50 years ago, in October 1971, the Merseyrail brand was first seen on the Wirral line trains, with the Northern line roll-out the year after.
Station entrance signs, timetables, posters also saw the new branding.
Liverpool City Region school children have created birthday cards for Merseyrail to celebrate their 50 year anniversary of service to visitors and locals.
British Rail Liverpool Division created the name Merseyrail as the rail system was operated locally after the Mersey Railways Extensions Act.
Northern, Wirral and City lines were the new names of the four old sections – Exchange, Central Low-Level, Central and Lime Street
Development of the brand continued, and service improvements, simplification of fares were seen, along with new advertising.
Many changes have taken place since 1971 including:-
- The opening of the Loop line underground stations in 1977
- New Class 507 trains entering into service in 1978
- Opening of stations :
- Bache, Bromborough Rake and Eastham Rake in 1984, 1985 and 1995
- Overpool in 1988
- Brunswick and Conway Park in 1998
- Liverpool South Parkway in 2006
- Maghull North station in 2018
A new fleet of state-of-the-art trains are soon to be seen and last Month we visited Birkenhead to take a look at the new trains and you can read all about that visit here.
And there is more to come, with potential new stations open at Headbolt Lane in Kirkby and the reopening of the old St James station.
Andy Heath, Managing Director for Merseyrail, said: “Over the last 50 years the Merseyrail brand has gone from strength to strength – from creation to the upcoming roll-out of the new fleet of trains.
“It is a privilege to serve the people of the Liverpool City Region and our performance is a result of the hard work and dedication shown by our staff day-in, day-out.
“Being recognised for our punctuality and winning multiple awards is an honour and I'm sure the best is yet to come.”
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Merseyrail will be saying goodbye to the Class 507 and Class 508. As the Class 777 Metro units are to enter service by Christmas or at the end of this year.