Merseyrail has cancelled a number of services for the fourth time this week due to cold weather.
Passengers on the Merseyrail network are being advised to check before travelling on Friday, January 20 as Merseyrail has cancelled the first services of the day on all lines. The travel provider said further train cancellations may continue until 10am on Friday.
Merseyrail will be working with Network Rail to reinstate services as soon as they have made the tracks safe and ensure their cold weather plans are "more effective". Trains on the Ormskirk line struggled on Thursday morning with services being suspended and rail replacement buses being unable to serve stations due to ice on the roads.
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Merseyrail acting Managing Director Jane English said: “We have had significant early morning disruption on the Merseyrail network this week. We know this is unacceptable and apologise to our customers. Friday morning may see more disruption, but we will be pushing hard to make sure our partners at Network Rail protect our infrastructure during this cold weather.
“Please check our website, app or social media to get the latest information about when services will start. We are hoping to get early services started as normal, but we are prepared for delays if the track is not in an acceptable state for passenger trains.”
Paul Owen, Director of Operations at Network Rail said: “We have put extra safety checks in place this week to keep passengers safe across our network. This has included running "ghost" trains prior to the start of service to ensure the track is safe and operating a special train that de-ices the electric third rail.
“Unfortunately, we are in a constant fight with the challenging conditions, especially freezing rain and snow, which means that even when we de-ice tracks, they have often thawed and re-frozen again before the morning.
“We’re aware of the most at risk areas and we’ll be focusing all our resources on them to avoid the disruption we have seen over the past few days.”
Passengers are advised to check before they travel by using the Merseyrail app, website (https://www.merseyrail.org/) or Twitter account (@merseyrail).
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