New Merseyrail train

In two years’ time, Merseyrail passengers will be travelling in style on board a fleet of new, state-of-the-art trains which will transform travel in the Liverpool City Region and potentially beyond.

Arriving in 2020, the new trains are being built and will be maintained by Swiss manufacturer, Stadler, as part of a £460million project managed by Merseytravel on behalf of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

The new trains have lower floors at all doorways and incorporate sliding step technology which will lead to provision of unassisted access for all and represent a pioneering approach for the UK in terms of accessibility.

Platforms across the Merseyrail network will need to be adjusted to accommodate the new trains. Merseytravel, Merseyrail and Network Rail have investigated whether work could be undertaken outside of operational railway hours only, but it would take more than 2 years of continuous night time working to complete all the platforms and this would be significantly more disruptive to communities around stations. In addition as the new trains start to be delivered July 2019 for testing with all units expected to be in service by mid-2020, work in this way was not a practically possible.