Lot of the obscurity is caused by the contracts from Department For
Transport. Wikipedia - *Merseyrail* is both a train operating company
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_operating_company> (TOC) and a
commuter rail
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter_rail_in_the_United_Kingdom>
network in and around Liverpool City Region
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_City_Region>.
Ormskirk is a good case where Merseyrail manage the station -
essentially the operator in OSM parlance.
Liverpool Lime Street is managed by Network Rail - the company which
owns the track and stations, and trains belonging to Merseyrail,
Northern, Virgin, Est Midlands Trains and West Midlands Trains operate
from here. It is also part of the Merseyrail Network (Wirral Line and
City Line operated by Northern). OSM presently has Liverpool Lime Street
as network=National Rail and operator=National Rail.
In my view the OSM operator is the company which manages the station,
the network for most stations in Merseyside is merseyrail, however if
OSM allows there needs to be the ability to have several entries for
network so allow for those train companies which operate from there.
However maintenance then becomes an issue.
Another view is that as all of these stations in Merseyrail are part of
the National Rail network and tickets are valid within and without the
Merseyrail system the question becomes murky.
As Merseyrail is such a strong brand running to 2028 I think that
network=Merseyrail is valid for Liverpool Lime Street, Ormskirk and
stations served solely by Merseyrail .
Regards
Tony Shield (TonyS999)
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