Merseyrail Reviews 

Son just went from Spittle to Liverpool to meet friends after A-levels. No ticket machine or guard (shown on CCTV too). Was stranded and had to buy online except it said you have to pick up from a station other than Spittal - how is that even possible at 930pm without other transport? He clearly bought a ticket and showed online to guard in Liverpool but he was bullied into £50 plus another ticket. Why is there not a person or ticket box in Spittal - call me cynical but this looks like a calculated trap Merseyrail. Indeed, it is interesting that the BBC released an article the very same day called "Thousands of train fare prosecutions to be quashed", which highlights Merseyrail as one of the providers using the outdated Regulation of Railways Act from 1889 which is entirely immoral when they have essentially snared/trapped law-abiding and paying commuters. Appalling.

If there was a zero that's what I would rate

Today 14 August there has been nothing but poor service across the network broken down trains signal issues etc etc .

It spoilt ny day out to Chester first call was getting flung off at Sandhills train was already delayed at fazakerley with zero communication service status saying good service . Yet there was a train sitting at the platform kirkby side. Memberxof staff said there were no issues when there was.
On return I found out that the escalator from wirral line at Moorfields wasn't working. 97 stairs I went up having to stop 3 times on way to get my breath am 62 with high blood pressure. I didnt get any prior warning of number of steps otherwise I would have got lift no sign or warning that's wrong that and no staff at bottom of escalator to help give advice or warning.

This needs fixing urgently or somebody is going to fall ill have heart attack it's dangerous.

I will be making an appt to see my MP about this and the awful service it's just not good enough

Awful, awful experience with Mersey rail. They are bullies and money grabbers. We could not print off our ticket due to their not being a printer at the location. We had paid for our ticket just didn’t print it off at our end location as we thought what’s the point! Two people came over, scaring us threatening court and gave us an 150 pound fine. They continued to scare us by mentioning the police. Despite the website saying it reduces if you pay early? I have since contacted Merseyrail enforcement. They have denied me the right to appeal and could not state the correct Bylaw we were fined from. This experience has been extremely stressful and his impacted my daily life having to constantly argue my case and worry about the loss of money. On research, a fine for not printing tickets doesn’t exist. It seems like Merseyrails policies don’t inform anyone but yet expect them to obey. When the enforcement officer mentioned the prospect of refunding the ticket (he told us he was charging us because we would have got a refund for not printing it) I asked if I could collect my ticket, thus preventing the possibility of a refund. The enforcement officer then denied me access to my ticket and chose to instead fine me. This seems counterintuitive to fine someone over the possibility of a refund occurring whilst also preventing the person from performing the action that would in turn stop a refund from occurring. In this situation, not only has Merseyrail received money for the tickets of our journey they have now also received money for the fines. If this was truly about preventing ticketless riders then we would have been allowed to print our tickets and not receive a fine. However, the enforcement officers denied us access to our tickets and then proceeded to fine us for not having tickets.

If I could give zero stars I would. My daughter travelled to Liverpool and the ticket machine was not working so her and 3 friends jumped on the train expecting to pay on the train. Instead of letting them buy a ticket they fined each of them £50 if paid within 14 days or £100 after. They were bullied into giving their details to the fine operators and made to feel like they were being arrested. These girls clearly did not try and not pay a fair on purpose. Shocking behaviour from Mersey rail. I would rather walk than use one of their trains again.

13.46 train arrived at Fazakerley 18 minutes late then terminated at Sandhills.

Yesterday, 16.46 train cancelled.

Every day a lottery

Mickey Mouse service

I'm starting to run out of failure stories!

The so-called Merseyrail enforcement officers need curtailing - they go around acting like bailiffs and I expect they are on performance related pay. A poor guy who didn't have great English and may well have been unable to read the sign got fined I think £50 for having his feet on the seat... since when did Merseyside become like this? He got threatened with court if he didn't pay and looked terrified. Someone else tried to help and was threatened with being thrown out of the station - are these by-laws even enforceable I wonder?

Add to this ticketing (why on earth can you not use trainline tickets on your phone??), late running, cancellations or 'running trains through to last stop' when they are around 7-8 mins late (not really much is it!) to try and keep to targets. Plus broken down lifts and escalators.

I don't drive so am stuck with it but I can imagine 100's or 1000's going back to their cars...

My student daughter was issued an on the spot £60 fine for having her feet on the seat, which she immediately withdrew and apologised for. This was clearly exploitation, OTT and inappropriate. A warning would have been in line with the offence. Would this have been the punishment for a 35 year old man? Of course not. This is inappropriate use of power by the authority invested in the agents - who should know better. Merseyrail, let’s have fair and proportionate treatment and eradicate these errors of judgement. I’m disgusted with the outcome of this kangaroo court.

