User:FuzzyDuzzyDuck/Merseyrail

Merseyrail is an urban-suburban rail network serving Liverpool, its City Region (including Merseyside), and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. It consists of two lines, the Northern Line and the Wirral Line, serving 69 stations and covering 120.7 km. It carried 25.5 million passengers in the 2022/2023 statistical period.

Services on the metro-style urban network are operated by Merseyrail Electrics 2002, a joint venture between Serco and Transport UK Group (formerly Abellio UK). This concession is awarded by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and is overseen by Merseytravel, the passenger transport executive which co-ordinates public transport across the Liverpool City Region. Merseyrail branding is also applied to stations on the City Line, which lies within the Liverpool City Region but is not part of the Merseyrail network.

Merseyrail was established in 1977, when existing suburban lines were connected by constructing new tunnels under Liverpool city centre and Birkenhead. Trains run with a headway of 15 minutes at the peripheries of most lines during the daytime, with rapid transit frequencies in the central section. Permanent way maintenance is carried out by Network Rail, and Merseyrail is a National Rail member.

The network has its origins in the underground Mersey Railway of 1886, which forms part of the core, and which was the world's second underground passenger railway after the 1863 Metropolitan Railway in London. The network contains a number of world firsts. Two stations, Hamilton Square and James Street, are the oldest deep level underground stations in the world; previous underground stations had been build by cut-and-cover. The section of the Northern Line from central Liverpool to Southport, opening in 1904, was the first electric railway connecting two urban areas.

Network
The self-contained network is operated by Merseyrail Electrics 2002, a 50:50 joint venture between Serco and Transport UK Group. Two lines - the Northern Line and the Wirral Line - compose the network, which has service frequencies of 15minutes in outlying areas converging to rapid transit frequencies in central sections. The lines are electrified throughout using a system, and have minimal overlap with track used by other providers, mostly at terminal stations.

The Northern Line and Wirral Line cover a large area of the Liverpool City Region. The total route length of the two lines is 75 mi, accommodating 69 stations. 67 of these are managed by Merseyrail, with the remainder being major mainline stations: Liverpool Lime Street, operated by Network Rail, and Chester, operated by Transport for Wales. The lines connect Liverpool city centre with cities and towns on the outer reaches of the city region, such as Southport, Chester and Ormskirk.

Merseyrail infrastructure is owned and maintained by Network Rail. As a self-contained network, the network is exempt from the national rail franchising structure, which is instead the responsibility of local government.

The City Line, marked red on the Merseyrail map, is the branding applied to mainline services on four lines out of Liverpool Lime Street. Mainline suburban and commuter services are operated primarily by Northern Trains, with the lines shared by Avanti West Coast, TransPennine Express, London Northwestern Railway, East Midlands Railway, and Transport for Wales. It is mostly electrified, with one branch - Liverpool to Manchester via Warrington - operated by diesel trains.

Northern Line
The Northern Line is shown in blue on the Merseyrail and Merseytravel maps. Services operate on three main routes: from Hunts Cross in the south of Liverpool to via the Link tunnel from Brunswick station through central Liverpool, from Liverpool Central to Ormskirk, and from Liverpool Central to Headbolt lane via Kirby. Each route operates a train every 15minutes from Monday to Saturday, giving a frequent interval between trains on the central section. Additional trains run from Liverpool Central to Southport on Sundays during the summer months to serve the area's beaches.

The line serves the major football stadia of Liverpool - Everton F.C.'s Goodison Park and Liverpool F.C.'s Anfield - via connection with the SoccerBus service at Sandhills. Bus departures are at frequent intervals from Sandhills station, with through ticketing offered.

Connections to non-Merseyrail services are available at:


 * Southport to Wigan Wallgate and ;
 * Liverpool South Parkway for services operated by London Northwestern Railway, East Midlands Railway, TransPennine Express and Northern serving, , and various destinations within Yorkshire and the West Midlands;
 * Hunts Cross to Warrington Central and Manchester Oxford Road;
 * Ormskirk to Preston;
 * Headbolt Lane to Wigan Wallgate and Manchester Victoria.

Wirral Line
The Wirral Line is shown in green on the Merseyrail and Merseytravel maps. Services operate from the four terminus stations: Chester, Ellesmere Port, New Brighton and West Kirby. Each service from one of these the terminus stations runs through Birkenhead Hamilton Square underground station in Birkenhead, then through the Mersey Railway Tunnel, continuing clockwise around the single-track underground loop tunnel under Liverpool's city centre. Trains head back into the Mersey Railway Tunnel to return to one of the four terminus stations.

