Mayor 'seething' over train graffiti

The mayor of Liverpool City Region has told of his anger after seeing graffiti daubed across a train carriage.

Steve Rotheram said he was shocked to see the vandalism on one of the new fleet of Merseyrail trains while he was waiting at Aintree station.

He told BBC Radio Merseyside the sight of the graffiti going across the length of a carriage left him "seething".

Rotheram said the new £500m Merseyrail trains belonged to the public and that vandalism was unacceptable.

"I got on a train at Aintree and somebody had put graffiti - not a small amount of graffiti - across the whole length of a carriage," said Rotheram, speaking during the Hot Seat phone-in.

"We bought them on behalf of the public so they are not owned by a train operator," he said.

"It cost us £500m and yet somebody... has decided to vandalise it in such a way."

The Class 777 fleet of Merseyrail trains began running on the network in January 2023 and replaced the Class 507 trains, which were first introduced in 1978.