Arriva Trains Merseyside was a train operating company in England owned by Arriva that operated the Merseyrail Electrics franchise from January 1997 until July 2003, when the Merseyrail railway franchise was transformed into the local

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line and Wirral Line, which are dedicated el ...

concession, owned by the Merseyrail Passenger Transport Executive (Merseytravel).

History

The Merseyrail Electrics franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising to MTL with operations commencing on 19 January 1997. MTL retained the Merseyrail Electrics brand. On 18 February 2000, MTL was purchased by Arriva, and on 27 April 2001, rebranded as Arriva Trains Merseyside. On 23 April 2003, Serco-Abellio were awarded the Merseyrail Electrics franchise with the services operated by Arriva Trains Merseyside transferring to

on 20 July 2003.Merseyrail franchise goes Dutch
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' 24 April 2003

Rolling stock

Arriva Trains Merseyside inherited a fleet of Class 507 and Class 508 electric multiple units from

Regional Railways Regional Railways was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982 that existed until 1997, two years after privatisation. The sector was originally called ''Provincial''. Regional Railways was the most subsidised (per pas ...

. It also inherited a fleet of Class 73 locomotives and Class 936 EMUs for use on infrastructure trains; these were sold in 2002.

Depot

Arriva Trains Merseyside's fleet was maintained at Birkenhead North Depot.

History

Rolling stock

Depot

References

Further reading