Merseyrail Reviews 287

Merseyrail has known that all week it has been cold and frosty. Then they have to go and cancel trains again. They raise the fares and do not provide a service that is useful at all. Last minute cancellations and no bus service to cover either.

This is my first and last time using Mersey rail, in future I will drive. I tried to purchase a ticket at Aintree station 10.10am . The office was closed to ticket sales while the person manning the office was in the back on his tea break. There was no other way to purchase a ticket so I boarded the train. Liverpool central was closed so disembarked at Moorfields which was chaos and boarded a train to Chester expecting to buy a ticket on the train or at Chester instead 4 extremely intimidating security staff issued a fix penalty fare. Ruined my day out. When will Mersey rail make ticket purchasing at stations 21st century using vending machines or allow ticket purchases on trains then they won’t need to pay ticket office staff?
While I appreciate there are rules I did appeal and the appeal was rejected.
Conclusion if you are forced to use Merseyrail ensure to have your ticket in advance don’t risk being humiliated by the security staff on a crowded train.
Chester station staff were 100% perfect and helpful.

Writing this freezing whilst the train has been delayed for 50 minutes with no explanation (again). Merseyrail sucks the life out of it’s commuters. It’s saying something that the old trains that were 50 years old were better than these new trains which were obviously designed by people who had never used public transport in their lives. These new ones don’t have enough carriage doors which cause bottleneck crowding every single time and there just aren’t enough carriages to hold enough people at crucial peak times. Not to mention the wider problem that for the most part (except for a few rare gems) Merseyrail go out of their way to employ hostile station staff that are on crazy power trips and have no customer service or social skills at all. They are a sham of a service.

This is for every hardworking person who has the audacity to go out on a night out have a drink and try and get a train home from central ! Having witnessed travelling home after having a few beers and some long haired scruffy bespectacled Merseyrail employee stopping our Uncle Dave from travelling ( there was 13 of us after having watched the World Cup ) we where a family who had had a great evening despite not winning the World Cup his actions unfortunately caused a very very angry response from us ( get a taxi ) is a common response by these guards they turned a 65 year old man with family away on his own at. 11:30 at night , me and my wife have witnessed this a few times now and the arrogance of there staff is just shocking they love the backing of there pscos who duly have to back these little bully’s Saturdays guy was a typical little fat bloke who told the guys son don’t travel then your dad gets a taxi , we told him to walk to Moorfields where the stairs are even bigger than central and you just walk on , Merseyrail your guards are complete idiot little bully boys who seem to have an agenda of l will stop one in ten from getting home , complete arsey holes

Appalling - paid for ticket - office unable to print - apologise and say o time to travel - so I get a fine for not producing a ticket - appealed decision to be told I’ll be taken to court - disgusting train and customer service - will drive in future

Another day, another disaster with all trains on every line either cancelled or delayed. The brand new all singing and all dancing trains clearly struggling with the cold weather. Just asked a member of staff what’s happening and she replied “I have no idea” - sums up the whole service and company.
In the last 4 weeks, I am yet to catch a train which was on time with no problems either to Liverpool in the morning or the return journey home to the wirral after work.
4 people at Spital this morning ensuring that everyone had a ticket (for trains which never arrived)… none of which could give an update. No wonder everyone now drives rather than use this disgraceful service which is crumbling.

Disgrace - how are these allowed to be so bad!!

Meresyrail at it again on the Wirral lines. Bumping train times back, then the generic message delayed and then cancelling them. The last 3 trains they've done this with. Awful service!

Sort you vile bully staff out and ticket machines to will be calling the police on your staff member to not here to take any abuse of them especially with my kids

The worst part is the advertising for the new trains, "Designed with you in mind." Do they hate everyone then? Seats on the new trains are basically wooden boards with 6th Form Common Room carpet glued on.

Honestly hate the new trains which cost a bomb and came years late

Pathetic rail service, majority of our ‘newest’ trains constantly breaking down, delaying and being put away for maintenance. Was informed of cancellations and 30 minute wait per train ONLY when you arrived at the stations, nowhere was this disclosed this morning on their websites.

As well as this, Service is plagued with utter morons who call themselves security staff, who do not know their own ticket policies as you can get wrongfully fined DESPITE having the physical and correct rail pass. Just shows the shocking lack of knowledge these wannabe guards actually have on their own policies.

