Arriva Trains Merseyside

Arriva Trains Merseyside^[1] 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 concession, owned by the Merseyrail Passenger Transport Executive (Merseytravel).

Arriva Trains Merseyside

Overview
Franchise(s)	Merseyrail 19 January 1997 – 20 July 2003
Main region(s)	Merseyside
Other region(s)	Lancashire Cheshire
Fleet	53
Stations called at	67
Stations operated	66
Parent company	Arriva
Reporting mark	ME

History

The Merseyrail Electrics franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising to MTL with operations commencing on 19 January 1997.^[2] MTL retained the Merseyrail Electrics brand.

On 18 February 2000, MTL was purchased by Arriva,^[3][4] and on 27 April 2001, rebranded as Arriva Trains Merseyside.^[5]

On 23 April 2003, Serco-Abellio were awarded the Merseyrail Electrics franchise with the services operated by Arriva Trains Merseyside transferring to Merseyrail on 20 July 2003.^[6]

Rolling stock

Arriva Trains Merseyside inherited a fleet of Class 507 and Class 508 electric multiple units from Regional Railways. It also inherited a fleet of Class 73 locomotives and Class 936 EMUs for use on infrastructure trains; these were sold in 2002.

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Routes operated	Built
			mph	km/h
73		Loco	80	129	4	Northern Line Wirral Line	1962
507		EMU	75	120	32	Northern Line Wirral Line	1978–1980
508/1		EMU	75	120	21	Northern Line Wirral Line	1979–1980
936		EMU	60	97	3	Northern Line Wirral Line	1955–1956

Depot

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