Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

[Barney]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

(11/04/2015 11:16)YJ59 AZA Wrote:  To be honest, I thought that they were still numbered 155! There are notices up on buses that the fares won't be subsidised from the 19th.

I think that some of the Sunday morning 55 journeys (perhaps 05:52 until 08:22 journeys off Old Roan) should be renumbered 55A and they should do a loop to Glovers Lane and back after Almonds Turn, at least going towards Liverpool (where they get 10+ minutes of lay-over anyway). There's no buses around my area to Liverpool (apart from the 130, which goes in the opposite direction to most Liverpool-bound buses so doesn't stop at the main stop) until 09:01 (52A). On bank holidays especially, there can be people waiting at the main stop at 07:00-07:30 not knowing that there won't be a bus for another hour or so!

That is the route that the evening and Sunday 55 service followed until somebody at Arriva realised that there was a demand for the 52/52A evenings and Sundays and I too have seen potential passengers at bus stops along this route waiting in vain. Until the recent withdrawal of the 53A, the first bus from Aintree Station on a Sunday was 06.15. This covered Park Lane, Park Lane West, Glovers Lane and Fleetwoods lane but now the first (replacement) 63 is 10.08. That's almost four hours later. In the unlikely event that Arriva does tweek the early 55 route, I doubt that they would add a suffix 'A' as Arriva seems to have a total aversion to such things as that may well inform the passengers as to what route the bus will take.

As regards the Merseytravel 130, that is being replaced next week with an hourly 30 service. Crazy!