I was able to get another trip out last Thursday the weather forecast for the North West was for a glorious day, as indeed it was, and there were no other constraints at home or work. The majority was on Arriva buses so I have posted this here.
So 7am saw me parking up in St Helens with sunrise a few minutes later as I explored this town which I had not visited before. There is a big old fashioned kiln structure by the glass museum and some good municipal buildings worth seeing. My first bus was Arriva 352 to Wigan. To my surprise this was an E400, I was expecting the route to be 100% Pulsar. In fact I was surprised to see some deckers elsewhere on unexpected routes in the area, a couple on the 320 and one on the 31. Quite a busy run to Wigan with a number of school children but it did not justify the capacity of a decker. At Wigan the E400 went off to Skelmersdale as a 395 while I briefly explored the town centre. There is a really cute street just above the central square which leads to an attractive open square by the college there. After a short break it was on another Arriva bus, the 362 to Chorley. This was from a different division as the 362 is worked effectively as a through service with the 575 from Bolton using Sapphire liveried Pulsars highlighting both routes. No chance of a decker here if it wanted to get to Chorley intact with a 13 foot bridge en route. Not a great deal to see at Chorley unless I’ve missed something, but not unpleasant.
The next leg of my trip was the Stagecoach 125 to Preston, still very much a ‘Gold’ service with the vast majority of the buses, all Scania E400s, in gold colours. I had already done the southern half of the route to Bolton and now saw the northern half. It isn’t easy to keep a service this frequent (currently every 12 minutes, ‘normally’ every 10) from bunching except by having long pauses to keep to time – otherwise one bus getting slightly late gets further and further behind as it takes more passengers until it is caught be another one - but the 125 seemed to manage pretty well. Reasonably good load with passengers getting on and off. The route included Clayton Brook, which seemed quite nice, and the Walton Summit industrial area. The approach to Preston was quite busy but we arrived on time at the iconic bus station. Only half of this is now in use but it provides sufficient capacity, although pretty busy. The centre of Preston also has some decent municipal buildings and has a good open feel and I had half an hour to top up on provisions and walk around.
The next leg was to Ormskirk on the Stagecoach 2A but the timings worked to break the journey at Tarleton by taking a 2 there for half an hour. Stagecoach’s website said that ‘until further notice’ the 2A did not serve Tarleton but it was clear from BusTimes that this was long out of date and it did go round the village loop. Care needed as the 2A leaves from across the road from where I got off the 2 and the 2A goes round the village the same way in both directions. In the meantime I wandered down to the canal and river which was a scenic point although now overlooked by new housing. On from Tarleton to Ormskirk via some pretty quiet countryside. Burscough Bridge looked a really pleasant spot, again with a canal presence. Both the 2 and 2A were Scania/E400s but there was a wider variety of colours here including a yellow one – what is the point of this?
I had been through Ormskirk before on the 375/385 but not stopped off and you don’t see much here without stopping off. Actually you don’t see much if you do stop off. It was market day and very busy in the middle while the town suffers from a busy through road and congestion. It could do with an east-west bypass. From Ormskirk it was back to Arriva and a Pulsar on the 310 to Liverpool. This went through a few suburbs and then to Maghull. There are two routes through Maghull, the 300 and 310, and if they had run 15 minutes apart I might have stopped off at Maghull for 15 minutes as again there is a canal passing through. But they don’t, they run a couple of minutes apart – in both directions. But when I looked more deeply it is worse than this. The 310 is a straight 30 minute headway service throughout the inter-peak period. The 300, on the other hand, has, roughly, four gaps of 30 minutes, then one of 35, then one of 40, then back to the four gaps of 30 minutes. This is because the round trip, including stand time, is 3hrs 15 minutes but Arriva only put out 6 buses, so an even 30 minute frequency can’t be done. It could be every 32.5 minutes but that would probably be even worse. In the morning these work OK combining with the 310 but by the afternoon they run at the same times. Ludicrous! The 300 is from Southport and is run by Southport depot, but runs via Bootle. The 310 runs from Bootle depot, but doesn’t go via Bootle. Seems odd! And so at an obscure layby near Aintree racecourse we pulled in behind a white van and carried out a driver change. As the Scotland Road gets further into Liverpool there are quite a few empty spaces that could still be bomb sites and demolished buildings; presumably these are redevelopment opportunities for the next few years but still seem some way away. This area contrasts with a similar distance south of the city centre, such as Toxteth, which retains some Georgian buildings and has been substantially regenerated after riots of 40 years ago.
I love Liverpool city centre and had two targets for this visit, the area around St Georges Hall and Lime Street Station, close to Queen Square, and Exchange Flags, some way down Dale Street. I looked around the St Georges Hall area for a bit, including the Hillsborough Monument Memorial – I was actually on a bus trip in Liverpool the day of the tragedy but knew nothing about it until much later. I also went just as far as the London Road, good buildings around here but there was a lot of preparation going on for a forthcoming event. I then returned to Queen Square bus station where it was apparent there was a problem as nothing was leaving into the city centre. Further on the lights were going green and red but nothing was moving. At the lights, just round the corner in Victoria Street, was the reason – Volvo B5LH cross-river hybrid 4534 diagonally across the road with no gears. Small vehicles could squeeze past mainly on the pavement but large vehicles could not and so the whole area had ground to a halt. For about 5 minutes various drivers and hi-vis jacketed staff attempted to move it without success. I didn’t want to waste time watching nothing happening so I continued my brief look round the city centre and went down to the town hall and Exchange Flags area. By the time I returned 4534 had gone and I see it appeared to have returned to service by about 4.30.