Money wasted on useless staff that reflects the poor state of our trains. If you need an excuse to be late every day for work then please acknowledge Merseyrail.

Disgraceful and waste of money service

If you are travelling from outside the area beware of the ticketing process. Especially TRAINLINE or other third party providers. You have to print off your tickets and cannot just buy and scan as usual. The guards also are briefed to fine people even if they are visitors or tourists and don’t know this, have purchased a ticket and just made a mistake. I also spoke with a few people who are regular travellers and they take a picture every day of a ticket office that is closed as they are often accused of lying. Of course you can appeal but it’s unlikely to be successful. I lived in Merseyside for my entire childhood, we watched the trains every day, waved to them and I now do the same with my son. So I am absolutely against fare dodging. But to design a process as a trap, or to design a system that penalises mistakes with a fine? That’s not a world I want to live in.

What a joke, I've only started using the train to and from Southport this season when going to the football, each time trains are cancelled or delayed, they say give local transport a chance, but I can't see why if you can't plan your journey 😤

Brilliant new trains, absolutely ruined by outdated, overpriced ticketing. Arriving from London to Chester to then que to get out of the station to buy a ticket from the kiosk (£5.10 for less than 15 mins) to then go back to the platform you were dropped off at. Have regularly missed trains due to this and got fined £50 despite buying a ticket on Trainline but not printing it out.

What company invest millions in state of the art (excellent) electric trains that still relies on a useless ticketing system from the 1990s. If I’m travelling with someone it’s often quicker and cheaper to take a taxi!

Merseyfail! No better way to put it. Never fail to have a problem, even on new trains. No tap on, tap off so you can miss trains due to having to get a ticket from the kiosk like it’s 1980, something they’d prefer happened as I have been fined before for rushing onto a train I couldn’t miss. Merseyrail is in the past and I would prefer to walk to my destinations than use their useless service.

Love merseyrail. At the moment new clean trains and I'm presently on one to Liverpool. I think the rail attendants need a little more training in customer relations. I've asked my guard a question about WIFI and he reply was a couple of grunts I couldn't understand . However I realise it is early Sunday morning.

Every time it rains the Chester and Ellesmere Port trains are cancelled due to ‘flooding’ this has been on-going for years so why is it not being sorted? There is always a massive que at hooton station for a ticket, by the time you get served you end up missing your train and having to wait 30 minutes for the next, it’s obviously a busy station so having just one staff member serving during rush hour is ridiculous, they seem to have enough staff to walk up and down the trains issuing fines but no staff to actually issue tickets. I travel with Mersey rail 4 days per week and every week there is always an issue, either a cancellation or delayed train. The last month I have drove to work more times than getting the train because Merseyrail are so unreliable.

Would have given 0 but it is not an option.Absolute joke of a company, got reprimanded of an issue which could have been resolved amicably, but was asked to vacate the train because we would not give personal details, obviously wanted to pursue a fine, a group member who was also told to vacate the train at the said station suffered from diabetic shock whilst waiting for a taxi, the individual who asked us to vacate the train, then to show some sort of compassion. The group that were travelling had an average age of 68 so I don't think we were there to cause trouble but just wanted to get home. Could put the individuals number here but will let the authorities deal with this issue, as all the relevant videos of the incident have been sent to the appropriate bodies .
Use this company at your own risk.

Absolutely terrible company. Rarely are trains on time especially west kirby line.
They always have a silly excuse for late
Trains. This doesn’t happen abroad.
Replacement buses always severely late too. Abroad, replacement trains and buses are always there!
Merseyrail, you need to look at quality of rolling stock and operational practices. Stop taking the p…!

I usually rave about how good and efficient this service is - every 15 minutes, quick and convenient.
I don’t use the trains that often but when I have done recently I have had more journeys that have been delayed or cancelled than have not.
It’s the lack of communication that really annoys me. Today’s journey was no exception. I was waiting for a train and the one before was cancelled. Mine I think may have gone to the other platform or been cancelled but nothing was announced via tannoy or via the 5 staff that were on the platform.
I had to wait for the next train.
It’s such a shame that what once was such an efficient service seems now to be very hit and miss.