Fifteen years since the sale of MTL to Arriva

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Fifteen years since the sale of MTL to Arriva
Some interesting posts.

If MTL could have survived and not been sold on to Arriva or another big ‘group’ I reckon Arriva would’ve taken over CMT and maybe some of the smaller independents doing commercial work like Merseyline and LMS. It’s well known MTL tried to acquire Halton Transport in the mid 90’s so its possible they along with Chester CT/Preston/Warrington BT could’ve been purchased by MTL and allow better expansion opportunities than their ill-fated moves into Greater Manchester. I’m not so sure former independents like Liverbus and Village would’ve been kept on but I’m sure the bulk of their work (Liverbus particularly) would’ve been kept on with the main garages at Green Lane and Speke just like Gillmoss inherited all of the Fareway work in 1997. I also reckon that marginal but reasonably used services like the 11 and 91 in Liverpool for example would’ve continued and evening services in the Kirkby area would not be ever hour as they are now. Basically MTL and an enlarged Arriva would’ve been very similar to the Arriva/Stagecoach situation we have now. Not so sure MTL would’ve brought more double decks into Liverpool but some would’ve been needed and I think eventually we’d have had similar issues to overcrowding on the popular corridors in Liverpool – especially so if MTL stuck with Dart SLF’s for new purchases and Arriva went further into Mr BHind’s midibus policy too. Sooner or later MTL would’ve needed a major fleet replacement in the early 2000’s as by 1999 some of the MTL fleet was IMHO becoming very tired and long in the tooth. Whether that was due to the financial problems MTL had by then though is another matter.

It may have been interesting to see what would’ve happened if First, Go Ahead or Stagecoach had have taken over MTL. I reckon Arriva would’ve upped their presence in Liverpool and if First had have got MTL they’d have most likely would’ve had to divest their Wirral and Chester operations. Go Ahead would have been interesting too and we may have seen the ex-MTL operations becoming very similar to the brand-led operations of Go North East in particular cross river and the popular Merseyside bus corridors.

I do feel though whichever of these ‘groups’ got their hands on MTL or if MTL themselves became a ‘plc’ some form rationalisation, (service cuts, job losses) would’ve been on the agenda.

Would things be better or worse now with MTL or someone other than Arriva/Stagecoach? I don’t know but I think some of the service cuts on Merseyside (not all Arriva’s fault) and the questionable switch to the overcrowded Dart sized vehicles in Liverpool were aspects of things I didn’t really like since the end of MTL.