HAND-IN-HAND with efforts to make Liverpool city centre motoring and parking nigh on impossible must come improvements to public transport.
However, rail passengers – sorry, customers – fared worse than ever on Friday evening at Lime Street station when commuter services were abandoned for almost two and a half hours by Northern Trains.
Hundreds of commuters were stranded with no information, apart from automatic Tannoy announcements that services were suspended due to a train failure near Wavertree log-jamming everything (in between the usual repeated Tannoy threats to passengers who have left luggage unattended, misparked cars or are skateboarding).
Platform staff soon scarpered after multiple passenger ear-bashings. A party of Americans travelling to Blackpool found their train inexplicably disappeared from the timetable with no advice for them or others on reaching the resort.
Because rail services now over-intensively use decrepit stock, breakdowns occur but there is no back-up at Lime Street; neither are shunting engines on hand to rescue failed trains.
When trains finally rolled in procession to the station, a new announcement was made stating that a staff shortage meant services could not be resumed. What an utter shambles.