MERSEYRAIL has forged a new record for punctuality.

The train operator, which was once dubbed “Miseryrail”, ran 97.3% of services on time in the four weeks up to August 22 – its highest performance level so far.

Services ran at 100% punctuality and reliability for seven days on the Wirral Line and two days on the Northern Line – another record for the organisation.

After feeding its improved monthly performance into the rolling annual figure, the service saw its average performance increase to 95.6% – another record.

Merseyrail managing director Bart Schmeink said: “It may sound obvious, but trains running on time is what passengers want and expect.

“Over the past six years, we have improved punctuality bit by bit to a point where it has now become a ‘given’ for passengers.

“It was not an easy task on a network with such an intensive service and we could not have done it without great attention to detail day in, day out by our own staff and Network Rail staff, who look after the tracks and the signals.”