Media centre

Wednesday 29 Oct 2003

NETWORK RAIL APOLOGISES FOR PROBLEMS ON THE NORTHERN LINE

Region & Route:

      Network Rail has apologised for the inconvenience caused to passengers yesterday and this morning by a fault on the Northern line between Southport and Formby.   The fault was found to be in a power cable between two electric feeder stations that supply the third rail (the electric rail that runs along side the track).  Specialists from Manweb were brought in to help Network Rail engineers locate the fault and a section of damaged cable was found late yesterday afternoon. Repairs were carried out to rectify the problem and this morning Merseyrail ran empty trains along the line in order to check that there were no further problems.  Trains were back to normal at lunchtime. Merseyrail was quick to respond by providing passengers with up to12 buses between Southport station and Formby station in order to minimise any inconvenience these problems may have caused and they also offered their apologies to people who have had their journeys disrupted. Network Rail’s General Manager in Liverpool, Andrew Skidmore said, “We sympathise with passengers when problems like this occur but would like to assure them that when these things happen, we fix the faults as quickly as possible.”