Passenger's fury at cuts to Christmas rail service
BBCA rail user said he was "astonished" there would be no trains stopping at his local station to take him into Liverpool city centre on the "busiest Saturday of the year" this weekend.
John Mullany, who lives in south Liverpool, said it would be the second Saturday this month that Cressington station would be "closed", with passengers instead offered a replacement bus service.
He said he was "shocked" when he arrived at the suburban station to find no trains were stopping there on 6 December. There were no signs, and it was only by checking online he discovered no trains were stopping due to an event at Aintree racecourse, and an Everton game at Hill Dickinson.
Mr Mullany said it "made no sense".
Mr Mullany said he was baffled the station would be "effectively closed" to passengers who themselves might want to travel to Everton FC's new home.
He said: "We were eventually told there was a bus that would take us to the next train station which in itself is bizarre and to me seems like a complete waste of time and a complete waste of money."
He said getting the bus was a "completely different experience" to travelling by train.
Mr Mullany said he "couldn't believe it" when he heard trains would not be stopping at Cressington again on 20 December, "the busiest Saturday of the year".
This is because Everton are at home to Arsenal.
An announcement on Merseyrail's website explains no trains will be running from Cressington station to allow the company to run more eight-car trains. Posters advising passengers of the change are displayed inside the station.
Greg Suligowski, head of corporate affairs and communications for Merseyrail, said altering timetables was a "difficult decision".
Liberal Democrat councillor Richard Clein, who represents Cressington on Liverpool City Council, said his inbox had been filled with emails from residents who felt they were getting a "poor service".
He said "for the last 15 Saturdays there's been a reduced service - so instead of trains every 15 minutes they've been every half an hour - and then we had the station closing on 6 December and now we hear it's closing again this Saturday at the busiest time of the year."
He acknowledged the platform at Cressington was not long enough to accommodate eight-car trains.
But he said trains should be allowed to stop there, with an announcement made to passengers wanting to use Cressington to move to the front carriages, as happens in other parts of the country.
Clein said the city region lacked a "joined up system" when it came to public transport.
While saying metro mayor Steve Rotheram's ambition for a London-style transport network was "good talk", he said the reality was that Liverpool was "years behind" cities like London and Manchester.
Clein said: "I want this station to have a full service every Saturday. Otherwise, I have to say, if I was paying for a season ticket from here, I'd be asking the metro mayor for a partial refund because of the lack of service."
Mr Suligowski said: "During major events, including on matchdays, our services can become extremely busy.
"This means we sometimes have to make the difficult decision to alter our timetables, to help customers travel safely and easily across the network.
"This can involve changes to train times at Cressington station or, when very large passenger numbers are expected, replacement buses operating instead of trains."
He added: "We work closely with the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and other partners as part of wider event transport planning.
"We also ensure these changes are clearly communicated in advance through station posters, social media updates, and announcements across our network."
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