Contract to build city region fleet awarded

A FIRM building new trains which will run throughout the Liverpool City Region has taken over the entire maintenance responsibility of the current Merseytravel fleet.

Employees from Merseyrail’s engineering department move over to Stadler, builders of the new trains due to enter service by 2020.

The transfer officially took place on Sunday, October 1.

Stadler was awarded the contract to build and maintain the new fleet of 52 metro trains for the Liverpool City Region at the end of the year.

The total value of the agreements, including the depot construction work, amounts to £700m.

Stadler Service in Liverpool employs the maintenance staff undertaking various train maintenance activities on behalf of Merseyrail.

The main maintenance location is Birkenhead North depot where the daily running maintenance, unit repairs and planned heavy overhauls are undertaken.

In addition daily on-train cleaning activities are completed at night.

The main train stabling depot at Kirkdale holds approximately 30 trains every night where the majority of the onboard train cleaning activities are completed in addition to external train cleaning through the train wash plant.

There are then additional out-based train cleaning and maintenance activities that take place around the network at stations.

This transfer of staff is one of the stages in the process to introduce the new trains.

A few weeks ago, Warrington-based BAM Nuttall started the enabling work for the new depot at Kirkdale, with construction beginning in October.

Stadler Service UK managing director Hein Van Der Schoot said: “The transfer of the entire maintenance business of the current fleet is a significant development in this project, and we welcome each and every one of them to our organisation.

“Moving people from one company to another is a highly sensitive task. Rest assured, we are committed to handling it carefully and are working hard to make the transition as smooth as possible.

“We look forward to welcome our new colleagues in the Stadler family.”

Jan Chaudhry-Van Der Velde, Merseyrail’s managing director, said: “The transfer of our engineering and depot staff to Stadler is another significant milestone towards the delivery of new trains in 2020.

“I would like to place on record Merseyrail’s heartfelt appreciation for the achievements of this group of staff during the time they have been looking after our fleet of trains – many of these people have been part of the Merseyrail workforce since the company’s inception.

“While I wish them well with their new employer, Stadler and Merseyrail will be working very closely in future.”