Merseytravel

Northern Rail Merseytravel liveried 142049 at Southport station in October 2005

The Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority was first established as a result of the Transport Act 1968, and included communities such as the urban districts of Formby, Lancashire and Neston, Cheshire. The latter was removed from Merseyside Passenger Transport jurisdiction in 1974 when the transport organisation's boundaries were made co-extensive with the new metropolitan county of Merseyside which was formally created by the Local Government Act 1972. At this time a committee of councillors of Merseyside County Council became the transport authority.

When the metropolitan county councils were abolished by the Local Government Act 1985, new structures had to be created. A new joint board - again called The Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority - was created. It was later renamed the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority and comprised 18 councillors assembled from Merseyside's five districts: Liverpool, Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral.

On 1 April 2014, the Merseyside Integrated Transport Authority was abolished and reformed as the Merseytravel Committee of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The transport authority area is extended to include the whole of the Liverpool City Region, which comprises Merseyside and the Borough of Halton.[1]

Prior to the Transport Act 1985 which nationally mandated the deregulation and privatisation of bus services in 1986 throughout England except Greater London, it operated a large proportion of the bus services on Merseyside, under the Merseyside Transport brand. It had taken over the municipally provided bus operations of Liverpool, Birkenhead and Wallasey county borough corporations in 1970, and expanded to cover the county borough municipal corporation areas and bus services of St Helens and Southport in 1974. The PTE also extensively co-ordinated and joint operated bus services on Merseyside with National Bus Company subsidiaries Crosville and Ribble. These were both longer distance services coming into Merseyside from Cheshire and Lancashire along with Crosville and Ribble services operated in Sefton, Liverpool and the Wirral only. The PTE also had significant involvement in the operation of Crosville and Ribble garages on Merseyside too. Similar arrangements also existed with Lancashire United Transport/Greater Manchester Transport and Warrington Borough Transport from services connecting Merseyside with Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

After deregulation, the Merseyside Transport operations were branded as Merseybus, and were subsequently privatised as MTL. The previous co-ordination of Merseyside's bus network disappeared as Crosville, Ribble now known as North Western and Greater Manchester's GM Buses became competitors of Merseybus along with new entrants like CMT Buses, Fareway, Halton Transport, Liverbus, Liverlne, PMT's Red Rider, Village Group, and other smaller operators. Merseyside's popular bus corridors became a hot-bed of intense competition with less lucrative services ignored and in some cases disappearing. Ultimately things settled down in the mid-1990s with Merseybus parent company MTL took over a number of the new entrants, some disappearing and North Western now owned by Arriva the remainder. In 2000 MTL was bought by Arriva and is now part of an enlarged Arriva North West. However Arriva was required by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission to divest some of its Liverpool operations; which are now operated by Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire. There are also smaller Merseyside operators like Cumfybus and HTL Buses.

Today, Merseytravel is also responsible for providing bus services which are considered socially necessary but are not profitable, these are operated by other operators, using a best value tendering system. Fares are presently subsidised at levels lower than local commercial services.

Merseytravel are responsible for the management of local, reduced cost, integrated ticketing systems, and as part of this issue the ITSO-compatible Walrus smartcard, on to which certain local travel passes are loaded. They are also the body responsible in Merseyside for providing and funding concessionary travel for the elderly and disabled, through the English National Concessionary Bus Travel Scheme. For those not at the present Pension age, but over the former applicable ages of 60 and 65, for men and women respectively, Merseytravel are funded to operate a localised version of the scheme.

Royal Iris of the Mersey in November 2009

Merseytravel owns and operates the Mersey Ferry service between Liverpool Pier Head, Seacombe in Wallasey and Woodside in Birkenhead. The fleet consists of two vessels: Royal Iris of the Mersey and Snowdrop.

There are three transport tunnels under the River Mersey. The passenger transport executive is responsible for the two road vehicular tunnels under the River Mersey, one connecting Birkenhead to Liverpool city centre, the other, Wallasey, to the centre of Liverpool, and consequently it controls the Mersey Tunnels Police. The tunnel to, and from, Birkenhead is the Queensway Tunnel, and the Wallasey, the Kingsway Tunnel. Merseyrail also runs through a railway tunnel under the river connecting central Liverpool and Birkenhead. The latter was the first transport tunnel under the Mersey to be built, in the nineteenth century.

Neil Scales, the former Chief Executive and Director General of Merseytravel, in his 2011 presentation "Growing the Railways on Merseyside",[9] outlined future projects that Merseytravel may be involved in:

• Electrification of Kirkby - Headbolt Lane, Bidston - Wrexham sections
• St Helens Junction, and Bootle - Aintree branch
• Further electrification between Hunts Cross - Warrington - Manchester, Headbolt Lane - Wigan and Ormskirk - Preston
• Liverpool F.C. football stadium access from the Bootle branch
• Re-investment in the Burscough Curves, linking Southport to Ormskirk and Preston
• 3rd rail electrification between Helsby and Ellesmere Port, (see Ellesmere Port to Warrington Line)

Merseytravel have also stated their support to linking Liverpool to the HS2 network with a directly connected, brand new, twin-track line.[10]

In September 2017, a report was compiled into the reopening of Liverpool St James railway station which concluded that the reopening of the station would be highly beneficial.[11]

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority announced in August 2019 that they were planning on using £172m of funding on several major transport projects.[12] These included:

• A new railway station at Headbolt Lane, Kirkby
• Re-opening St James railway station, Liverpool
• Purchasing two low carbon Mersey ferries to replace the current aging fleet

For ticketing purposes, Merseyside, hitherto, has historically been divided into four areas:

• Area A: St Helens, Knowsley
• Area B: Wirral
• Area C: Liverpool, south Sefton (Bootle, Crosby and Maghull), Knowsley
• Area D: north Sefton (Southport and Formby)

Out of current city region combined area:

• Area E: (None Existing since January 2008) Crossover Wirral and Liverpool
• Area F: Ormskirk
• Area G: Chester, Ellesmere Port

Each area is further subdivided into zones. There is considerable overlap of area A and C, with all parts of Knowsley lying in area A also being covered by area C. This region is designated as zone A3/C2/C3.

Two rail-only areas exist, for stations covered by Merseyrail outside the current Liverpool City Region. Area F covers the Northern line from Maghull to Ormskirk, whilst Area G covers the section of the Wirral line from Hooton to Ellesmere Port and Chester.

Until January 2008, a "cross-Mersey" area E existed, which covered the central areas of Liverpool and Birkenhead, as well as the ferry terminal at Seacombe. Tickets were commonly issued for areas B and E covering the whole of Wirral together with Liverpool city centre. Birkenhead railway stations covered by area E were:

• Hamilton Square
• Conway Park
• Birkenhead Park
• Birkenhead North
• Birkenhead Central
• Green Lane

• Liverpool Tramways Company
• Merseytram
• Wirral Street Car

• Merseytravel's website
• Transport Merseyside