News

NEW HIGH FOR TRAINS ON TIME

24th October 2007

THE NUMBER of Northern Rail services arriving on time in Merseyside has reached record levels over the last seven months.

On average 95% of Northern Rail services have arrived on time since March 2007 compared to 88.2% in the year before Northern Rail began operating in December 2004. Northern Rail services use the City Line and share that route with other passenger and freight train operators.

Jamie Ross, Area Director, Northern Rail said: “We have worked really hard to achieve this high level of punctuality and it has helped us to attract 10 per cent more customers to the City Line in 2006/07 compared to the previous year.

“We have worked in partnership with Merseytravel to meet that growing demand by providing 250,000 more seats every year, by replacing four Class 142 units (some of the oldest rolling stock in our fleet) with six newer and higher quality trains.

“This is great news for customers but we are determined to keep improving.”

Councillor Mark Dowd, Chair of Merseytravel, Merseyside’s Passenger Transport Authority, said: “These figures are very pleasing. The people of Merseyside want and deserve regular, punctual, good quality rail services and we are working hard with Northern Rail to ensure they get it.”

Councillor Chris Blakeley, Chair of Merseytravel’s Rail Services Committee, added: “Our investment in better rolling stock on the City Line is beginning to pay off and we hope the service continues to go from strength to strength. This is a great platform from which to build on further.”