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Quite a depressing view point and with no evidence to base it on. The mess that was left behind may take years and years to fix but they're more likely to have a go than the other lot... who didn't bother at all.

Theyve had a lot of signalling issues on that section over the last few weeks... could be that?

That's basically what we've had. Very wet for days, then heavy snow, then frosts and intermittent snow, rain and hail. I've been driving the rail replacement for Merseyrail this week. The area of South Wirral is still blanketed in snow and the ground is absolutely sodden. I got back to my car...

They had a couple trains running Hooton to Chester and EPort, supplemented by buses. They were trapped at that end so I suppose they thought they might as well use them.

As an aside, is it possible to use a battery unit to rescue another train, assuming that the issue is ice on the third rail, and would they?

Whole network appears to be struggling with every line showing 'major disruption' and basically sort yourself out until further notice.

Just in defence of the station staff, compacted snow and ice is incredibly difficult to shift. In a previous life as a teacher, the school I worked at was closed for 3 days due to this type of condition. They even hired a mini digger to try to shift it from doorways and paths but in the end had...

This seems to be Merseyrails annual problem of really wet snow/sleet/rain washing the deicer off the third rail. It then freezes or snows properly and ice forms on the rail stopping the current from flowing. The new trains will be less forgiving than the 507/8 when it comes to dodgy current.

I will have a word with the boss next time I see him to see if we can get every driver to do it. As you say, a handful of places don't have anyone to ask so it helps if you can see the bus coming (or not). I also find that communication between all parties is disjointed at times, which doesn't...

I work for arriva and we do the Merseyrail RRBs. Generally drivers will log in to the Ticketer and it shows up as RR1 on Bustimes.org when we're running; if it's an emergency replacement then there's no timetable, we just try to shift as many people as possible. If it's planned then generally we...

We do that at my depot.. we don't take any bus under certain bridges even though some will fit... that way there's no confusion as to what you are driving. We also have the add-on on the Ticketer machines that gives a warning for any bridge under 16ft... you get 6 beeps and a yellow warning screen.

Wirral is round 2. Given the issues that Manchester had at the start (and which LCR have learned from) I'd expect a bit of a gap between them. The whole thing stretches across 2 years allowing a few months between each round.

Merseyrail Ormskirk line has had 2 or 3 trees down. They clear one and another falls. Parts of that line are very exposed to the wind blowing across. Chester to Hooton is buses all day (decision made last night). Level crossing failure at Ainsdale as well (though this isn't uncommon).

Probably not. I drive them and standard is double deckers. My timetable shows an extra 15min each way allowed to drive slower. Merseyrail have already had 2 trees down and 'object on the tracks' disrupting services.

I think Merseyrail is buses tomorrow too from Chester.

It was the 3rd rail killer where you get freezing conditions then sleety rain that melts a bit then refreezes just before the trains start running. If there is any de-icer on the 3rd rail it washes off (are they de-icing these days?) and then forms a layer of black ice. I've seen this happen a...

We're also the only depot with E400MMCs. When you have a small fleet, as others have said, it means fewer spare parts kept for one depot, less driver / fitter training etc etc. We got the first 9 Evoras to upgrade a couple of our routes as they were what was available at the time.

Interestingly, the Luton ones appear to have standard mirrors (looking on Flickr etc). I suppose driver familiarity, engineering etc are all set up for them now so will involve no extra training. Be interesting to see if they retrofit the mirrors... was told the camera units are £900ish each...

As far as I'm aware there are quite a few due (40?) and they're generally to replace aging Pulsars at all depots bar Bootle. They're getting 71 plate Evoras from Luton to go with the 9 they have already. The buses are in Metro livery just to save having to repaint them over the next few years.

Still out, on 1402 now