Disruption looms for Liverpool travellers

All travellers in the Liverpool City Region are being urged to plan their journeys and check before they travel ahead of forthcoming industrial action on both the Merseyrail network and Northern services.

Guards represented by the RMT union will be taking three days of action on the Merseyrail network – Friday, September 1, Sunday, September 3 and Monday, September 4, and two days of action on Northern services – Friday September 1 and Monday, September 4.

While train users will be most directly impacted, the whole transport network is expected to be busier as people find other ways to travel.

Merseyrail services, made up of six cars, are planned to run every half hour on all routes from around 7am to 7pm (Friday and Monday) and 8am to 7pm (Sunday). However, they will not operate on all sections of routes or call at all stations and there will be a break in service for a few hours in the middle of each day.

Northern will also be running a greatly reduced and revised timetable on Friday and Monday. Services are planned to run between around 7am and 7pm.

Anyone heading to the Blackpool illuminations ‘switch on’ using Northern services is advised to make alternative arrangements their journey home.

Services by other mainline train operators will continue to run as normal.

There is special travel advice for people attending Fusion Festival at Otterspool Prom on Sunday, September 3 as there will be no Merseyrail services directly to or from the event.

There will be more upheaval for commuters and travellers when they will be forced to make alternative travel plans for most of October while Liverpool’s flagship Lime Street station is refurbished.

It will close from September 30 onwards to allow Network Rail to remodel the platforms, replace tracks and upgrade the signalling.