The Liverpool City Region's trains and buses are getting a striking new look in time for Eurovision.
With just a few weeks to go until the event lands in Liverpool, Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has unveiled the makeover for some vehicles on the city region's public transport network to time with the contest. One of the region’s new publicly owned £500m trains has also been wrapped in Eurovision livery and will appear on the Merseyrail network from today.
New zero-emission hydrogen buses will also start appearing from today (Monday 24 April) draped in Eurovision’s colours. They will initially be used for driver training before entering passenger service in the coming days on the 10A route between St Helens and Liverpool.
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Eurovision artwork will also appear at train and bus stations, bus stops, ferry terminals and tunnel entrances with the region set to welcome an estimated 100,000 extra visitors, while the contest itself is expected to attract around 160 million TV viewers.
Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “The chance to host a global spectacle like the Eurovision Song Contest is an opportunity that doesn’t come around very often – especially for a city in the UK – that’s why so many cities bid for the accolade.
“As an international event that attracts guests, media and attention from around the world, we’re expecting thousands upon thousands of visitors to descend on the Liverpool City Region next month for a week-long celebration of music, dance, fun and frivolity.
“We want to use the contest as a chance to showcase what makes our region fantastic – so that visitors and investors alike return time and time again.
“I’m enormously proud of the investments we’ve made to deliver a publicly-owned, public transport network run in the interests of the public. We’ve commissioned these new liveries to celebrate this global spectacular coming to our region – it really is once in a lifetime.”
It is hoped that Eurovision will be worth around £25m to the city region economy when it takes over Liverpool in May and looking at the impact on previous host cities, it could also increase tourism to the city by up to 5% a year – which equates to over £250m extra revenue by 2026
People are being advised to plan their journeys during Eurovision. Transport information and advice is now available at www.merseytravel.gov.uk
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