The Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) - Infrastructure
Connections By Road
Two-thirds of the UK population is accessible from the area within a two-hour drive. Liverpool City Region is at the hub of the UK motorway network - linking to the M6 via the M62, M57, M58, M56 and M53.
Work has begun on a radical regeneration scheme that will improve the link between the M62 and Liverpool city centre. The scheme will improve the route into the city centre from the M62. Work is due to be completed in 2011. A road bridge and the two underground Mersey Tunnels provide passage across the River Mersey.
Distance to Central London: Up to 300 miles (Up to 4 hours)Distance to Birmingham: Up to 100 miles (Up to 2 hours)
Distance to Bristol: Up to 200 miles (Up to 3 hours)
Distance to Edinburgh: Up to 300 miles (Up to 5 hours)
Distance to Glasgow: Up to 300 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Distance to Leeds: Up to 75 miles (Up to 1.5 hour)
Distance to Leicester: Up to 150 miles (Up to 2.5 hours)
Distance to Liverpool: Up to 25 miles (Up to 0.5 hour)
Distance to Manchester: Up to 50 miles (Up to 1 hour)
Distance to Newcastle: Up to 200 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Distance to Sheffield: Up to 100 miles (Up to 2 hours)
Distance to Oxford: Up to 200 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Distance to Cambridge: Up to 300 miles (Up to 4 hours)
Connections By Rail
Liverpool Lime Station provides direct connections to London and other major UK conurbations, via the West Coast Mainline. The average journey between Liverpool and London is 2 hours 8 minutes - services are provided by Virgin's 125mph Pendolino tilting electric trains. Liverpool's Virgin rail link to London is the most punctual on the West Coast Mainline.
The station is also served by Trans-Pennine services, offering a direct service to Birmingham, Preston and the North.
Merseyrail's internal network is one of the most intensively used in the UK, with 67 Merseyrail stations and 600 train services running daily.
Connections By Air
Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) is one of the fastest growing regional airports in the UK, with over 5.5 million passengers passing through the airport in a 12 month period.
Easyjet and Ryanair are well established airlines operating out of LJLA, and have been recently joined by KLM, connecting the airport via Schiphol to over 650 destinations worldwide. Independent carrier, Eastern Airways, has recently introduced its first scheduled flights from LJLA to Aberdeen and Southampton, launching with three flights each weekday.
Distance to East Midlands: Up to 100 miles (Up to 2 hours)
Connections By Freight Ports
Liverpool Port
The Port of Liverpool handles 33.5million tonnes annually - more than any other time in its history. It's already the largest Freeport Zone in the UK and the top UK port for UK-USA and UK-Canada trade, making Port of Liverpool the UK's third largest container port.
Plans for the first post-Panamax container terminal on the UK's West Coast have been approved. This £90million facility would almost double container capacity.
Recent investment in port facilities in Wirral has included the £30million Twelve Quays River Terminal, for Irish Sea roll-on, roll-off super ferries, operating twice daily sailings to Belfast and Dublin.
Distance to Liverpool: Up to 25 miles (Up to 0.5 hour)
Broadband / ICT Facilities
Liverpool is one of nine areas nationwide where people can receive blanket city-centre 'wi-fi' internet access. A series of transmitters allow people to hook up to the net via laptops and palm computers from anywhere in the city-centre.
The most advanced trans-Atlantic fibre optic cable, Hibernia Atlantic, has a landing point in the sub-region (Southport Business Park, Southport). This is the only direct high capacity cable linking North West England with the North American continent, providing a low-latency, self-healing, secure link that allows businesses operating within the region to take advantage of emerging CTI technologies.
