Route History

[Bevan Price]

RE: Route History
Back to Warrington - Southport, this time "Revised Service commencing Saturday 24th June 1933", jointly operated by Ribble, St. Helens Corportation and LUT. Route numbers 22, 23 and 23a, but there was nothing in this timetable to identify which routes they followed.

The basic service can be summarised:
Warrington to Southport every 2 hours (hourly on Saturdays + Su afternoons, 08:20 to 20:20), plus a 21:20 (SSuO) to Ormskirk.
St. Helens to Southport (including Warrington journeys) - hourly.
These mostly ran alternately via Barrow Nook or via Bickerstaffe Lane Ends.
Only single deckers could be used, due to the low bridge near Rainford (Wheatsheaf) - the Rainford By-Pass was not opened until the late 1940s or early 1950s.

Plus:
St. Helens to Rainford (Wheatsheaf). Hourly, SSuO, 12:15 until 22:15.
St. Helens - Ormskirk. Hourly, SO, 14:29 to 19:29, then 20:40, 21:29, 22:40(NSu)
Plus a handful of early morning short workings between St. Helens & Rainford.

Similar frequencies applied in the opposite direction. First departurs from Southport were 09:18 (NSu) or 11:18; last departures were 21:35 to Warrington and 22:28 to St. Helens.

The route between Warrington & Burtonwood differed from the current 329 route; I think it used a road that was closed in the early 1950s when Burtonwood Airport was extended; also, the bridge over the railway near Winwick Junction was only built in the 1950s.