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It's probably partly the government's fault for not providing more funding. I know that the government did originally say that the former First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern trains would be suitable for the duration of the Northern Rail franchise, not realising how crowded certain trains were or that certain units were worn out before Northern Rail got them.
With the Merseyrail franchise, Merseytravel are said to be looking at the possiblity of replacing the 507/508s with trains that can run either on or off third rails, or extending the amount of track with a third rail. So it could be that in 2013 there's a Liverpool Central to Preston via Ormskirk service, a Liverpool to Wrexham service and the Ellesmere Port service being extended to Helsby.
I've also encountered minor problems on my past two Merseyrail journeys. One was doors jammed on both sides of the train slowing down the time it took for passengers to join and alight, hence holding up the train.
The other problem was while there were engineering works on the New Brighton and West Kirkby lines resulted in those passengers having to travel on either a Chester or Ellesmere Port service as far as Hamilton Square, where they then had to catch a replacement bus and then change back to a train north of Birkenhead. The Chester and Ellesmere Port trains were leaving people behind so Merseyrail decided to run an additional four services an hour between Rock Ferry and Liverpool Central. That then led to a shortage of trains to use on the Chester and Ellesmere Port services
and resulted in some Liverpool bound services terminating at Hooton, or so Merseyrail claim.
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