Inevitably when I returned to Queen Square for my last leg there were long queues as the city centre had been in chaos for around 20 minutes and the 10A, which is one of very few routes which goes through Queen Square and on to the One Bus Station, was badly affected. I got an Arriva 10A back to St Helens, an E400, which turned up at about the time I had intended to leave but was actually one earlier journey. The previous Stagecoach trip had not turned up (in fact it had by-passed Queen Square, perhaps a good idea) and this one was already 14 minutes late and followed immediately by another Stagecoach one. From this trip it certainly looked like the 10A was excellent bus territory, although the gap in front of us has to be factored in. Plenty of people boarding in the city centre and a constant stream of passengers boarding and alighting all the way along the route. Inevitably we were bunched up with two Arriva and two Stagecoach buses all within 5 minutes by the time we got to St Helens – it should be every 15 minutes by each operator. By the time we arrived at St Helens we were 22 minutes late. As well as these four there was then a Pulsar which had been sent out to cover part of a later journey but it would have been much better off covering a bit less of the route but 5-10 minutes in front of us rather than behind the other four. Watching buses in the other direction there was a steady stream of buses, mostly with a decent number of passengers, but there were some gaps, my perception was particularly Stagecoach journeys missing. The end result is that it was not a fair journey on which to reflect whether the two operators running every 15 minutes each, properly spaced, in co-operation but competition, actually works here. Maybe I will try again later, perhaps when they both have hydrogen buses! I should have got off at Prescot as this looked quite attractive in the town centre but I did want to get back to St Helens for a short walk around at dusk. And then by around 5pm I was heading home after a great day out.
No impact on me from staff shortages or missing journeys as everything ran and I didn’t see any evidence of Arriva missing any journeys at all, nor Stagecoach in Preston but I’m not so sure about in Liverpool. Apart from the delays in Liverpool outside of their control (ish) then no problems with timekeeping either. I made the most of the daylight being in St Helens at both dawn and dusk and thoroughly enjoyed my interesting day.
A few pictures:
St Helens at dawn Wigan Chorley
Preston Tarleton Ormskirk
Hillsborough Monument St Georges Hall Arriva 4534
Exchange Flags Lime Street St Helens at dusk
So 7am saw me parking up in St Helens with sunrise a few minutes later as I explored this town which I had not visited before. There is a big old fashioned kiln structure by the glass museum and some good municipal buildings worth seeing. My first bus was Arriva 352 to Wigan. To my surprise this was an E400, I was expecting the route to be 100% Pulsar. In fact I was surprised to see some deckers elsewhere on unexpected routes in the area, a couple on the 320 and one on the 31. Quite a busy run to Wigan with a number of school children but it did not justify the capacity of a decker. At Wigan the E400 went off to Skelmersdale as a 395 while I briefly explored the town centre. There is a really cute street just above the central square which leads to an attractive open square by the college there. After a short break it was on another Arriva bus, the 362 to Chorley. This was from a different division as the 362 is worked effectively as a through service with the 575 from Bolton using Sapphire liveried Pulsars highlighting both routes. No chance of a decker here if it wanted to get to Chorley intact with a 13 foot bridge en route. Not a great deal to see at Chorley unless I’ve missed something, but not unpleasant.
The next leg of my trip was the Stagecoach 125 to Preston, still very much a ‘Gold’ service with the vast majority of the buses, all Scania E400s, in gold colours. I had already done the southern half of the route to Bolton and now saw the northern half. It isn’t easy to keep a service this frequent (currently every 12 minutes, ‘normally’ every 10) from bunching except by having long pauses to keep to time – otherwise one bus getting slightly late gets further and further behind as it takes more passengers until it is caught be another one - but the 125 seemed to manage pretty well. Reasonably good load with passengers getting on and off. The route included Clayton Brook, which seemed quite nice, and the Walton Summit industrial area. The approach to Preston was quite busy but we arrived on time at the iconic bus station. Only half of this is now in use but it provides sufficient capacity, although pretty busy. The centre of Preston also has some decent municipal buildings and has a good open feel and I had half an hour to top up on provisions and walk around.
The next leg was to Ormskirk on the Stagecoach 2A but the timings worked to break the journey at Tarleton by taking a 2 there for half an hour. Stagecoach’s website said that ‘until further notice’ the 2A did not serve Tarleton but it was clear from BusTimes that this was long out of date and it did go round the village loop. Care needed as the 2A leaves from across the road from where I got off the 2 and the 2A goes round the village the same way in both directions. In the meantime I wandered down to the canal and river which was a scenic point although now overlooked by new housing. On from Tarleton to Ormskirk via some pretty quiet countryside. Burscough Bridge looked a really pleasant spot, again with a canal presence. Both the 2 and 2A were Scania/E400s but there was a wider variety of colours here including a yellow one – what is the point of this?
