Ribble

[teenagewasteland]

RE: Ribble
Ribble on Merseyside is a story within itself.

Between 1930 and 1972, the company had operating agreements / joint working arrangements with various municipals in the area. In January 1972, Ribble signed an agreement with Merseyside PTE which gave the Executive control over all the company's bus services, and instead guaranteed Ribble a percentage of total bus mileage within the PTE area.

It wasn't until 1975 that the effects of this began to bear fruit, when the PTE cut back large tracts of Ribble dominated territory - Ormskirk Road, Maghull and, in particular, Crosby / Waterloo.

Due to the Executive pursuing a pro-rail policy at the expense of buses, Ribble's operations were severely curtailed on north Merseyside, where their buses had previously competed with the fast trains in and out of Liverpool. The Waterloo Interchange, opened by the PTE in January 1977, was the largest of its kind on Merseyside, where the remaining local Ribble buses were diverted to connect with the trains at Waterloo for Liverpool Exchange (soon to be extended to Liverpool Central in May 1977).

There was a general feeling that Ribble's Bootle depot was more answerable to Hatton Garden than Frenchwood Avenue. The PTE loaned the company Ultimate ticket machines for use on local services, and the PTE logo was displayed alongside the Ribble / NBC logos on the side of local vehicles (ditto Crosville).

In the run-up to dereg, Ribble was split up into what the NBC deemed more managable units - the Merseyside operation became North Western in September 1986.

Sorry if this post sounds like a rip-off from Bruce Maund's book, but he was mostly correct in what he said. Roger Davies' book about his time with Ribble under PTE control on Merseyside is a lot more scathing, and criticises Ribble for jumping so high everytime the PTE told them to.