Northern Rail has issued an apology after complaints of late and cancelled trains.
Commuters said they would "rather use their car" to make journeys they would have originally made via Northern Rail after poor experiences with the rail service.
Currently Northern serves more than 500 stations throughout the UK, with dozens in and around Merseyside, including Lime Street, St Helens Central and Kirkby. But commuters have complained of "endless" cancellations that come at "short notice" when using the service.
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Sharing their experience with the rail operator as part of an ECHO survey, one commuter who works late said they get home "45 minutes earlier" using their car rather than opting for a Northern train to get them home.
Another commuter said their experience on Northern trains was plagued by "far too many cancellations, many at short notice, that don't appear on the company website." Another said they thought the service was "bad, due to endless cancellations."
One commuter said: "Northern Rail serving St Helens and others are unreliable, with many short notice cancellations making me use my car rather than the train which I would prefer to use."
Another complained the 5.37pm service from Eccles, Manchester to Liverpool, fitting for those who work in Manchester to return to Liverpool, was cancelled at least "three to four days a week."
The ECHO is currently appealing to our readers to tell us their thoughts and experiences – good or bad – on their local train services. Readers have since been sharing their thoughts, praises and complaints about the services that affect them most on a day to day basis.
The ECHO put the concerns and complaints of Northern users to the rail operator, which issued an apology and said "higher levels of staff sickness than usual" and strikes were having an impact on the timetable.
Craig Harrop, regional director for Northern, said: “Our performance across Merseyside in recent weeks has not been to the high standard our customers rightly expect and deserve, and I apologise to them for any journeys that have been impacted by this disruption.
"We are currently experiencing higher levels of staff sickness than usual and the on-going industrial relations issues have their own impact on the timetable.”
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