Merseyrail introduces free wifi at underground stations
Free wi-fi is now available at Liverpool Central, Moorfields, James Street, as well as Birkenhead stations Hamilton Square and Conway Park. It will be introduced at Liverpool Lime Street lower level and Old Hall Street entrance to Moorfields by the end of the year.
The £180,000 installation was jointly funded by the concession-holder and local transport authority, Merseytravel, and is one of the initiatives in the five-year growth plan, devised by the two organisations.
To access the free wi-fi, users simply provide a few personal details on their device. The facility is available throughout the stations.
Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, Merseyrail’s managing director, commented: “Passengers expect to have access to the internet almost everywhere now, and increasingly, use travel time to work, shop, access information and stay connected. We’re delighted that we can now support our customers in this way at stations.”
Cllr Liam Robinson, chair of Merseytravel, added: “We’re always working with Merseyrail, looking at ways in which we can encourage more people to use the network as well as making it better for existing users.
“The five-year growth plan highlights our aims for this and we’re delighted that free wi-fi has already been installed at five underground stations.”
Great news that Liverpool’s underground system is to benefit from this. The Merseyrail underground is a fantastic asset that should be exploited to the maximum to promote growth.
By Paul Blackburn (Chester)
It hardly goes anywhere, most people never have cause to use it.
By Shakeel
It goes all over Liverpool, the Wirral and Sefton! Excellent that there are underground stations across the city centre, and its fantastic to see investment in the quality of the passenger experience.
By Scrub
Shakeel what planet are you on? It’s quite possibly the best rail network in the UK outside London in terms of it’s intensity and reach
By CMW
shakeel beat underground service outside the Capital .
By matt
And it goes to West Lancashire, Ormskirk, and West Cheshire, Ellesmere Port and Chester! I use it intensely for leisure and cultural pursuits as I have a Merseyrail station two minutes from my house in the Chester suburb of Bache. It is my lifeline to the vibrant and exciting city of Liverpool, and connects me door to door to dozens of places across the city region from 6.30 am to midnight!
By Paul Blackburn (Chester)
There is no underground to any of those places, we were talking about the underground, you’d think it was like the London Underground the way some on here are going on about it. Do you work for Merseyrail Paul? It’s a local train service, nothing else, isn’t even as useful as a tram would be. Anyone remember Merseytram? When will we get that?
By Shakeel
Most of the London Underground isn’t underground
By James
Shakeel if you look at the London Underground map you will see that the lines are both underground and overground, which is the same as Merseyrail. And as for people never having cause to use it, where did you get that information from? Every day the service is used, its a busy commuting service from as far a field as Chester, Ellesmere Port, Ormskirk and even Southport
By MancLass
They wouldn’t complain about this in Russia
By Igor
No I don’t work for Merseyrail Shakeel. I just think it’s a really good service. And it’s one of only three hybrid underground/metro/commuter rail systems outside London and deserves to be treated as an asset and expanded. It is more effective to invest in Merseyrail than in a tram system for the Liverpool Region and many have come to recognise that now. Merseytram was the wrong system at the wrong time. They wasted money on it, yes, and that grieves me but we must move on for the future. Many cities would be very grateful for a system like Merseyrail, but the great thing is that it is capable of expansion, in a cost-effective and incremental way with both underground stations in existing tunnels in the central area, and overground to more of the suburbs and by integrating it with other lines.
By Paul Blackburn