Merseyrail trains to get a makeover

The Merseyrail fleet will receive a refreshed interior, complementing the new exterior livery, which has been introduced over the last 12 months. The interior makeover starts in March and will take just over a year to complete.

The overall look will be sharper and more colourful, providing a cleaner and more visually appealing environment for passengers. Colours have been chosen to match the external livery, with the existing neutral tones replaced by more vibrant ones.

Internal panels will be refinished in brighter shades, and there will be a greater use of yellow. Passenger doors will have a new two-tone white and orange colour scheme.  Seats will be re-upholstered in a fresh, smart design. There will be new labelling throughout, as well as litter bins, following passenger feedback.

Both interior and exterior improvements are part of an £8.5 million upgrade of the Merseyrail fleet. £5.5 million of this has come from rolling stock company Angel Trains, through a revised lease agreement with Merseytravel. £3 million has been provided by Merseyrail shareholders, Abellio and Serco.

Coupled with the external livery, the aim of the internal refresh is to ensure that the standards customers have come to expect are maintained till a wholesale fleet modernisation is implemented. Work will be carried out at a purpose-built facility at Merseyrail's Kirkdale depot.

The new exterior livery features six different themes that reflect attributes of the Liverpool city region, including tourist attractions, shopping and sport. The work, which started last year, is undertaken at our depot at Birkenhead North. Each train takes a week to be transformed into the new livery, and we expect the last train to be completed by April 2015.

Alan Chaplin, interim managing director at Merseyrail, said: 'We are delighted to be giving the trains an interior makeover and I am sure that the attractive colours and more modern feel will set off the new livery well. Our aim is to create a pleasant travel environment, so these enhancements should prove popular with our passengers.'

Cllr Liam Robinson, chair of Merseytravel, added: 'Merseyrail is a high performing network, scoring highly for customer satisfaction. It's essential that we refresh and maintain the fleet to keep up the standards that people have come to expect on the network.'

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