Merseyside Bus Happenings

[hitune70]

I am from the.Merseyside area but the only links I have had with the West Midlands.are the ex TWM Fleet lines in the 68xx series operated by a companies,called.Merseyline, Amberline and Arena (all defunct now) about 25 years ago. Merseyline adopted the.1980s WMPTE livery for its buses.

Anyway back to 2017. An operator on the Wirral, which is connected to Liverpool by road and rail tunnels and a declining ferry services, is having problems.

Arriva and Stagecoach(inheritors.of First PMT Crosville operations) are the main two firms,.but AVON BUSES are third placed with about 40 buses, mostly Darts but with some.LFDDs. Over the last decade or so they have built up a network of routes on the Wirral,  mostly nil tenders
However although still trading they are in difficulties at the moment having expanded their operations on the Liverpool side of the river. They have run one route in the city for many years but in 2017 they have taken on five routes, which frankly are marginal.  Other difficulties they are having is they have expanded operations with insufficient buses or staff. Other problems relate to the need to run dead mileage through the Mersey tunnels which are tolled. If the bus BREAKS DOWN on the Liverpool side of the river, the cost of towage through the tunnels is MASSIVE.
I think Avon has bitten off more than they can chew. They are cancelling services, and some.Merseytravels (our equivalent of Centro) takes a dim view of tendered routes being cancelled. This is one to watch, as if ex tender routes go belly up Merseytravels will be spitting feathers!

[hitune70]

I've made a bloomer.here this should be in the General Discussion BUS section, not the rail section. Apologies

[the trainbasher]

When I was last on the Wirral having a day covering the Merseyrail network, I saw two of their buses within a few minutes, one of them on tow. Mind you this was a few years ago now but some of the older buses did look a little bit run down.

[JoNi]

Birkenhead MPs solution to ongoing Arriva bus strikes in Liverpool

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/politician-tells-striking-bus-drivers-13929121.amp&ved=0ahUKEwic9LbX4s_XAhVL6xoKHQzBBt0QyM8BCCEwAQ&usg=AOvVaw15x3xiGTy3S57gzAApr3hY&ampcf=1

[Crosville]

Avon have cancelled a lot of routes, from another forum,

Cancellations for the 30 (Liverpool ONE - Dingle), 90 (Birkenhead - Prenton Circular), 135/235 daytime (Dingle - Netherton), 144 eves/Sun (Bootle - Netherton Circular), 164/165 (Belle Vale Circulars) and 202/204 (Dingle - Broadgreen Hospital) are all on VOSA website now.

Arriva Birkenhead have been struggling with there Hybrid deckers recently, few routes the Hybrids are usually allocated to have had Pulsars, Streetlites, Presidents, & Geminis allocated instead.