There is railway misery for Greater Manchester commuters this evening due to problems in Merseyside.
Northern has announced that its trains going to Headbolt Lane will terminate early tonight (November 20), at Wigan Wallgate. It means services will not stop at Pemberton, Orrell, Upholland, and Rainford.
"Due to an operational incident between Wigan Wallgate and Headbolt Lane the line is blocked," the train company said. "Services running through these stations will be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or terminated at and started back from Wigan Wallgate. All stations between Wigan Wallgate and Headbolt Lane will not be served."
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Commuters heading west from Manchester city centre wanting to go to Headbolt Lane will have to get a TransPennine train to Liverpool Lime Street, and then a Merseyrail train out to Headbolt Lane. It added: "Ticket restrictions have been lifted for customers with Northern tickets to travel on any alternative service to Liverpool Lime Street / Southport so they can connect onto Merseyrail services."
Issues at Headbolt Lane have persisted since it opened on October 5, to the tune of £80 million, reports the Liverpool Echo. The station serves as the terminus for both Northern and Merseyrail services, with the latter using swanky new battery powered trains.
However, the new £500 million fleet isn't giving passengers good service, they said. Gareth Coates is lives close to the new train station. He said: "Headbolt Lane is my local station.
"I’ve only seen two battery trains in operation, whichever day I’ve used it. The other battery fitted units are presumably still in testing. If there are only two trains available all day, every day issues will occur."
Another commuter, Dan, said: "It is a shocker of a service at the moment, between last minute cancellations, trains breaking down and being kicked off somewhere and peak time trains being taken off, it’s so unreliable. We haven't had a full 15 minute service on the Kirkby line for months."
Merseyrail did previously warn that the initial services from Headbolt Lane towards Liverpool would be running on an hourly basis, before gradually extending to four trains an hour. Merseyrail Chief Operating Officer, Stephen Dodd said: “The phased implementation of the innovative battery powered 777 trains serving Headbolt Lane began earlier this month and is ongoing.
"As is to be expected with a new, cutting-edge technology of this type, we are currently working through the transition phase, whereby the trains are being used in customer service for the first time. This inevitably has led to issues being identified and changes needing to be made, which have caused several cancellations and delays in recent weeks. Together with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority we are working closely with the train manufacturer, Stadler to address issues as soon as they arise.
"We are sorry for the inconvenience and frustration caused to our customers using these services during this transition. As more trains are rolled out onto this part of the network, we are confident that the service will become more reliable”.
