The Liverpool City Council in the UK has approved a report that will see the facility extended with an additional 400 square metres to handle turnaround calls by bigger ships, , local media reports said.
The move to expand the current temporary structure became necessary after plans to use Cunard Building, the splendid former head office of the famous company, as cruise terminal had to be abandoned late last year after it had emerged that the cost of converting the building for this use would be prohibitive.
The extra space and changes will mean the terminal can handle up to 1,800 passengers per vessel. Following the announcement the proposal will need to go through planning and it is hoped the work will be completed by the end of the year.
The facility, which is located at the Pier Head in immediate proximity of the city centre, can handle calls by large, Post-Panamax vessels and callers this year will include Queen Mary 2, Britannia and Royal Princess that are all of at least 140,000 gross tons in size.
However, the facility has limited baggage handling and other check in facilities, which has limited the size of ships that can turn around in Liverpool. Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines and Cruise & Maritime Voyages operate cruises from the facility, using ships of up to about 900 passengers. The largest ship that has operated a turnaround call at the facility is of about 1,200 passengers in capacity.
A spokesman said the extension of the terminal, which has been running since 2011 when 15 ships brought 27,278 passengers, would not interfere with the terminal’s current operations. This year, 54 ships will handle about 80,000 passengers, a 40% increase on 2014.
New indoor toilets will also be built while a new zone will allow early arrivals to wait inside the terminal, whereas previously they have often been denied access. There will also be improvements to the gateway linking the terminal to the main pontoon berth while Liverpool city council will take ownership of the actual facility.
“The increase in demand we have seen means that we are now pretty much at capacity," said councillor Malcolm Kennedy, a cabinet member for regeneration. “We knew the turnaround facility would be a huge success and the increase in demand we have seen since it opened means that we are now pretty much at capacity. It makes economic sense for us to purchase the building as, even with the improvements we are carrying out, the cost is less than half the amount of continuing to rent it. This will put us in a position to continue the success of the cruise liner terminal while we look at options for a more permanent facility in the longer term.”