Merseyrail services were thrown into chaos during July and August 1995 when Railtrack imposed restrictions on train operation through the Liverpool tunnels. In this special report from the October 1995 issue of The Railway Magazine, Colin J. Marsden and Fred Kerr describe the signalling problems, water ingress and disruption to passengers.
Merseyrail services disrupted
MERSEYRAIL services were thrown into total chaos during July and August when Railtrack imposed restrictions on train operation through the Liverpool tunnels in a drastic attempt to solve problems with the Merseyrail signalling system.
The Liverpool Loop Line was the most seriously affected, being completely closed from July 17 to August 21 after Railtrack engineers realised the full extent of the problem.
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The principal difficulty had arisen following commissioning of the £40 million IECC signalling and control centre in March 1994, which had led to an almost daily disruption of services due to signal failures and level crossing barriers failing to clear properly after trains have passed over.
Temporary timetables introduced
In July, Railtrack was forced to accept that the signalling system was unable to cope with the needs of the network and asked Merseyrail Electrics TOU to introduce a new timetable to allow its engineers increased access to the Liverpool tunnel sections.
A special timetable was introduced on July 17, which saw a 30-minute interval service on the Northern Lines and a 15-minute interval service on Wirral Lines with trains to New Brighton running only to/from Birkenhead North.
The TOU reviewed its position on a daily basis, hoping to return to a normal service as soon as possible. This was achieved on the Northern Line on July 22, but inspection of the Loop Line revealed the situation was far worse than had been thought.
Problems beneath Liverpool
Railtrack discovered that not only were the signal circuits operating in too humid an environment, but that the track base had crumbled as a result of water ingress from a rising water table. When the Loop Line was constructed in 1978, excess water was pumped to dockside factories near the railway. Many of these factories have now closed and the water has stayed and seeped into the surrounding rocks, raising the water table as a result.
This higher water table has forced water into the tunnels, where it has rotted trackwork originally expected to last 20 years when last relaid in 1987. Around 800 corroded track clips, which fasten the rails to the paved track base of the tunnel section, will have to be replaced. Specialist mining equipment was lowered into the tunnel on July 31 to assist with rectification work.
Railtrack initially closed the Loop Line on July 26 for a ten-day rectification period, hopefully to solve the signalling problems.
Revised
This forced the TOU to introduce a further revised timetable in which all trains turned back from James Street. The new timetable saw a 20-minute service from James Street to Chester and West Kirby with a connection at Birkenhead North for New Brighton and a bus service between Ellesmere Port and Hooton. The loop service in Liverpool was provided by buses.
The Mersey Electric service was dealt a further blow on August 3 when Railtrack requested that all trains stop at Birkenhead Hamilton Square. The TOU provided a replacement bus-operated cross-Mersey service between Hamilton Square and James Street, while Merseytravel asked Mersey Ferries to provide a ten-minute interval service during the day between Birkenhead Woodside and Liverpool Pierhead.
Passengers affected
Merseyrail TOU director Richard Parkin was so concerned at the effect on passengers of this whirl of events that on July 26 he issued an open letter of apology and explanation. Two days later, Railtrack chief executive John Edmunds and directors Brian Mellitt and Norman Broadhurst met with North West Railtrack director Chris Leah in the Loop Line tunnels to be shown the problem.
Railtrack has admitted that the existing pumps can no longer deal with the present volume of water and is seeking a revised method of water removal. It hopes to reduce the water level by increasing the level of pumping, either by installing more pumps or replacing the existing pumps by more powerful designs. It hopes to improve signalling by fitting new types of electrical relays which will be unaffected by the damp conditions.
Merseyrail Electrics’ operating problems have been worsened by falling income as the annual number of passenger journeys have slumped from 39 million to 24 million in the last 18 months (directly following introduction of the new signalling equipment) – and to rub salt into the wound, the problems were exacerbated by the almost total failure of the line’s new Swedish passenger information system. The loop line was restored as far as James Street on August 10. The full timetable was resumed on August 21.
