++++ ERROR MESSAGE ++++ I have made an important factual error in the video. I stated that Merseyrail was never privatised. This is not correct. There is a franchise arrangement in operation. Merseyrail was sold but I I understand the Liverpool City Region aspires to regain ownership of the network at the end of the current franchise. Full details here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merseyrail Thanks to @andrewnelson4057 for pointing out the error. Unfortunately I can't correct within the video itself.

DESCRIPTION
In this update of AidanEyewitness, we go on a whistlestop tour of the Liverpool region using the Mersey rail network.

In October 2023, a new station opened, for now, the newest in the country, Headbolt Lane, one station beyond Kirkby in the north east of Liverpool.

Our journey starts across the Mersey at Woodside and we rediscover the lost Birkenhead Woodside station. Then we travel to Liverpool South Parkway and commemorate another notable piece of railway news from this week: the axing or cancellation by Rishi Sunak Conservative Prime Minister of the promised highspeed rail extension from Birmingham to Manchester.

Then we stop off at Liverpool Central to look at the new stateoftheart Swissmade trains that went into service on the Merseyrail network in January 2023, a few years behind schedule.

After that, we get on the train to Kirby and Headbolt Lane, Merseyrail's proud brand new station.

On the train. I briefly meet the famous Londonbased YouTuber Geoff Marshall and his northern associate Karl. No time for selfies or interviews, unfortunately.

After admiring Liverpool's "lovely brandnew station", we return to Liverpool Central and listen to station announcements in the wonderful Scouse accent.

We take a look back in time to the old mainline Central Station which was sadly closed in 1972.

Then we take a trip into the past at the Liverpool Museum and admire what was once Liverpool's biggest tourist attraction, the Liverpool Overhead Railway. Then I outline my dream of a Liverpool monorail running along the path of the socalled "Dockers Umbrella" which was dismantled around 1956.

Finally, via James Street Station, part of it a living museum, we head over to a very notable station on the Wirral line before returning to the centre.

I really enjoyed the tour, but I felt that I was just scratching the surface of the rich history and heritage of Liverpool and the Liverpool Rity Region, a place with a dynamic past, present and future.