Merseyrail train performance 'damaging' for passengers - director

The fleet was introduced on Merseyrail as part of a £500m investment

The performance of new Merseyrail trains has been "tremendously damaging" for passengers, the rail provider's managing director has said.

There have been repeated problems with the new publicly owned £500m fleet which started running last year.

Neil Grabham said the operator had to "get good quickly" at managing passenger disruption.

He said cancellation rates were "not acceptable" but services were making "slow and steady" progress.

"It's been tremendously damaging to thousands of passengers who want to make seamless journeys on a daily basis over the last 12 months and they haven't been able to complete those journeys without disruption or cancellation," he said.

The performance of the class 777 fleet was the subject of a scrutiny session by the city region's transport committee on Thursday.

Among those presenting was Matthias Hämmerle, head of metro, for the train manufacturer Stadler, said he "felt the pain of passengers" over the last year.

Metro mayor Steve Rotheram told the committee the new trains had been a "huge talking issue" for the combined authority and "one of the most scrutinised things we have as an organisation".

He said he was "frustrated by poor performance" but it was "normal to have teething problems in the first 12 months".

He rejected the idea the roll out was rushed, and said the combined authority "waited and waited and waited until we thought it was the right time", adding it would have become more of an issue had the aging stock been kept longer.

Mr Hämmerle was asked about what could have been done to mitigate issues earlier and said intensive tests had been undertaken in Germany but "specific issues" had emerged in service.

He said the firm "reacted quite fast" to keep trains rolling and said he "felt the pain of passengers".

Paul Patrick, Stadler's UK engineering director, said there had been an issue with key personnel which had now been addressed by a recruitment drive.