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.”
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The Metro Mayor said from that, a programme was put in place and things were “back to normal”. Addressing the combined authority’s transport committee last week, Dave Jones, rail development manager, warned the delays may not be over.
He said that while Merseyrail was “ahead of the curve” on getting the bearings issues repaired on its fleet, the operator had “yet to get to the bottom” of what had caused the problems. Speaking to members at Mann Island on Wednesday, Mr Rotheram said he had ordered a full investigation into what happened on the network to find out “what happened and ensure we don’t repeat any mistakes that were made with the bearing faults.”
The delays and disruption highlighted the need to get the new £500m fleet of trains on the track “as quickly as possible,” the Metro Mayor said, as the existing stock are “many decades old” and require more maintenance. He added: “They will be replaced over the coming months with a state of the art fleet of new trains which will be the most accessible in the country.”
Previously the Metro Mayor said he would "burn the midnight oil" to get the new rolling stock online as soon as possible. Mr Rotheram said he was “delighted” that a deal had been struck between the RMT Union and Merseyrail regarding the guard position earlier this month.
Members of the union voted in favour of proposals for establishing a new permanent position of train manager on the new Merseyrail class 777 service trains. The new position will continue the role of the existing guards on the new trains.
Mr Rotheram said the deal represented real progress and “means we’re well on track, if you’ll forgive the pun, to see those trains being rolled out across the network by the end of the year.”
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