issues. The project was the most meaningful attempt to reintroduce a tram system to Merseyside, since the slow decline of Liverpool's network in the 1950s.
For much of the first half of the 20th century, Liverpool was connected by trams. Liverpool Corporation Tramways operated the city's extensive electric tram network from 1898 to its closure in 1957.
READ MORE: How the Merseyrail network looks completely different to 1960s origins
However, trams' popularity declined after WWII and the system was scrapped, as the region moved towards the idea of an integrated commuter rail system. By 1957 - the year of closure - the tram system was reduced to just two routes, which were said to be run-down.
Merseyrail developed and expanded in the second half of the 20th century, providing commuter services into Liverpool city centre. However, much of the region was not served by Merseyrail - particularly eastern parts of Merseyside.
A proposed solution came in 1997 with the 'Mersey Rapid Transit' - a system of 'electric trolley buses' which was said to be the first in the UK. It would have run from Liverpool city centre to Page Moss but it was rejected.
After that rejection, Merseytravel proposed the system known as Merseytram in 2001, forming part of the Merseyside Local Transport plan. At completion, it would have consisted of three lines and would have connected Liverpool city centre with Knowsley and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
The network
The nucleus of the system was to be a loop around Liverpool city centre. The loop would have connected the tram with existing public transport interchanges - Liverpool Lime Street, Moorfields Station, Paradise Street bus station and the Pier Head - as well as Liverpool's central attractions and shopping areas.
The network would then have branched out in three different directions. Line 1 was to run from Liverpool city centre to Kirkby. The line would break out of the city centre loop at Monument Place and head north east to Kirkby via London Road, the Royal Hospital, West Derby Road and Croxteth.
Line 2 was to leave the city centre loop at Lime Street and travel east to Prescot and Whitson, having stopped at Paradise Street, Knotty Ash and Page Moss. The third line was to connect Liverpool South Parkway station with Liverpool John Lennon Airport, having gone from the city centre to Speke.
The line to rejection
Merseytram won £170m funding for Line 1 from the Labour government in 2002. With an initial budget set at £225m, the Department of Transport was to provide £170m.
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling approved the application for Line 1 in December 2004. Construction was set to begin on July 1, 2005, aiming to open two years later.
However, the project was hit with delays and rising costs. The contract to build Lines 1 and 2 was awarded late in 2004, but even this hit problems and the bidding process had to reopen.
In April 2005, a joint venture of GrantRail and Laing O'Rourke was chosen as the contractor to deliver Line 1. More than £70m was spent on the scheme - including hundreds of thousands of pounds on the rails on which the tram would have run - but no track was laid.
Rising costs led to the budget for Line 1 increasing to £361m and £238m of government money was sought, rather than the initial £170m. However, the government refused to increase its investment and asked for assurance from Liverpool and Knowsley councils that they would not look for more government funding.
All government funding was pulled in November 2005, leading to the project being cancelled. Ministers blamed the £316m cost of building Line 1 between Liverpool city centre and Kirkby - compared with the original £225m estimate - for the project's downfall.
In July 2004, Mr Darling had warned that Merseytram must stay within budget if the government was to maintain its promise of investment. He stated that no extra funds were available.
However, the government was said to have been worried that spending on Merseytram had got out of control. Their withdrawal of funding was followed by the project being scrapped, leaving Merseytravel with a £70m bill - including £50m of borrowed money and £15m of its own savings.
The ECHO reported in 2008 that it spent the money on development, design, land acquisition, preliminary construction work and legal fees. A year earlier, it was reported that the aforementioned purchased rails had been left in storage at the port of Immingham, near Grimsby.
Despite the initial failure, Merseytravel set out to revive the project. Moreover, Transport secretary Ruth Kelly told politicians in October 2007 that she was ready to put Merseytram back on track, provided council officers apply for a new funding package.
The Everton lifeline
Everton's proposed move to a new stadium in Kirkby was controversial on many levels. 'The Kirkby Plan', announced in 2006, inspired many Evertonians to launch a campaign to keep the club within the city of Liverpool.
However, the planned Valley Road stadium would have been very close to the proposed Merseytram Line 1. In 2007, the ECHO reported that the Merseytram project - or at least Line 1 - could be back on track if the Blues were to move to the town.
Still possessing the rails it had purchased during the first phase, Merseytravel believed that a new stadium on the tram route and the newly-built ECHO arena helped the case to revive the tram project.
The ECHO reported that Liverpool city councillors had preferred the idea of Line 3 - to Liverpool John Lennon Airport - during the initial process. However, Merseyrail made the case that the amount of fans - both home and away - that would travel from central Liverpool to Kirkby for Everton games would make Line 1 viable.
The Kirkby stadium was rejected by the government in November 2009, seemingly killing off Merseytram once more. Not to be deterred, that same month, local authorities gave Merseytravel permission to seek £450m funding to revive the project.
However, by November 2009, Merseyside civic leaders had already been told they had missed a crucial funding window for Line One. Then-Transport Minister Sadiq Khan wrote to Merseytravel and councils, to warn they needed to “look carefully at their continued development of the scheme”.
In response, then-Liverpool Council leader Warren Bradley said: “This letter virtually kills off Merseytram once and for all.” It was a setback from which the project was not able to recover.
The project was formally closed in October 2013 as Merseytravel struck it out of its transport plans. In the intervening years, the transport authority had decided that the project simply wasn't viable.
The rails were eventually sold - at a significant loss. When Merseytram was abandoned in October 2013, Merseytravel said: "The tonnage of steel bought was equivalent to approximately 18.5km of single line rail or approximately 9.25km of twin line track.
The steel originally cost £821,000 to buy. A Freedom of Information Act request from the ECHO in 2018 revealed the rails were eventually sold for £267,657.
Despite the failure of Merseytram, the idea of trams in the region has not gone away. In 2019, there were hopes that Line 3 - running to the airport - could be revived in some way or another. The combined authority was said to be considering the potential of a light rail concept similar to the failed Merseytram scheme, in order to provide a link from South Parkway Station to John Lennon Airport.
Also in 2019, plans for a new light rail system to link up key areas of Liverpool city centre were revealed. The council was working on an ambitious vision for a light-transit network between Lime Street Station, the landmark Paddington Village development and the city's Knowledge Quarter and universities
In 2021, plans for a so-called 'Lime Line' were said to be "on track". However, for now, buses and trains remain the region's public transport options.
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