Rail bosses sorry for Merseyrail snow disruption

Merseyrail services came to a standstill on 9 January after winter weather

Rail bosses have apologised for a "major incident" which saw a rail network "grind to a halt" in wintry weather which they admitted could not be described as extreme.

Some Merseyrail passengers were stranded on a train for over three hours after ice on the electrified third rail stopped trains from working on 9 January.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority transport committee heard how services were cancelled for two hours right across the network which led to delays throughout the rest of the day.

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram described the impact as "completely unacceptable".

He called on representatives from Merseyrail, Network Rail and the train manufacturer Stadler to address the committee meeting, which heard the disruption happened despite Merseyrail's winter weather plan kicking in.

The company's managing director Neil Grabham said the plan "clearly failed".

He said it was only the third time in 10 years that the network had declared an incident of "this severity".

Councillor William Shortall expressed frustration that relatively mild conditions had caused such disruption.

"It's winter every year - will we be sitting here saying the same thing again?" he asked.

Network Rail's Phil James said he was "truly sorry" to passengers who were stranded

Speaking after the meeting, Phil James from Network Rail said he welcomed the review and said he was "truly sorry" especially to those who had been stranded without access to food, toilets or heat.

"The third rail is susceptible to snow and ice and when it forms on top of that rail, it acts as a barrier and the train struggles to draw power from it," he said.

He said Network Rail apply an anti-icing product to the third rail regularly throughout the winter months and a review would examine why it had not been effective.

Matthias Hammerle from Stadler said the new Merseyrail trains could withstand temperatures of -25C but that if there was no connection to the third rail, trains would "shut down".

He said there were modification options available such as using batteries or adding an ice-scraper.

Other options could include running "ghost trains" throughout the night in cold periods to prevent the third rail icing up.

In a statement Steve Rotheram said an independent review into what happened will "ensure we learn from this and improve our winter preparedness".

"My priority is making sure that passengers in the Liverpool City Region not only have a reliable transport system, but that they receive clear communication from Merseyrail in the event of impacted services," he said.

The findings of the review will be presented to the next transport committee on 20 March.