I had been through Ormskirk before on the 375/385 but not stopped off and you don’t see much here without stopping off. Actually you don’t see much if you do stop off. It was market day and very busy in the middle while the town suffers from a busy through road and congestion. It could do with an east-west bypass. From Ormskirk it was back to Arriva and a Pulsar on the 310 to Liverpool. This went through a few suburbs and then to Maghull. There are two routes through Maghull, the 300 and 310, and if they had run 15 minutes apart I might have stopped off at Maghull for 15 minutes as again there is a canal passing through. But they don’t, they run a couple of minutes apart – in both directions. But when I looked more deeply it is worse than this. The 310 is a straight 30 minute headway service throughout the inter-peak period. The 300, on the other hand, has, roughly, four gaps of 30 minutes, then one of 35, then one of 40, then back to the four gaps of 30 minutes. This is because the round trip, including stand time, is 3hrs 15 minutes but Arriva only put out 6 buses, so an even 30 minute frequency can’t be done. It could be every 32.5 minutes but that would probably be even worse. In the morning these work OK combining with the 310 but by the afternoon they run at the same times. Ludicrous! The 300 is from Southport and is run by Southport depot, but runs via Bootle. The 310 runs from Bootle depot, but doesn’t go via Bootle. Seems odd! And so at an obscure layby near Aintree racecourse we pulled in behind a white van and carried out a driver change. As the Scotland Road gets further into Liverpool there are quite a few empty spaces that could still be bomb sites and demolished buildings; presumably these are redevelopment opportunities for the next few years but still seem some way away. This area contrasts with a similar distance south of the city centre, such as Toxteth, which retains some Georgian buildings and has been substantially regenerated after riots of 40 years ago.
I love Liverpool city centre and had two targets for this visit, the area around St Georges Hall and Lime Street Station, close to Queen Square, and Exchange Flags, some way down Dale Street. I looked around the St Georges Hall area for a bit, including the Hillsborough Monument Memorial – I was actually on a bus trip in Liverpool the day of the tragedy but knew nothing about it until much later. I also went just as far as the London Road, good buildings around here but there was a lot of preparation going on for a forthcoming event. I then returned to Queen Square bus station where it was apparent there was a problem as nothing was leaving into the city centre. Further on the lights were going green and red but nothing was moving. At the lights, just round the corner in Victoria Street, was the reason – Volvo B5LH cross-river hybrid 4534 diagonally across the road with no gears. Small vehicles could squeeze past mainly on the pavement but large vehicles could not and so the whole area had ground to a halt. For about 5 minutes various drivers and hi-vis jacketed staff attempted to move it without success. I didn’t want to waste time watching nothing happening so I continued my brief look round the city centre and went down to the town hall and Exchange Flags area. By the time I returned 4534 had gone and I see it appeared to have returned to service by about 4.30.
Inevitably when I returned to Queen Square for my last leg there were long queues as the city centre had been in chaos for around 20 minutes and the 10A, which is one of very few routes which goes through Queen Square and on to the One Bus Station, was badly affected. I got an Arriva 10A back to St Helens, an E400, which turned up at about the time I had intended to leave but was actually one earlier journey. The previous Stagecoach trip had not turned up (in fact it had by-passed Queen Square, perhaps a good idea) and this one was already 14 minutes late and followed immediately by another Stagecoach one. From this trip it certainly looked like the 10A was excellent bus territory, although the gap in front of us has to be factored in. Plenty of people boarding in the city centre and a constant stream of passengers boarding and alighting all the way along the route. Inevitably we were bunched up with two Arriva and two Stagecoach buses all within 5 minutes by the time we got to St Helens – it should be every 15 minutes by each operator. By the time we arrived at St Helens we were 22 minutes late. As well as these four there was then a Pulsar which had been sent out to cover part of a later journey but it would have been much better off covering a bit less of the route but 5-10 minutes in front of us rather than behind the other four. Watching buses in the other direction there was a steady stream of buses, mostly with a decent number of passengers, but there were some gaps, my perception was particularly Stagecoach journeys missing. The end result is that it was not a fair journey on which to reflect whether the two operators running every 15 minutes each, properly spaced, in co-operation but competition, actually works here. Maybe I will try again later, perhaps when they both have hydrogen buses! I should have got off at Prescot as this looked quite attractive in the town centre but I did want to get back to St Helens for a short walk around at dusk. And then by around 5pm I was heading home after a great day out.
No impact on me from staff shortages or missing journeys as everything ran and I didn’t see any evidence of Arriva missing any journeys at all, nor Stagecoach in Preston but I’m not so sure about in Liverpool. Apart from the delays in Liverpool outside of their control (ish) then no problems with timekeeping either. I made the most of the daylight being in St Helens at both dawn and dusk and thoroughly enjoyed my interesting day.
A few pictures:
St Helens at dawn Wigan Chorley
Preston Tarleton Ormskirk
Hillsborough Monument St Georges Hall Arriva 4534
Exchange Flags Lime Street St Helens at dusk
