Merseyrail - The Franchise

The Franchise

Following the privatisation of the Great Britain rail network, the Merseyrail service was run first by MTL under the name Merseyrail Electrics, then Arriva Trains Merseyside, before its award to a Serco-Abellio consortium of Serco and Abellio (a division of Nederlandse Spoorwegen) in 2003. The current franchise is contracted to the consortium for an initial 25-year period. The Merseyrail franchise, referred to officially as a "contract", is awarded by the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive rather than the Department for Transport which issues all other rail franchises in Great Britain. The only other exception is the franchise for the London Overground network, awarded by Transport for London in 2007. Merseyrail is given this exceptional treatment because its tracks are self-contained and separate from the rest of the railway network – no other services normally run over the third-rail network. As a result of this isolation, the franchise-holder is keen to adopt vertical integration – taking responsibility for maintenance of the track from Network Rail. The current Franchise Manager is Dave Davenport.