The last remaining Mersey Ferry has been out of service for five days and the new ferry is not yet in operation
13:25, 30 Jun 2026Updated 16:06, 30 Jun 2026
The Dazzle Ferry (Snowdrop) on the River Mersey earlier this year(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
The Mersey Ferries have been suspended for five consecutive days, causing ongoing problems for commuters. The ECHO has been looking into what is behind the extended issues facing the iconic river crossing.
The commuter ferries take people between the Pier Head in Liverpool and the Seacombe Ferry Terminal in Wirral directly. Meanwhile, the 50 minute river explorer cruises are popular with tourists, with recorded commentary telling stories about the history of the Mersey Ferries and Merseyside as a whole.
Mersey Ferries has announced the suspension of services every day since Thursday, June 25, citing a “technical issue” each time. The ferries are operated by Merseytravel for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
The ECHO approached the authority yesterday about what this technical issue is and when services were expected to resume as normal.
In response, a Mersey Ferries spokesperson said: “Due to a technical issue, we are unfortunately currently unable to run our commuter and River Explorer services until further notice.
“A replacement bus service is in place for both the AM and PM commuter services which is operating between Seacombe Ferry Terminal and Hamilton Square railway station, with ticket acceptance on Merseyrail services.
“We have engineers working on site and hope to have this issue resolved as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused.”
Update: We have now heard from the Combined Authority, who told us the ferry service will resume later today.
A spokesperson said: “After maintenance work carried out on the engine and a series of tests, we’re pleased to confirm that the Snowdrop will resume service later on today.”
“We would like to thank our passengers for their patience while this issue was resolved.”
The technical issue related to the Snowdrop Ferry, commonly known as the Dazzle, which is currently the only ferry in operation on the Mersey.
The vessel is designed in tribute to the naval strategies of World War 1.
The Dazzle is currently alone on the river after the Royal Iris ferry was retired and decommissioned earlier this year.
Whereas previously, if one ferry had suffered a fault it would be replaced by the second vessel, currently a fault means the whole service is suspended.
But this won’t be the case for long, a new £26m ferry, The Royal Daffodil, which was built at Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird, has been completing sea tests and is due to enter passenger service within weeks.
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