I came to Liverpool today for a Kirkby & Heswall trip. I was pleased to ride Trident 17269 as, unlike ex-London ones in Stockport, it had been refurbished with light orange grabrails. I shall combine a newer Enviro300 with Arriva buses in Liverpool next time I come.
I had planned to ride route X3, but as it duplicates route 19 for a fair stretch I lost interest. This may have been covered here before, but despite Flickr suggesting route X3 used Darts, I only saw MAN-Enviro300s on it today.
I have been very surprised that Stagecoach , until recent takeover of First Chester and Wirral, haven't made any expansion moves in Merseyside when you look what has happened in Manchester. You would have thought that some expansion and consolidation on the Liverpool side would have taken place by now. It is strange how independents thrive in Merseyside but now with demise of JPT there is hardly any independent presence in Manchester. Mind you same in West Yorkshire also where virtual First monopoly - very dull.
(04/05/2014 08:41)rod_259 Wrote: [ -> ]I have been very surprised that Stagecoach , until recent takeover of First Chester and Wirral, haven't made any expansion moves in Merseyside when you look what has happened in Manchester. You would have thought that some expansion and consolidation on the Liverpool side would have taken place by now. It is strange how independents thrive in Merseyside but now with demise of JPT there is hardly any independent presence in Manchester. Mind you same in West Yorkshire also where virtual First monopoly - very dull.
It will happen its just a matter of which ones they can pick off , without incurring the wrath of the authorities too much.
There is probably three one Merseyside that may be worth picking off, although not entirely sure that one of them would really be worth it. We know which three they are so I'm not really going to name them.
(04/05/2014 16:26)MPTE1955 Wrote: [ -> ]There is probably three one Merseyside that may be worth picking off, although not entirely sure that one of them would really be worth it. We know which three they are so I'm not really going to name them.
I can think of 4! These are Cumfybus, HTL, Peoplesbus and Avon, but the latter is more a Wirral operator. I realise that since the Competition Commission report in 2012 and recent investigations, attempts at greater domination are less worth the effort. Also, although Stagecoach "compete" with Arriva, most of their head-on competition is no longer really true competition due to the Quality Bus Contracts.
(04/05/2014 21:36)Metroline1511 Wrote: [ -> ]I can think of 4! These are Cumfybus, HTL, Peoplesbus and Avon, but the latter is more a Wirral operator. I realise that since the Competition Commission report in 2012 and recent investigations, attempts at greater domination are less worth the effort. Also, although Stagecoach "compete" with Arriva, most of their head-on competition is no longer really true competition due to the Quality Bus Contracts.
I`d add Ace Travel to that list as well,then theres always Halton Transport or Network Warrington
It did look odd having route 19 operated by a mix of Tridents and Darts yesterday. I therefore reckoned that it could go over to all-Enviro300 later this year. Mind you, as the Tridents have had a good refurbishment I reckon they will stay at GM, maybe to top up routes 82 and 86 as Arriva use are double-deckers here.
I don't really think Ace, Peoplesbus or HTL would be worth the effort, I hadn't even considered Ace or Peoplesbus, HTL is mostly contract work and Ace just don't have enough full stop. Cumfybus & Avon would probably be more worth it. As for Warrington & Halton, yes I could see the point in those and who knows one day the may get run by a larger company but doubt we will see that anytime soon but you never know.
It has already been known that Stagecoach has approaches Halton, Warrington and I believe Avon, neither wanting to sell up.
Stagecoach won't end up buying an independents in liverpool compared to Manchester as they only have 1 depot this side of the mersey, and it's main focus is on the East Liverpool corridor. The liverpool independents mainly operate contracted services with a low PVR and generally a 16-33 seater bus. For stagecoach to buy a company like HTL or Cumfybus, and then loose all their contracts would be pointless when you realise that HTL and Cumfy don't operate a huge monopoly of unsupported services, If you think about it, if they bought HTL and lost all the contracts, they'd only have the 258 and SOME of the Garston Circulars, PVR 5.
Unless one of the companies falls into major financial problems, it is not worth the buyout to operate services that could be easily lost.
HTL 159 is not funded by merseytravel anymore that another one