A MONTH of work to repair the track in Merseyrail's Wirral loopline begins on Good Friday.

The £3.4 million project is part of a five-year £20m scheme to replace the entire track on the curved sections beneath the city centre by the end of 2009.

The work starts on Good Friday, April 10 and continues until Tuesday May 26, during which time all services from Chester and the Wirral lines to Liverpool will terminate at James Street station.

A bus shuttle will run from James Street to Lime Street station only. But Northern Line and main line services are not affected by the work.

Network Rail say passengers in Chester and Wirral will benefit from the latest phase of track renewal on the Liverpool underground railway.

Simon Whitehorn, Network Rail's area manager Merseyside said: "The renewal of the track brings benefits for everyone. Passengers get a better quality ride, it causes less wear and tear on Merseyrail's fleet of trains and the new track needs less maintenance by us."

Bart Schmeink, Merseyrail's managing director, added: "This kind of major engineering project will inevitably cause some inconvenience to our passengers.

"I am sorry that Wirral line passengers will have to put up with this but the end result will be a better and more reliable railway so it's worth the short term pain for the long term gain."

Tony Garrett, from Wirral Transport Users Association said: "It's a great inconvenience to passengers and residents from Wirral, particularly mothers with prams, peoople with mobility problems having to climb the old iron stairs at James Street to get to a lift, particularly with luggage, baggage and bicycles.