Monday-Saturday services are every 15minutes to/from Liverpool to Chester, New Brighton and West Kirby, and every 30minutes to/from Ellesmere Port (Monday–Sunday). These combine to give a service at least every five minutes from Birkenhead Hamilton Square and around the loop under Liverpool's city centre.

Connections to non-Merseyrail services are available at:


 * Bidston on the West Kirby branch for the Borderlands line to Wrexham, operated by Transport for Wales;
 * Chester to Crewe and London Euston, Wrexham and Shrewsbury, the North Wales Coast line to Llandudno and Holyhead, and to Manchester either via Warrington or via Northwich and Knutsford;
 * Ellesmere Port for an infrequent service to and from Warrington;
 * Liverpool Lime Street for intercity and regional trains to London Euston, Manchester, Birmingham, Wigan, Scotland, the Midlands and Wales.

City Line
The City Line, depicted on maps using the colour red, is the brand name used by Merseytravel on services out of the mainline platforms of Liverpool Lime Street railway station. These call at 26 stations within the Liverpool City Region, continuing on to further destinations. Although not being part of the Merseyrail network, stations and ticketing are branded identically to meet the passenger transport executive's aims to provide the network with a local identity and shared ticketing structure. Trains are not branded as such, instead carrying the branding of their respective operators, and run at mainline frequency.The City Line covers the Liverpool City Region sections of the Crewe–Liverpool line, the two Liverpool–Manchester lines, and the Liverpool–Wigan line. Two services are not electrified, the Manchester via Warrington Central and Chester via Runcorn.

Northern mainly operate the City Line with additional services operated by TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Transport for Wales, and West Midlands Trains.

History
The History of Merseyrail dates back to the 19th century, with the original formation of the Mersey Railway and the Mersey Railway Tunnel, among the first underground railway tunnels. The modern Merseyrail network was developed in the 1970s from lines that were previously owned by several different railway companies. The Beeching axe during the early 1960s closed key routes in and around Liverpool, with the council proposing an alternate strategy and advocating the preservation of suburban services integrated into a new regional electrified rapid-transit network. The network underwent a period of electrification and expansion, becoming a single network in 1977, with a major project being the Loop and Link line, creating a continuous underground route through Liverpool city centre.

Over the years, several new stations such as in 1998 and Maghull North in 2017 have been added to the network. Most recently in 2023, Headbolt Lane has opened and is served on the network by battery-electric trains. Various proposals have been suggested on how to further expand the network, including beyond the Liverpool City Region area. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority announced in August 2019 that it was planning to use part of a £172million funding package to reopen St James Station in Liverpool City Centre, officially confirmed as Liverpool Baltic station following a public vote in April 2022.

Services
Point-to-point or return tickets are purchased from staffed offices or ticket machines, but the system is tightly integrated with Merseytravel's City Region-wide pass system, which also encompasses the Mersey Ferries and city and regional bus networks. Merseytravel's smart ticketing is via the local MetroCard smartcard system, including Merseyrail travel.

Typical weekday off-peak service on the Merseyrail-run Northern and Wirral Lines,, is as follows:

Class 507
Services on the electrified Merseyrail network are operated by British Rail Class 507 electric multiple unit trains (EMUs). These along with the British Rail Class 508 electric multiple unit trains replaced pre-war Class 502 (originally constructed by the LMS) and similar Class 503 EMUs. There are 22 trains in service on the network.

The fleet was refurbished between 2002 and 2005 by Alstom at a cost of £32million, involving trainsets being transported to and from Eastleigh works. Improvements to the trains included new high-backed seating, interior panel replacement, new lighting, the installation of a Passenger Information System and a new external livery.

A farewell tour for the Class 508 operated using units 508139 and 508141 took place on 29 October 2023.

Class 777
On 28 January 2020, Swiss rolling-stock manufacturer Stadler Rail provided the first of a new fleet of 53 new train sets, designated, built at Stadler's factory in Bussnang, Switzerland. The final units were due to enter service in 2021. The trains are based on the METRO platform, Stadler's product family for underground trains also used on the Berlin U-Bahn and the Minsk Metro. The new trains are a custom-built, bespoke design specifically for the Merseyrail network, with driver only and guard capability. This differs from the previous fleet, which was built to a standard British Rail design for commuter services.

