Changing lines in Liverpool with a bike

Wyndham

I'm looking to do a trip to the Wirral, which will involve changing from the Merseyrail Northern Line to the Wirral Line. I want to do this with a bike, so assume I will need to use lifts. I've heard that the lifts at Central and Moorfields are quite small, so I'm concerned I won't be able to fit the bike into them. Does anyone know if this is correct? And if so, do I have alternatives? Thanks.

p00hsticks

It's been a while since I commuted, but in my experience most cyclists carried their bikes up the stairs....

marcia_

 The lifts are small you can use them if you tip your bike onto the back wheel or use the escalators 

LightFlare

Always plenty of people on the Wirral line with bikes -- shouldnt be a problem (assuming the lifts are actually working, which some werent yesterday)

James Street lifts are huge

Wyndham

marcia_ said:

 The lifts are small you can use them if you tip your bike onto the back wheel or use the escalators 

Hmmm....it's an ebike, so quite heavy. I'd assumed escalators wouldn't be allowed, but that might be interesting!

bouicca21

In my experience even small lifts at stations are big enough for a wheelchair so have enough room for a single bike.

martindow

Are there restrictions on ebikes or do those only apply to escooters?

LightFlare

martindow said:

Are there restrictions on ebikes or do those only apply to escooters?

On the train ? - I don’t think they care/enforce
On the roads - not that different although personal e-scooters are illegal (rarely enforced from my experience, but I wouldn’t risk it)
Liverpool has ones you can rent as well - the rules of which also aren’t very diligently enforced

martindow

E-scooters are certainly banned on TfL services, but they do permit e-bikes it seems

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2021/december/tfl-announces-safety-ban-of-e-scooters-on-transport-network

This happened after a couple of e-scooter fires on tube trains which weren't serious but certainly could have been.

broncis

Northern to Wirral (and a return journey the other way a few days later). From either Ormskirk or Southport along the Northern Line to Liverpool, then Wirral Line to Bache (nr. Chester). I won't be travelling in the morning or evening peak hours.

I was wondering whether Moorfields or Central was better for moving a bike between lines. I assume there are lifts at both platform levels these days but I find lifts at underground stations can vary from tiny to huge. I don't mind lugging a bike up a few steps but I think I recall long escalators.

If they are both easy or equally bad I was just going to change at Central on the way out and Moorfields on the way back so as not to go on the loop via Lime st.

Wyndham

That's very odd - before I asked my original  question I did a google - and found the above post, word for word, on this site: https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?t=89671

It was back in 2014. So @broncis if that was you, what happened in the end? And how was it?