“THE replacement of the Merseyrail fleet has provided a unique opportunity to place passengers at the heart of the design process,” said David Powell, rolling stock programme director, Merseytravel, in a Transport Focus report into what passengers want in February 2021.
It was back in December 2016 when Stadler received an order for new trains that would replace the Class 507/508 electric multiple units which had plied their trade on Merseyside since the late-1970s. Despite not being the oldest trains on the network (that accolade belongs to Southern Class 313s and a handful of High Speed Trains used by ScotRail and Great Western Railway), because Merseyrail only operates these trains it meant this was the oldest fleet on the national network.
The latest Office of Rail and Road (ORR) report into the age of trains on Britain’s railway had the fleet at 42.6 years. By comparison, Transport for Wales was next at 29.4 years! Both will see a rapid decline in age over the coming months.
Ideally, the Merseyrail fleet would not have reached 40 years old; the plan was for the ‘777s’ to enter traffic from 2020, but there were several reasons behind their delay. Nevertheless, the first train finally carried fare-paying passengers on January 23, when No. 777049 was the first of the four-car EMUs to enter service, forming the 10.50 Liverpool Central-Kirkby.
Stadler is building 53 Class 777s. All are four-car trains, with 46 EMUs and seven independent power electric multiple units (IPEMUs). The ‘777s’ are the first publicly owned fleet to enter service on Britain’s national network for more than a generation.
The trains have also been designed specifically for the Mersey network, and thanks to the
