Route History

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RE: Route History
CROSBY BUS SERVICES 1975-1980

At the end of 1975, MPTE began a rationalisation of Crosby’s bus services in preparation for the improvements to the rail network. Some direct facilities between the town and city centre were withdrawn, but all restrictions that had existed between Ribble and Liverpool Corporation (and had carried on into PTE days) on the picking up and setting down of passengers in the city boundary were abolished and an attempt was made to stagger city-bound services on a 5-minute weekday frequency, with alternate buses running via either Seaforth Station or Seaforth Sands. The PTE introduced some new facilities in Ribble services L22/L23 which operated from Crosby bus station via Thornton, Netherton and Aintree to Fazakerley and Walton Hospitals. These services sparked off trouble with PTE drivers whose Unions claimed Ribble buses were taking work in traditional PTE-served areas. The Agreement that Ribble signed with the Executive meant that the bus company could theoretically be placed on any route in the Merseyside area, but several months later the services were withdrawn and replaced with a Ribble 29 Crosby-Fazakerley Hospital and PTE 30C Crosby-Walton Hospital - Pier Head.

During 1976, the work was begun on a bus roundabout adjacent to Waterloo station. Bus services that had previously ran direct on the main thoroughfare through Crosby and Waterloo were to be diverted via South Road into the bus station and back out again putting an average of five-minutes extra running time on a city-bound journey. Fares were set at an adult standard 6p throughout the Crosby area, but no through bus-rail ticketing would be as yet available.

The new network of services, centred on “Waterloo Interchange”, was introduced in January 1977, four months before the rail extension to Liverpool Central was completed. Most of new pattern was designed and timed to meet trains to and from Liverpool at Waterloo station. Many direct services to the city centre were completely withdrawn or curtailed to Bootle. The PTE initially proposed to do away with all the traditional Ribble “L” prefixed services and number the new network between 201-212. This did not happen, although 211 was used on a new hourly service from Bootle - Kirkby, alternate journeys on 351 Bootle-Ormskirk replaced 381/382. These routes served the busy Liverpool Road in Crosby, and were augumented in the peaks by L9 Crosby bus station – Waterloo Interchange. Ribble’s L5/L6/L15/L25/L80/L86 which served Thornton from the city centre were replaced with L45 Thornton-Skelhorne Street (evening and Sunday journeys terminated in Bootle) and existing L85 was revised to provide an all-day half-hourly service between Skelhorne Street and Thornton. L3 remained, serving the hectic Oxford Road area of Waterloo, along with curtailed L35, which lost its’ Thornton extension and was rerouted in Bootle via Marsh Lane (replacing L8), but still carried on to the city centre via Pier Head. The Southport - Liverpool services S1/S3 were withdrawn, replaced by a shortened S4 Freshfield-Waterloo, which also extended to Skelhorne Street at peak times, whilst remaining S2 carried on with its’ all day 30-minute frequency. 92 was slightly shortened to begin from Crosby bus station, Hall Road Station’s needs were met by new service L21 (replacing L47/48) to Bootle via Victoria Road and College Road (replacing journeys on L1/L2), with enhanced local journeys in the peaks terminating at Waterloo Interchange. Local Crosby circular route C2 was replaced by C3/C4 which carried some characteristics of the former. Only 29 / 30C and long distance Ribble X27/X37 services remained unchanged. Aside from PTE-operated 30C/92, the entire network was operated by Ribble. Local Ribble buses now displayed the PTE “69” emblem alongside their own. The Executive also provided Ribble with “Ultimate” ticket machines complete with PTE-printed ticketing – as used by the Executive’s Liverpool area buses, as opposed to the “Setright Bell Punch” machines used on the vast majority of Ribble’s operations.

Whilst the PTE expected some problems with the public disquiet at the withdrawal of more direct buses to the city, the Executive persevered until the rail link to Liverpool Central was opened in May 1977. Exchange was replaced by a nearby station at Moorfields.

In October 1978, further changes were made to the Crosby services. C3/C4/L45/L85 were replaced by a reintroduced C2 and L81 which operated a tandem 15-minute daytime frequency between Thornton and Waterloo, with C2 returning to Crosby, and L81 carrying on to Skelhorne Street via Marsh Lane and Pier Head replacing most journeys on L35 which was reduced to a peak-time only operation. The troubled L22/L23 routes were introduced again, at the expense of 29 and 30C, and ran from Crosby bus station via Waterloo Interchange as a circular and onwards to Fazakerley (L22) and Walton (L23). But the biggest change of all was the withdrawal of S2 Southport – Skelhorne Street, replaced by a new, albeit truncated, S5 Freshfield Station – Skelhorne Street, and along with an extended S4 provided an all-day 30 minute frequency between Freshfield and the city centre. The popularity of the improved Southport – Liverpool train service made S2 redundant, yet the similar limited stop two-hourly X27, which served far beyond the Merseyside boundary, remained, and peak-hour X37 was withdrawn. In early 1979, both 211 and 351 were extended from Bootle to Skelhorne Street. In 1980, 92 was extended from Huyton on alternate journeys to Halewood, becoming the PTE’s longest route with a running time of two and a half hours linking both the north and south of the city.