Late night services will operate on selected Northern and Wirral line routes on two weekends in December to help festive revellers get home. Tony McDonough reports
Merseyrail is to offer late night services at key times in the run up to Christmas as well a service on Boxing Day.
With the aim of helping festive revellers to get home from their annual Christmas parties, Merseyrail will run late night trains on the two weekends before Christmas. They will operate as follows:
- Friday, December 13, trains will depart at 01:30 (early hours of Saturday, December 14).
- Saturday, December 14, trains will depart at 01:30 (early hours of Sunday, December 15).
- Friday, December 20, trains will depart at 01:30 (early hours of Saturday, December 21).
- Saturday, December 21, trains will depart at 01:30 (early hours of Sunday, December 22).
These trains will call at the following stations: Northern line: Waterloo, Formby and Southport; Wirral line: Birkenhead Central, Bebington, Bromborough, Hooton.
The Merseyrail network will be closed on Christmas Day, with services finishing early on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve but will be running a special service between 09:00 and 19:00 on Boxing Day, calling at selected stations across the network.
Suzanne Grant, commercial director at Merseyrail, said: “We have listened to feedback from our passengers and responded accordingly with services that will help people get home from festive celebrations, late night shopping and more.
“Only a very limited number of trains operate nationally on Boxing Day, so it’s great news for the Liverpool city region that we are able to operate this service.”
There will also be a whole host of activity across the Merseyrail network this Christmas. Some of the highlights include:
On Monday, December 2, at 10am, Father Christmas will be making a special delivery to Liverpool Central’s MtoGo store. Further information will be available closer to the time.
Carol choirs will be performing throughout December on the Merseyrail network at the following stations: Liverpool Central, December 3, 5, 8, 19 & 20; Hamilton Square, December 5 & 19; Southport, December 22.