There is relief today after Merseyrail announced a return to regular 15 minute services on most parts of the network.
The region's rail services were majorly disrupted this week after Merseyrail said 'unexpected faults' on trains meant they had to cut back on the number of vehicles they could deploy. This meant reduced timetables in place, with trains running every 30 minutes on the Ormskirk, Kirkby, Hunts Cross, New Brighton, West Kirby, Chester and Ellesmere Port lines.
The latest disruption came a week after faults caused cancellations and replacement buses to be in place on the Kirkby and New Brighton lines. From Monday this week, frustrated passengers were forced to cram on to reduced and smaller trains to get to and from work. It was a particular blow considering the regular 15-minute timetable had only returned in April after years of pandemic-related disruption.
READ MORE: We boarded a Merseyrail train to see the impact of new timetable
But there is some good news today, with Merseyrail confirming that the 15-minute timetable will return for key periods from Monday. On the Southport to Hunts Cross line, the regular timetable will be back in place at all times, while other lines will see the 15-minute trains return between the peak times of 7am and 7pm, with 30 minute services in place around these times.
With trains now beginning to re-enter service following repair the following changes will apply from Monday June 20:
- Trains on the Ormskirk, Kirkby, Chester, New Brighton, and West Kirby lines will run every 15 minutes between approximately 7am and 7pm, with a 30-minute service operating outside of these hours.
- Between Southport and Hunts Cross trains will run every 15 minutes from the start to the end of service.
- On the Ellesmere Port line, the normal 30-minute service will continue to operate
- A 30-minute service will continue to run on Sundays across all lines.
The return to the new timetable will initially only involve three-car services as trains continue to be fixed. Merseyrail said that as soon as more faults are dealt with, the six-car trains will return to the network.
Merseyrail's managing director Andy Heath apologised again for the disruption, he said: “We are truly sorry for the disruption to our passengers’ journeys over the last two weeks. Our teams together with our train maintainer Stadler have worked around the clock to ensure we were able to restore the 15-minute service that we know this City Region relies on.
"I am pleased with the progress that has been made so far and that we are able to step our timetables back up from Monday with confidence. We continue to work with Stadler and experts from the wider rail industry to ensure we fully understand the root cause of this issue, to prevent this happening again in the future”.
While there is good news today, commuters are being prepared for further serious disruption when a UK wide rail strike next week. Whilst Merseyrail staff are not taking part in this industrial action, it will involve Network Rail staff who operate the signalling systems and provide crucial maintenance which allow services to run safely.
The current planned dates for strikes are Tuesday 21, Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June. Merseyrail will share passenger travel advice alongside the rest of the UK rail network later this week.
