Arriva North West - Speke Depot

[Liamkennedy2231]

RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot

(24/10/2020 07:58)iMarkeh Wrote:  Selwyns may be able to do the same as GoAhead are doing, using excess NatEx drivers. Selwyns seem to have plenty of deckers as well. Between the depots, i'm sure they will find 3 buses.

Just putting it out there but would it not be easier to divert the 82A via Brunswick and then there is no issue with the 500. It would save Merseytravel a bit of money and keep buses and drivers for routes which may actually need it rather than maintaining a high number of buses in an already overbussed area. If there become more shortages, these 3 buses would be much better in other areas since the loss of service would be detrimental to the areas served.

I did ask Arriva why they decided to operate the route via Park Road instead of Brunswick and their response was that it wasn’t viable. I also made the suggestion that Park Road is already well served and if anyone wanted a Halton service, they could get the X1 or they could get the 82 and connect with the 82A when it joins back onto Aigburth Road. I really do fail to see how operating it via Park Road will make things better, as it’s now longer, less reliable and probably provides no benefit to the Park Road area.

To keep with the topic though, I’m sure in the past Merseytravel funded the Brunswick section of the route, and since the 500 is now a Merseytravel contract, I think it would’ve been easier and cheaper to divert the 82A via Brunswick and suspend the 500.

Then again Arriva will still be funding the route, the reason it’s a Merseytravel contract is probably that they can source a good operator to run it. Due to this, it will still be under Arriva instruction and finance, so I don’t think they’d be willing to do that