The answer to that question is a resounding NO.
An electrical fault caused mayhem at Liverpool Central this evening. Empty trains that were out of service came and went. Station staff just didn't have a clue what was happening. To rub salt into the wounds Merseyrail then put on a train direct through to Southport --- just to get their scheduling right.
Where were the customers in all this saga? Bottom of the list and being made to wait an inordinate length of time with no information.
Simply shocking service -- but then many would say that happens all too often such as it is now the norm!

I had to travel today from St Michael’s to Upholland. Hadn’t been on a train for ages so was apprehensive. Didn’t need to be as everyone was pleasant, information on the platforms and train's were clear.

The only downside to my journey was having to get on a Northern line train for the last bit of my journey.

Thank you people at merseyrail.

I'm often taken aback at so disengaged some of your ticket staff are. Was at my local station (on The Wirral), by no means busy, the bloke was just so deadpan. I was thinking of those people for whom interactions with strangers are sometimes all they have, in their day to day. Tell your staff to paint on a smile, say thank you, and maybe pass a few pleasantries.

We traveled to 39/69 stations and we really enjoyed it. Friendly and helpful staff, mostly clean. We would be happy to use their services again.

I just got the train from south parkway to Southport at 0809am south parkway and I just wanted to clear my head as am going through a bad time at work and spoken to the guard very nice and polite and had time to listen this means a lot to me thank out

Every time I have to use the train on the Southport/Hunts Cross line they are always late.If you can't get the service right Merseyrail don't run the service you are a disgrace

I would strongly advise to avoid using mersyrail. The majority of the time the trains are late or cancelled, if there has been rain even light rain don’t rely on these trains being in service. Lifts at busy stations like Liverpool lime street are 90% of the time out of service. I would recommend using the bus or even getting a Uber.

Caught return train home last evening from Sandhills after the Liverpool game… toilet had apparently been closed for months and station rep didn’t give a stuff… took train ride to Southport station thinking, I know what, I’ll answer the call of nature at last, but guess what, toilet at the main Southport station was closed with the shutters down…MERSEYRAIL TAKING THE PEE ON THEIR CUSTOMERS

Awful company, clearly a quick cashgrab for them. Got fined £54 today because I would’ve missed the train if I bought a ticket before getting on. When questioned, I offered to pay the fare there and then which was met with a harsh “no” as if the attendant was enjoying it. Took a photo of my ID like I was some sort of criminal. I now have to panic to find that money within 3 weeks or it’ll be doubled and I could go to court. OVER A £3 TICKET FFS!!! I have literally never had any incident like this prior, yet they are stealing my money off me! The £20 fine was better and easier to pay for poorer people but £54 is taking the mick. Do not use this service, take the bus instead. The train attendants get kicks from giving ridiculous fines for you making a simple, understandable mistake.

Made the mistake of getting off 1 stop later than normal as my wife was on the train so stayed on to get a lift home, merseyrails enforcement army where there. I was honest and explained my situation and was hit with a £50 fine and the cost of a ticket for the extra stop so £52.20 actually would’ve worked out cheaper to just not have bought a ticket rather than an oversight. Scandalous it’s a £50 fine regardless of situation or mitigating circumstances. But merseyrail just want to keep the money rolling in, terrible service

Merseyrail Manipulation: you walk up and down the train and see signs about high levels of customer satisfaction and service performance, but it's all lies, the number of times the electronic board at Liverpool South Parkway displays train has arrived when it's still a good 2 minutes away, the train arrives when it stops on the platform not when it's half way between South Parkway and Hunts Cross.

Constantly late or cancelled trains and often without any announcements they slyly just make the train disappear, Merseyrail are shocking when it comes to performance.

Awful company, rude and ignorant staff- I had the misfortune of dealing with a girl called Jess today after my daughter was given a very large fine for travelling after buying a ticket on trainline (apparently the small print on Merseyside rail’s website states you should print out tickets from 3rd party apps) they even told her to take the fine as a 18th birthday present!
I am going to take this further an absolute money making scheme trying to trip people up, disgusting.

Be careful when buying tickets off Merseyrail. Despite claiming to sell “The cheapest tickets for travel anywhere in the UK” Unless you specify the precise ticket you want, they will by default sell you the most expensive ticket available. This has happened to me twice now, so I suspect it’s a policy.