Merseyrail or Merseytravel?

[HJ10001]

On the Merseyrail's City Line, most of the platform signage have either Merseyrail and some have Merseytravel. Merseyrail sponsor the services and Northern manage the stations, with the exception of Liverpool South Parkway.

Merseytravel is the Passenger Transport Authority for Liverpool and the surrounding area, they don't sponsor the stations directly.

Should the signs only say Merseyrail?

 

[Farigiraf]

I think that would be needlessly confusing as those stations don't actually get any Merseyrail branded services. Were the Merseyrail station signs more neutral - i.e. East Midlands Railway's ones, hence why they can get away with managing Burton, Willington, Hinckley, Narborough and South Wigston without actually providing services there - then it would make sense.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The Northern services used to be referred to as the Merseyrail City Line, but it seems to be moving away from that now and newer signage says Merseytravel.

 

[Mogz]

I remember in the 90s and early 2000s stopping City Line services from Lime Street were announced as “Merseyrail” services even though they were run by North Western Trains and subsequently First North Western. There were even Merseyrail liveried 150s and 142s but there was no effort made to assign them to just Merseyrail services.

For instance, I remember seeing the odd Merseyrail liveried 142 on the Borderlands Line years after it had ceased to appear on Merseyrail maps as part of the Wirral Line.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I remember in the 90s and early 2000s stopping City Line services from Lime Street were announced as “Merseyrail” services even though they were run by North Western Trains and subsequently First North Western. There were even Merseyrail liveried 150s and 142s but there was no effort made to assign them to just Merseyrail services.

For instance, I remember seeing the odd Merseyrail liveried 142 on the Borderlands Line years after it had ceased to appear on Merseyrail maps as part of the Wirral Line.

It was similar in West Yorkshire where some local services were announced at Leeds as "the xx:xx Metrotrain service to (for example) Huddersfield". Of course in that case, there wasn't a separate segregated service that it could be confused with.
The existence of the almost completely segregated "Merseyrail Electrics" system does (or did) create the opportunity for confusion, hence the "Electrics" part of the franchise unit's official name upon privatisation.

When I'm referring to the Pacers that were given the Merseyrail branding and livery, I tend to call them "Merseytravel Pacers" simply to avoid confusion with the Merseyrail TOC or the Merseyrail "Electrics" system.

 

[507020]

On the Merseyrail's City Line, most of the platform signage have either Merseyrail and some have Merseytravel. Merseyrail sponsor the services and Northern manage the stations, with the exception of Liverpool South Parkway.

Merseytravel is the Passenger Transport Authority for Liverpool and the surrounding area, they don't sponsor the stations directly.

Should the signs only say Merseyrail?

You are correct that Merseytravel is just the brand name of the Passenger Transport Executive or Authority of the Metropolitan County of Merseyside, which is just a consortium of Merseyside councils.

Merseyrail is just the private operator of the third rail (and now battery for the incredibly short distance between Kirkby and Headbolt Lane) electric services within this region, which does not operate the Northern services out of Lime Street.

Merseyrail operates every station it calls at except Chester and Lime Street (although the underground part there is staffed by Merseyrail) but this means it is the sole operator Liverpool South Parkway as well as Southport, Ormskirk, Headbolt Lane, Hunts Cross, Ellesmere Port and Bidston stations which other operators (in almost all cases Northern) call at, but nowhere else.

The name Merseyrail was created in 1971 by British Rail and applied only to the Wirral Line, before the lines out north out of Liverpool Exchange were named the Northern Line. Then its Merseyrail Project integrated these lines with Lime Street and extended the Northern Line south to Garston with the new loop and link tunnels.

It was even later than this, after sectorisation and moving away from blue and grey livery that many Regional Railways DMUs were painted in a Merseyrail yellow livery, in common with liveries from every other metropolitan area and used in a common pool nationally, although the Pacer refurbishment funded by Merseytravel included the large destination display which remained until withdrawal.

It seems it is only due to privatisation that confusion regarding Merseyrail became an issue, because Merseyside PTE had always wanted to use consistent branding with BR. Merseyrail Electrics (2002) Ltd which is the only Merseyrail operates its concession, which doesn’t include a “City Line” so the stations out of Lime Street shouldn’t say Merseyrail, but they do.

 

[Djgr]

It was announced earlier this year that Merseytravel is being rebranded as Transport for Liverpool City Region (TfLCR).

This is partly in acknowledgement that what was the MPTE is now subsumed into Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (which is not the same geographical area as the short lived Merseyside County) and partly to avoid the type of confusion discussed above.

 

[HJ10001]

I remember in the 90s and early 2000s stopping City Line services from Lime Street were announced as “Merseyrail” services even though they were run by North Western Trains and subsequently First North Western. There were even Merseyrail liveried 150s and 142s but there was no effort made to assign them to just Merseyrail services.

For instance, I remember seeing the odd Merseyrail liveried 142 on the Borderlands Line years after it had ceased to appear on Merseyrail maps as part of the Wirral Line.

It seems to be rather confusing when the main part of the Merseyrail network is only formed of the Northern and Wirral lines, the City Line stations having Merseyrail signage when technically they are managed by Northern (With the exception of Liverpool South Parkway).

 

[Bletchleyite]

It seems it is only due to privatisation that confusion regarding Merseyrail became an issue, because Merseyside PTE had always wanted to use consistent branding with BR. Merseyrail Electrics (2002) Ltd which is the only Merseyrail operates its concession, which doesn’t include a “City Line” so the stations out of Lime Street shouldn’t say Merseyrail, but they do.

Merseyrail has for a very long time been the brand used for rail services in Merseyside. The Lime St services were branded as the Merseyrail City Line with that branding on the timetable booklet.

There now seems to have been a move away from that, possibly due to confusion over validity of the Merseyrail Only day tickets, but it was the case for over 20 years, hence the older signage being such.

Prior to the 2002 franchise and before it became known for a bit as Arriva Trains Merseyside, the TOC was known as Merseyrail Electrics to avoid confusion; in correspondance only related to that TOC the "upside down W" logo wasn't used, but instead one that was a bit like three vertical bars in yellow followed by three horizontal bars in blue (colours may have been the other way round), as a stylised ME. Obviously that no longer works now most Lime St services are now electric too.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Importantly, LCR includes Halton (ie Widnes and Runcorn) which was/is not part of the Merseyside local government body.
That's why LCR funded the Halton Curve upgrade and the TfW service over it.