THE arrival on platforms seven and eight at Lime Street was not before time - passengers can now enjoy the kind of luxury their peers in Manchester and London experience after the opening of £3.4m passenger lounges.

Maintenance group Network Rail, transport authority Merseytravel and train operator Virgin have worked on the new first and standard class passenger lounges for two years.

And when station manager Roy Greenhalgh introduced Network Rail route director Jo Kaye to officially open the lounges he acknowledged the sacrifices that have gone into the facelift: “I would just like to say a thank you to all our passengers for putting up with so much disruption for the past two years.”

The lounges, made from environmentally-friendly glulam timber beams covered in wood veneers, provide luxury passenger facilities as well as an information office, three shop units and cash machines relocated from the main concourse.

Kaye said: “Much has changed for Liverpool on the station since its days as a wooden train shed in 1836.

“The city and railways are inextricably linked and it is good to see us continuing to develop facilities for passengers.”

“Since Network Rail took over the running of the station in 2003 we have seen many improvements in facilities.

“I hope that passengers appreciate and continue to benefit from them for many years to come.”

The new facilities will serve Virgin Trains’ London to Liverpool link and their chief executive Tony Collins welcomed the development, the first improvement for passengers in decades, and revealed more could follow.

He said: “Pendolino trains have been with us over four years now and we have reduced journey times dramatically.

“The facilities at Liverpool didn’t match the trains and journey times, but now they do. And we would like to do more.

“We have started discussions with the government and said we don’t want to waste another 30 years. Liverpool is part of that.”

Merseytravel director of Resources Jim Barclay added: “Our economic success depends on our rail link with London, and getting London visitors and businessmen here is a key part of our strategy.”

Liverpool assistant manager Sammy Lee was a guest of Virgin and said: “Anything that improves links to Liverpool is great and just shows the growth in the city.”