The scale of issues that dogged the Merseyrail network as services were thrown into chaos last month has been uncovered.
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram told a committee yesterday that 28 faults were identified with the wheel bearings on Merseyrail trains in June bringing services across the region to a halt. Rail replacement buses had to be used on certain lines during the disruption and Merseyrail managing director Andy Heath was forced to offer an apology.
Mr Rotheram told the Liverpool City Region combined authority overview and scrutiny committee that usually two issues are found a month on the network and the resulting cancellations impacted a “far higher number of trains than usual”. He added: “In a normal month, you might get two faults, with a unit but there was a spate of 28 in a very short duration and that forced Merseyrail to implement a temporary reduced timetable, it was only for a week but it was still causing inconvenience.”