The new trains have an articulated four-car design, compared to the previous three-car units, with a significantly increased overall capacity and faster acceleration and deceleration, which gives reduced journey times. A combination of reduced weight of 99tonnes, representing a 5.5tonne weight reduction, and more efficient electrical systems will give a 20% reduction in energy use.

The trains are flexible, being capable of operating on a combination of any of, overhead wires, or full battery operation using a five-tonne battery, provided they have the correct equipment installed, giving operation beyond the current network. , all trains are only equipped for operation, along with a smaller battery for depot shunting.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers opposed driver-only operation on the new fleet, which they said would put passenger safety and security at risk. Following a period of strike action, an agreement was reached to guarantee a guard on every train.

Merseytravel has an option for a further 60 Class 777 units as part of the contract, which if exercised would see a total of 113 trains built if services are extended to new destinations such as Helsby, Skelmersdale or Wrexham. The deal also involves the transfer of 155 of Merseyrail's maintenance workers and the operation of its maintenance depot at Kirkdale to Stadler Rail Service. The transfer of Kirkdale depot and Merseyrail engineering personnel took place in October 2017, as construction work to modernise the depot, which is the planned maintenance hub for the Class 777s, commenced.

The first Class 777 unit entered into service on the Northern Line on 23 January 2023. Initially they were being used on the Kirkby route, followed by the Ormskirk route. The trains were introduced to the Wirral Line, Ormskirk and Southport routes in late 2023.

Class 777 battery trains
The Class 777 trains are capable of being propelled via onboard battery sets. The battery set per car can be up to 5tonnes in weight. The batteries can be charged via a rail terminal charger and while operating on electrified tracks. When the Headbolt Lane extension was unveiled to the public, it was also announced that the original order of 52 units was increased to 53 to allow for some units to undergo battery trials.

Following on from the trial, it was announced in July 2021 that the units tested had been able to travel up to 20 mi without the need for recharging. The battery-powered trains run to Headbolt Lane station in Kirkby. The technology opens up the possibility of the trains serving routes to destinations such as Wrexham, Preston, Wigan and Warrington.

Past fleet
The original service on the Merseyrail lines was provided by Class 502s on the Northern Line and Class 503s on the Wirral Line. The former was withdrawn by 1980 and the latter by 1985.

Introduced from 1978 and 1979 respectively were 33 Class 507 and 43 Class 508 trains. Since the 1990s, fifteen Class 508s have been withdrawn as surplus and have later transferred to other operators with 12 units being transferred to Connex South Eastern and 3 units being transferred to Silverlink, with three Class 507 and 508 units, including unit 507006 after a crash at Kirkby in March 2021, written off following accidents. In 2022, further withdrawals of the trains began, having been replaced by Class 777s.

The following table shows trains withdrawn since 2022.

Depots
The electric fleet is maintained and stabled at Stadler's maintenance depot and United Kingdom headquarters at Kirkdale and Birkenhead North TMD. Minor repair work and train cleaning is undertaken at Kirkdale, while overhauls are completed at Birkenhead. The roles will be reversed once the Class 777 trains fully replace the existing fleet. Other depots at Hall Road and Birkenhead Central were closed in 1997, and the former was demolished in April 2009. The Birkenhead Central depot is proposed for reopening.

There are also two depots near Southport station: Southport Wall Sidings and Southport Carriage Holding Sidings.

Franchise and concession history
As a result of the privatisation of British Rail, the Northern Line and Wirral Line were brought together as the Mersey Rail Electrics passenger franchise, being sold on 19 January 1997. Although franchises are awarded and administered on a national level (initially through various independent bodies, and later the Department of Transport directly), under the original privatisation legislation of 1993, passenger transport executives (PTEs) were co-signatories of franchise agreements covering their areas – this role being later modified by the Railways Act 2005.

The first train operating company awarded the Mersey Rail Electrics franchise contract was MTL. MTL was originally the operating arm of Merseytravel but had been privatised in 1985. The brand name Merseyrail Electrics was adopted by MTL.

The Merseyrail name became the official brand for the network in the days of British Rail, surviving several franchise holders, although the name was not used by Arriva when holding the franchise. Despite this, Merseytravel continued the Merseyrail branding at stations, allowing the name to be adopted colloquially. With acquisition by Arriva, the train operating company was rebranded Arriva Trains Merseyside from 27 April 2001. Merseyrail is referred to as "Merseyrail Electrics" by National Rail Enquiries, and as "Serco/Abellio Merseyrail" by Merseytravel.

