Merseyrail has announced it will run trains on Boxing Day for the first time allowing customers to get into the city for the post-Christmas sales.
Boxing Day services will be every thirty minutes and call at select stations on the network. Beginning at 9am, final services will leave Liverpool around 6.30pm.
Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, Merseyrail’s managing director, said: “Not many rail operators in the UK are running trains on Boxing Day, and we are delighted to offer this service to our passengers.
“With the city increasingly open for business on this day, it was the right thing to see what we could do to support local people and local businesses.”
Despite the known attraction of the sales, last year represented the first time in seven years that Boxing Day was not the busiest retail day of the year – with Black Friday proving the biggest success in the UK, according to figures from Experian.
Merseyrail has also announced that late night trains will be in service on the last two Fridays and Saturdays before Christmas. Last trains bound for the Wirral and Southport will depart Liverpool at 1.30am.
Labour councillor Liam Robinson, chair of Merseytravel, said: “Traditionally, only a handful of services operate nationally, but we’ve listened to our customers and what they want. This is another example of the benefits our local management of the Merseyrail network, which gives us the flexibility to respond to customer need.
“Working with operators, we’ve been keen to take a holistic approach to transport in the lead-up to and over the Christmas period, and Boxing Day trains, together with the late night services we are running on certain days in December are a key element of that.”