Liverpool South Parkway forms part of the ongoing regeneration of South Liverpool and in particular the area centred around Speke, Garston and Liverpool Airport. The development is based on the existing railway station at Allerton and includes the relocation of Garston Station to a newly designed station site close to the existing Allerton Station.

The development comprises a number of separate elements that are interlinked to create a transportation hub, providing a gateway into Liverpool and on to the recently upgraded and extended Liverpool John Lennon Airport. The scheme includes six railway platforms, a five-stand bus station, an Interchange Building, Park-and-Ride car park, taxi drop off and pick-up kerb, a ‘kiss and ride’ kerb and a number of public open spaces. The building is on two levels and incorporates a two-storey administration and control centre. Full ticketing facilities for both bus and rail will be available at the interchange.

A key feature of this development is the incorporation of sustainable design principles throughout. To achieve the optimum building services design and ensure fire life safety, spreadsheet based empirical calculations were carried out initially and these were later supplemented by more complex 3D, time dependant CFD simulations of smoke movement within the building. The calculations indicated that a safe environment could be maintained within the building for all foreseeable fire scenarios through the adoption of a smoke dilution (‘passive smoke control’) strategy.