STATEMENT

Merseyrail to Run Boxing Day Trains for the First Time

9 November 2015: For the first time in its history, Merseyrail will run trains on Boxing day, enabling customers to get in and out of the city-centre for the post-Christmas sales. This will buck the national trend, with leading the way on a day that traditionally sees only a handful of rail services operating across Britain.

As more people are keen to hit the sales early, this initiative is in response to passenger demand. It is part of wider initiative between and transport operators to provide more choice in how and when they travel during the Christmas period, boosting the local economy and supporting jobs.

Boxing day services will be every thirty minutes and call at select stations on the network. First trains will start from 9am and the last ones from the centre of town will be around 6.30pm. All trains will be full length, six carriages, enabling as many people as possible to travel.

Trains will call at the following stations:

: , , Waterloo, Sandhills, Central and Liverpool South Parkway  : Maghull, , Kirkdale, Sandhills and Liverpool Central  : Kirkdale, Sandhills and Liverpool Central  New Brighton: North, Conway Park, James Street and Liverpool Central  : , Birkenhead North, Conway Park, James Street and Liverpool Central  Hooton: , , Birkenhead Central, James Street and Liverpool Central

For full timetable information, please go to the Merseyrail website at www.merseyrail.org

Notes to Editors:

 Merseyrail carries ca 110,000 passengers per weekday  Merseyrail scores for reliability and punctuality averaged over 95 per cent during the last 12 months  We operate one of the most intensively used networks in the UK with more than 800 trains per weekday  Merseyrail is a 50-50 joint venture between and Abellio  Merseytravel is the transport executive body and delivery arm of the city region’s Combined Authority  is the owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in the UK  For further information, contact Alice Owen on tel 0151 955 2131.

STATEMENT

There will also be late night trains on the last two Fridays and Saturdays before Christmas. Likewise, see the website for details.

Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, Merseyrail’s managing director, said: ‘Not many rail operators in the UK are running trains on Boxing day, and we are delighted to offer this service to our passengers. With the city increasingly open for business on this day, it was the right thing to see what we could do to support local people and local businesses.’

Councillor Liam Robinson, chair of Merseytravel, added: ‘This is the really doing something differently. Traditionally, only a handful of services operate nationally, but we’ve listened to our customers and what they want. This is another example of the benefits our local management of the Merseyrail network, which gives us the flexibility to respond to customer need.

‘Working with operators, we’ve been keen to take a holistic approach to transport in the lead-up to and over the Christmas period, and Boxing day trains, together with the late night services we are running on certain days in December are a key element of that.'

ends

Notes to Editors:

 Merseyrail carries ca 110,000 passengers per weekday  Merseyrail scores for reliability and punctuality averaged over 95 per cent during the last 12 months  We operate one of the most intensively used networks in the UK with more than 800 trains per weekday  Merseyrail is a 50-50 joint venture between Serco and Abellio  Merseytravel is the transport executive body and delivery arm of the city region’s Combined Authority  Network Rail is the owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in the UK  For further information, contact Alice Owen on tel 0151 955 2131.