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Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive
Type	Passenger Transport Executive
Founded	Transport Act 1968 (December 1, 1969)
Headquarters	Liverpool
Area served	Merseyside
Industry	Public transport
Parent	Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority
Website	www.merseytravel.gov.uk

The Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive (MPTE, or Merseytravel, as it is branded) is the Passenger Transport Executive responsible for the coordination of public transport in the metropolitan county of Merseyside, England. It was first established in 1968, and took its current boundaries in 1974 when the metropolitan county was created.

The body is controlled by the Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority, which comprises 18 councillors assembled from Merseyside's five districts: Liverpool, Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral.

Merseytravel is responsible for issuing franchises to the operators of the Merseyrail system. The Executive is unique in this respect, as it is the only body in England able to award a rail franchise; all others are awarded by central government. This unique arrangement was created because the Merseyrail electrified system is effectively isolated from the rest of the national rail network, with no through passenger services to/from outside the Merseyrail network.

Merseytravel also sponsors other rail services in the county. Although these do not form part of the Merseyrail franchise (most of these trains are operated by Northern Rail), to a certain extent they are branded as "Merseyrail" services.

Prior to the deregulation of bus services in 1986, it operated a large proportion of the bus services on Merseyside, under the Merseyside Transport brand. It took over the municipal bus operations of Liverpool, Birkenhead and Wallasey in 1970, and expanded to cover St Helens and Southport in 1974. After deregulation, these were branded as Merseybus, and were subsequently privatised as MTL. Later, MTL was bought by Arriva, but was required by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to divest some of its Liverpool operations; these are now operated by the Stagecoach Group.

Nowadays, Merseytravel is also responsible for providing subsidies to bus services which are considered socially necessary but are not profitable, and for providing concessionary travel schemes for the elderly and disabled.

Merseytravel owns and operates the famous Mersey Ferry service between Liverpool Pier Head, Seacombe in Wallasey and Woodside in Birkenhead. The fleet consists of three vessels: Royal Iris of the Mersey, Snowdrop and Royal Daffodil.

It is also responsible for the tunnels under the River Mersey, and consequently it controls the Mersey Tunnels Police force.

For ticketing purposes, Merseyside has been divided into four zones:

• Zone A: covers all of St Helens, and parts of Knowsley including Prescot and Whiston;
• Zone B: Wirral;
• Zone C: Liverpool, the south of Sefton (Bootle, Crosby and Maghull);
• Zone D: the north of Sefton (Southport and Formby).

There is a considerable overlap of zones A and C, as all parts of the borough of Knowsley lying in zone A are also covered by zone C. There is also a "cross-Mersey" zone E, which covers the central areas of Liverpool and Birkenhead, and also the ferry terminal at Seacombe. Tickets are commonly issued for zones B and E covering the whole of Wirral together with Liverpool city centre.

Zone E as stated above includes some Birkenhead Stations and in 2006 the list of Birkenhead stations in "cross-Mersey" Zone E is as follows:

• Hamilton Square
• Conway Park
• Birkenhead Park
• Birkenhead North
• Birkenhead Central
• Green Lane

• Merseytravel's website
• Transport Merseyside

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Passenger Transport Executive	Greater Manchester PTE · Merseyside PTE · South Yorkshire PTE · Transport for London · Tyne and Wear PTE · West Yorkshire PTE