City region leader made dramatic criticism of local transport bosses – but some have questioned his position
Mayor Steve Rotheram has slammed Merseyrail for weather chaos this week(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram has doubled down on his criticism of Merseyrail and Network Rail over this week’s travel chaos – and responded to questions about his own role in the problems seen on the transport network.
On Thursday, Mayor Rotheram made a dramatic intervention on a day when Merseyrail had made a decision to suspend its entire network of trains due to snow and ice. A furious Mayor Rotheram described the widespread disruption as ‘completely unacceptable’ and has commissioned an urgent review into what went wrong.
He has also said that bosses from Merseyrail, Network Rail and Stadler, the manufacturer of the new fleet of Merseyrail trains, will be hauled before his combined authority’s transport committee to answer difficult questions about the recent issues.
But Mayor Rotheram has also faced tough questions of his own about his role in the running of the region’s rail network. In response to his video statement on social media site X, a number of people suggested he was trying to push the blame for his own failures onto others.
One user said: “You talk about ‘those responsible’, but YOU are responsible, it stops with you. It’s been too many years to put this blame on other people.” Another added: “When are you going to start?! How many terms do you need? An absolute failure on transport.”
Responding today, Mayor Rotheram said: “These new trains were designed so they could run in inclement weather and I don’t think yesterday’s weather was extreme. So I am asking questions of why there was a complete failure and every service was cancelled. For our commuters who rely on our trains, that was a disaster. What kind of message does that send out?”
“People will quite rightly ask questions about this being the responsibility of the Metro Mayor, but I don’t run the tracks. I don’t have responsibility for the signals, that’s Network Rail. So we are asking those stakeholders, Network Rail, Stadler – who built the trains – and Merseyrail who run our services to face difficult questions by our transport committee.”
Asked what kind of response there has been from Merseyrail since his criticism yesterday, Mayor Rotheram added: “Obviously they are all holding their hands up and saying they understand my concerns and that the service wasn’t good enough, but that’s an apology. I want to learn from what happened so the mistake doesn’t happen in the future or we will again have people stranded at stations and we don’t want that.
“If its done nothing else, this has concentrated the minds of the people who run our services and are paid to do so, that it is unacceptable to cancel trains at the last moment and it is certainly unacceptable to communicate in the way they did yesterday – I want to see massive improvements in that.”