Merseyrail to be brought back into public control

Merseyrail trains will be brought back into public control when the current concession ends in 2028.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is to take over the transport operation and work will now begin on forming plans ahead of the existing contract ending.

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said public ownership is "deliverable, achievable and secures the best option for securing strategic control" of the network, while allowing the combined authority to set services to suit communities rather than for profit.

Liam Robinson, leader of Liverpool Council and a former railway employee, said: "Merseyrail's coming home."

Public ownership of the network would work alongside the move to bring buses back in house which will begin in September.

Since March, work has been taking place to assess legal requirements, financial implications and operating models in partnership with the Department for Transport, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Rotheram said: "It's a much bigger question than who operates the railway, it's about who it works for.

"For too long, decisions about services that people rely on have been taken at an arm's length rather than the communities they affect."

He said the decision to take public ownership of the service was not a criticism of Merseyrail, which he described as the "backbone of our transport network".

Robinson said the "momentous" decision to move toward public ownership was "something I used to dream of when I was working nights at Lime Street station and other places around this country".

"I can give you countless examples of my working life where the interests of shareholders were always put over and above the interests of the travelling public, communities and economy that a rail network is meant to serve," he said.

The Merseyrail network was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1978.

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