The City Line was also privatised under the 1993 Act, but as part of a different, much larger North West Regional Railways (NWRR) franchise. Upon sale on 2 March 1997, the first train operating company awarded the NWRR franchise contract was North Western Trains (owned by Great Western Holdings). The train operating company was later bought by FirstGroup and rebranded First North Western.

The third-rail electric Northern and Wirral Lines were largely isolated from the rest of the National Rail network with no through passenger services to or from outside the third-rail Merseyrail network. A decision was to transfer the network into exclusive Merseytravel control, being removed from the national franchising system. The Secretary of State exempted the two lines from being designated as a national railway franchise under the 1993 Act.

When the Mersey Rail Electrics franchise was due for renewal, coming into force on 20 July 2003, Merseytravel contracted the operation of the two lines with a concession extending for up to 25years. The first successful bidder was Merseyrail Electrics (2002) Ltd, a joint venture between Serco and NedRailways (renamed Abellio in 2009).

The City Line, which was largely diesel-operated at the time, was not included in 2003 franchise, continuing as a part of the nationally administered rail franchise system. From 11 December 2004, the NWRR franchise was merged into a new Northern franchise. The first train operating company awarded this franchise contract was Northern Rail, also owned by a Serco-NedRail (Abellio) joint venture. This franchise passed to Arriva Rail North on 1 April 2016 and then to Northern Trains on 1 March 2020.

Due to the isolation of the Northern and Wirral Lines, Merseyrail Electrics (2002) Ltd are keen to adopt vertical integration – taking responsibility for maintenance of the track from Network Rail. The current managing director of Merseyrail is Andy Heath.

Performance
Operating as a self-contained network means there are relatively few problems because there is little conflict with other train operating companies. Merseyrail has publicly committed to aiming to be the best train operating company in the United Kingdom.

In February 2010, Merseyrail was named the most reliable operator of trains in the United Kingdom, with a reliability average of 96.33% during 2009–2010, the highest ever achieved by any United Kingdom train operator.

In 2023, Merseyrail was audited by the UK Government Office of Road & Rail; it found poor performance with 26.2% of trains being delayed by 4 or more minutes and a cancellation rate of 2.2%, an increase of 1.1% on the previous year.

Enforcement of by-laws
Merseyrail employs a team of officers who enforce railway by-laws relating to placing feet on seats, travelling without tickets, and other kinds of anti-social behaviour. Merseyrail privately prosecutes individuals they claim are in breach of the by-laws via the single justice procedure.

The enforcement of the 'feet on seat' by-law by Merseyrail was judged to be "draconian" in September 2007 by local magistrates. However, Merseyrail stated that it did not want to take offenders to court, but was not allowed to fine offenders otherwise (unlike people who smoke on trains or station platforms). Merseyrail claimed its stance was based on customer feedback and would reduce anti-social behaviour on the system.

Accidents and incidents
On 26 October 2005, a Merseyrail Class 508 train de-railed in a tunnel on the approach to Liverpool Central underground station. All 119 passengers and train crew were evacuated safely; only the guard was injured. The cause was determined to be rail gauge spread caused by poor maintenance.

On 11 January 2007, a train ran through a buffer stop at West Kirby. Two people were injured.

On 30 June 2009, a train ran away at Kirkdale, running through a buffer stop and colliding with a wall. A passenger train had passed the site of the accident less than 5 seconds earlier. Merseyrail was fined £85,000 plus costs of £20,970.15 for offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

On 22 October 2011, an intoxicated teenage girl died after falling between the train and platform at James Street station. The train guard, Christopher McGee, was subsequently convicted of her manslaughter by gross negligence and was jailed for five years.

On 13 March 2021, a Merseyrail Class 507 train collided with the buffer stop at Kirkby station. The cause was found to be that the driver of the train was using a mobile phone whilst driving. The distraction led him to enter the station at nearly three times the permitted speed. He was sacked and prosecuted, pleading guilty in February 2022 to a charge of endangering the safety of people on the railway.

On 28 October 2022, a Merseyrail train derailed on the tracks just outside Liverpool Central underground station. The train was not in service at the time, and no one was injured. In a statement released by Merseyrail it was stated a train "tripped a safety device that is designed to lead to a controlled derailment".

On 5 October 2023, a Merseyrail Class 777 train crashed at Rock Ferry station after a "minor operational incident" and was taken out of service. No passengers were on board when the crash occurred and no injuries were reported.