Queen Square Bus Station

[E400]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station

(14/02/2015 18:20)SL64 JDZ (4593) Wrote:  That could work although in hindsight that would create a bottleneck at the crossing with two lanes merging into one

What I meant was to maintain a single inbound lane, but move the lane to where the lay-by is now, move the lay-by into the large area of pavement and then move the central barrier upto the edge of the new inbound lane. That then frees up the space to create 2 outbound lanes facing St George's Hall; the London Road services can use the left lane and Lime Street services can take the right lane- there wouldn't be a bottleneck per se, as the capacity of the section of road between the central crossing and the St Georges Hall traffic lights effectively increases by over 50% owing to extra space to stop at stands, or wait for the lights to change; you could therefore in theory accomodate 4 loading buses and then 10-12 other buses in the traffic queue in this area of the bus station alone.

Moving the lay-by into the pavement would allow space to extend it to the central crossing, so that allows 1 extra vehicle to alight passengers, whilst maintaining the same sized road as before. As far as I'm aware, buses alighting passengers here is not a major issue?

[M60lad]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station
Where exactly were the old bus stations situated in Liverpool and I always thought Pier Head was actually Mann Island, I only ask as I've been visiting Liverpool for years now but not long enough to remember the old Bus Stations

[YN05 WKE]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station

(15/02/2015 07:14)M60lad Wrote:  Where exactly were the old bus stations situated in Liverpool and I always thought Pier Head was actually Mann Island, I only ask as I've been visiting Liverpool for years now but not long enough to remember the old Bus Stations

From my understanding

Hood Street Gyratory - Queen Sq Bus Station was built on it
Pier Head Bus Stn - in front of the Pier Head Ferry Terminal
Central Bus Stn - rebuilt as Paradise St Bus Stn (look below)
Paradise Street Bus Stn - Livepool ONE was built on the site...it stretched from where Halifax bank is now to where HMV is now

If any info I have given is incorrect I'm sure someone will confirm

[Phil]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station

(15/02/2015 07:24)E208 WBG Wrote:  From my understanding

Hood Street Gyratory - Queen Sq Bus Station was built on it
Pier Head Bus Stn - in front of the Pier Head Ferry Terminal
Central Bus Stn - rebuilt as Paradise St Bus Stn (look below)
Paradise Street Bus Stn - Livepool ONE was built on the site...it stretched from where Halifax bank is now to where HMV is now

If any info I have given is incorrect I'm sure someone will confirm

Yep that's about right. Also don't forget the Ribble/North Western bus station that was situated on Skelhorne Street.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station

(15/02/2015 07:14)M60lad Wrote:  Where exactly were the old bus stations situated in Liverpool and I always thought Pier Head was actually Mann Island, I only ask as I've been visiting Liverpool for years now but not long enough to remember the old Bus Stations

The old pier head was a bit further over than MANN Island, so they were seperate, only a little bit though.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station
Central Bus Station was on Paradise Street (parallel with Lord Steeet).

I always liked Skelhprne Street - although quite tight for space, the idea of buses on one level and coaches on another was quite a good one and kept both modes closeby with good links to Lime Street station being across the road.

As I said earlier regards Hood Street/Queen Square, we have gone from having too much space to too little space.

Another historical footnote, pre-dereg Mann Island was mostly for Crosville/Ribble with the Pier Head Bus Station being the PTE's territory.

[childwallblues]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station
The problem these days is that the City Council have pedestrianized so much that as the saying goes we are now squeezing a quart into a pint pot.
Also in the 1960s approx. 30% of all routes left the City via Chapel Street/Tithebarn Street/Crosshall Street. This route is now virtually a bus desert.
It is obvious that our Mayor does not like buses - his destruction of the bus lanes has proved that. And allowing parking on main bus routes such as Lord Street, Sir Thomas Street and North John Street makes the situation even more worse.
There has been a lot of hot air on this thread but no real solution. With more and more deckers coming into service perhaps the real answer is to reduce services slightly on routes so less buses use Queen Square.

[E400]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station

(15/02/2015 11:43)childwallblues Wrote:  The problem these days is that the City Council have pedestrianized so much that as the saying goes we are now squeezing a quart into a pint pot.
Also in the 1960s approx. 30% of all routes left the City via Chapel Street/Tithebarn Street/Crosshall Street. This route is now virtually a bus desert.
It is obvious that our Mayor does not like buses - his destruction of the bus lanes has proved that. And allowing parking on main bus routes such as Lord Street, Sir Thomas Street and North John Street makes the situation even more worse.
There has been a lot of hot air on this thread but no real solution. With more and more deckers coming into service perhaps the real answer is to reduce services slightly on routes so less buses use Queen Square.

The only solution is better use of space already available. If small bits of pedestrianised street can't be made into a bus only road, then there is not a lot that can be done other than rearranging what already exists to squeeze as much capacity out as possible. I don't think that reorganising service timetables by allocating deckers will help in the long run; deckers are being bought for a reason, and that is not because passenger numbers are going down. If you reduce frequency now in favour of using deckers, then at some point in the not-too-distant future, the timetables will reach capacity and you're back to square one.

I think Merseytravel will be missing a massive opportunity to increase QS's capacity when they relay the road. That said, they must have this in mind if they're spending 8 weeks on it, as resurfacing would take no more than a week tops.

[Barney]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station

(15/02/2015 11:43)childwallblues Wrote:  It is obvious that our Mayor does not like buses - his destruction of the bus lanes has proved that. And allowing parking on main bus routes such as Lord Street, Sir Thomas Street and North John Street makes the situation even more worse.

It's not just legitimate parking that creates problems. Last Thursday at 2.30pm I was at Sir Thomas Street waiting for a Netherton service. Unusually, not one bus turned up for what seemed an age. Then I noticed that a delivery wagon was parked in the middle of the road at the top of Sir Thomas Street and Dale Street junction, blocking all traffic. After another five minutes, the driver decided to move his wagon onto the pavement to allow traffic to pass. By now there was a queue of vehicles stretching back to Queen Square and probably a hundred people at the stop. My bus - and every other - was now ten minutes late. No sign of any traffic warden though. For all his many, many faults, Boris doesn't allow deliveries at that time of the day.

[Valandil]

RE: Queen Square Bus Station

(14/02/2015 18:20)SL64 JDZ (4593) Wrote:  I think Halton's 14 and the 78 and 79/79C/79D could be moved to Liverpool ONE running via Hanover Street and Lime Street - but I think the 6/7 and Halton's 61 would be better running from Queen Square as well as other services serving Huyton

One of the main reasons people from Warrington use Arriva's 7 is to go to Liverpool One, i.e. under present arrangements get the bus to Queen Square and then walk.
It would be of great use and people might travel more often if the route continued to Liverpool One (and there were a more direct route between Huyton and the city centre).
No doubt travellers on Halton's 61 and other routes which leave the city also come to visit Liverpool for the same reason.