MERSEYRAIL trains are running so close to capacity the network is “creaking”, the region’s transport chief said.

But on the buses, said Neil Scales, Merseytravel’s chief executive, passenger numbers were worringly low.

Addressing the second Merseyside Transport Conference at Liverpool Town Hall, Mr Scales also came close to ruling out a conges-tion charge for the region, describing it as too “blunt”.

Greater Manchester will go to the polls in December over a charging scheme.

Delegates from across the public and private sectors gathered at the Town Hall yesterday for the conference.

Mr Scales said while bus numbers were below par, “on rail passenger targets we are exceeding that, and have oth-er problems with capacity”.

He was asked by a councillor if he thought Capital of Culture would have been better if the city had a tram network.

He replied: “Obviously it would have been a lot better. We’ve raised the level a lot, but it would have been a lot better had we had a tram.

“We have been using the bus and train network. The train set, it’s been creaking, but it’s worked.”

Merseyrail spokesperson Rudi Boersma said: “I would agree with him to the extent that, yes, we are growing very quickly, the numbers of passengers is going up – in the first six months of this year, we went up by 10%. We have got a finite amount of trains.”

Mr Boersma added that the operator had increased capacity to Chester and Southport in response to concerns about overcrowding.

Merseyrail are also looking into hiring more trains before the lease ex-pires on the current fleet.

Liverpool One chief executive Joanne Jennings – a supporter of Merseytram – challenged Mr Scales on how to make buses more “sexy”.

Mr Scales agreed marketing was a problem for buses.

“It starts where you don’t want to start, you travel with people you don’t want to travel with, for a price you don’t want to pay and drops you off where you don’t want to be.”

But, he added, the city region’s 90km of bus lanes have been completed.

On congestion charging, Mr Scales said: “Liverpool is a city that’s designed for 1m people, but only has 450,000 living here. Congestion charging is the wrong instrument at the wrong time, it’s too blunt.”

Delegates also heard from Phil Redmond, Liverpool Culture Company’s creative director, Jessica Bowles, head of regional and local transport delivery for the north at the Department for Transport, and Prof John Whitelegg of Liverpool John Moores University.

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