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There is a reason why some journeys missed intermediate stops , its called the headline time from end to end , these days NX is in competition with the railway on some main flows , even stopping at a few locations will slow the journey down .

With the advent of Advanced fares on the trains the price of those tickets puts the ticket prices close to NX's cheapest fares.

(09/02/2016 21:40)Enviro400 Wrote: [ -> ]That, and why would Liverpool ONE be farcical to anybody other than some het up local. I know if I had paid to get a coach to Liverpool and had to endure a full journey, the last thing I'd want is to unload my luggage and board a train for a couple of stops, even if I did think L1 was a farce!

Public transport should be convenient for the passenger. Stopping 6 miles short of a destination is not convenient as far as I'm concerned.

Reading this thread people have written about the `unsuitable` Liverpool One, if you were coming to the city from elsewhere what is unsuitable about a bus station bang in the centre, as opposed to Norton Street which is on the outskirts of the centre anyway and in a far from good first impression to a visitor, given the state of London Road.

Liverpool doesn`t have enough National Express departures now to justify a dedicated coach station like Norton Street and i`m sure the value of the land far outweighed keeping it open fpr National Express.

I don`t see any new coach station ever being built in the city, and as for South Parkway most coaches come in off the M62 so that`s not going to be served either.

A much better location for the National Express Stop would be the downward (Liverpool Bound ) stop at Queen Square Bus Station .

Is it little wonder that people turn there back on public transport as one by one old bus stations where sold off for redevelopment , remember back in 1986 when the unions where talking of asset strippers come in for the land the buses really just being the secondary commodity.

LSP could easily be served from the M62 via Knowsley Expressway and the A562 , it wouldn't be viable for all departures and arrivals , this could all change if NX was to win any rail franchises through LSP in the future.

While I do agree that it would be much nicer if coaches were to stop en route, there are other reasons for not doing this, e.g. the flexibility to change the route at any time, say due to traffic conditions, and also not having to stop on the outskirts of the city when running early.

(14/02/2016 12:43)wirralbus Wrote: [ -> ]LSP could easily be served from the M62 via Knowsley Expressway and the A562 , it wouldn't be viable for all departures and arrivals , this could all change if NX was to win any rail franchises through LSP in the future.

Looking at it road wise LSP could provide a stop for ALL National Express journeys. It is very close to the A561 and A562 which are connected to the City Centre, M57 and M62 so it would just be a matter of which way the coach came into Liverpool if LSP was added before or after Liverpool One. Two journey examples below:

060/061: After leaving Manchester the coach stops at Liverpool One before heading along Wapping and the A561 to LSP, after picking passengers up at LSP it then travels along the A561/A562 before joining the Knowsley Expressway to get to the M62 to travel to Manchester and Leeds.

304: Starting the journey at LSP and travel along A561 and Wapping to stop at Liverpool One before continuing to Birkenhead onwards.

After discussing this with friends who live in St Helens and Runcorn they also agree that LSP would be perfect for National Express as they could jump off their train and onto a National Express coach in the SAME building instead of now having to either carry luggage from Lime Street station through a busy city centre to Liverpool One or paying for a taxi.

National Express would gain a vast number of new passengers from the likes of St Helens, Warrington, Widnes, Runcorn, Crewe and also the South Liverpool area if they were based in or even just stopped at Liverpool South Parkway.

(14/02/2016 21:37)Dentonian Wrote: [ -> ]Depends which stops. There is no way of avoiding two of the four ditched stops (Belle Vue and Reddish Bridge), without going many miles off route, and as I say the timing on the stretch between Manchester and Hollingworth is ridiculously tight, so there would be no chance of running early. Does that even apply in practice, anyway? I do recall one trip last year when a coach I was on (from Leeds iirc) arrived in Chorlton Street eight minutes early.

Maybe you can depart early if you have no passengers to pick up, but it wouldn't be right to do that if you had to pick up passengers, and coach drivers often don't know whether they need to or not due to last minute tickets being bought on the internet.

Its a matter of how long the NX buses would take to clear the suburbs of Liverpool . Going out of Liverpool at the moment is fraught with roadworks on the M62 corridor , probably will be quicker once the associated hell hole roadworks by the Royal Liverpool Hospital are completed whenever that will be .

I hate the idea of NEX going to LSP, & would inconvenience a lot of passengers, including myself who would have 2 changes of train rather than 1, Liverpool One isn't perfect but at least it's central to everything.

I see the routes are as normal to Norton Street, then Hunter Street-Byrom Street-Leeds Street-King Edward Street-New Quay-Georges Dock Gates-The Strand/Goree-Sefton Street to Liverpool One, timetable looks tight gives coaches 10 minutes journey time, which is doable if all the lights are on Green, which won't be the case.

(15/02/2016 08:46)Dentonian Wrote: [ -> ]Not sure how this would work, partly because I haven't got a map in front of me.

1. Where do M'cr/Leeds bound passengers board the 060/061? If still Liverpool One then stand time (including a buffer for delays) will still be needed. So, it wouldn't solve the problem

2. How much longer would the coach take from Liverpool One (via LSP?) to reach Manchester by using the described route?

Another possibilty then is for National Express to relocate from Liverpool One to the bus stops on Mann Island and use LSP for their main hub. An agent could be based in the Travel Centre at Queen Square or Liverpool One for tickets.

Mann Island/Liverpool One to LSP is approx a 25 min drive then LSP to Manchester Coach Station is approx 1h5m so doing that way only adds an extra 25 minutes to the journey.

Mann Island/Liverpool One would not be classed as main stops and will only be used for the "convenience" of those passengers NOT wanting to use LSP. @MTL0201 LSP may be an inconvenience for you but as I previously mentioned it would be a massive bonus to people that are not based in or near Liverpool City Centre, I mean would you not like to get off a train and on a coach without having to leave the building???.

Time is money, doubt national express would want to add needless time to a journey just to serve somewhere most probably wouldn't use. As for the Mann Island idea, well Fat Joe is already trying to remove a lot of buses from that area so that would also apply to coaches.