From September the 79 is revised with 79D no longer serving Dale St or L Onea and renumbered 79Q.
79s outbound alternate now via Hanover st or from Queen Square. All journeys are extended to Halewood as well and Mon-Fri now every 6 mins.
79c now every 20 mins and via London Road and extended to murdishaw
I am a firm believer in the old adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it" and looking at the new 500 route and timetable, it is apparent that common sense has prevailed. On the occasions I used or observed the current 500 service it was obvious that using single-deckers on a stopping service to the airport satisfied no-one. Now that double-deckers are once more to be used that should ease the capacity issues that have plagued the service at certain times and I am really pleased to see that the outbound service from L1 will run via Hanover Street, Renshaw Street and Great George Street as this makes a lot of sense.
Hopefully, when this pandemic is over and flights get back to normal these changes will prove successful.
(21/08/2020 13:09)mr t Wrote: [ -> ]From September the 79 is revised with 79D no longer serving Dale St or L Onea and renumbered 79Q.
79s outbound alternate now via Hanover st or from Queen Square. All journeys are extended to Halewood as well and Mon-Fri now every 6 mins.
79c now every 20 mins and via London Road and extended to murdishaw
Will services be displayed as 79Q or is this just an internal code for operational purposes?
Looking on the Timetable on the Merseytravel website 79Q will designate the Queen Square journeys and be displayed in the normal way.
I think these 79 changes have the ability to be quite good for passengers. Lowering the journey time for passengers who board at Liverpool One, having less buses going through the city partially empty (in some cases) and hopefully improvements to puncuality.
I think the only thing that I would perhaps change is look at extending some peak trips to Lord Street or somewhere around there so people aren't too inconvenienced was they won't be happy walking to L1 or QS to catch the 79.
(16/08/2020 20:01)motormayhem1 Wrote: [ -> ]The same geminis will be used again but refreshed with branding for the 500.
Good idea, but I wonder whether they will receive the new branding prior to August 30th or intermittently over the next few months.
(22/08/2020 11:38)Metroline1511 Wrote: [ -> ]Good idea, but I wonder whether they will receive the new branding prior to August 30th or intermittently over the next few months.
Apparently 4477 (MX61 ALU) has already received the refurb at St Helens awaiting further modifications.
2 have full new branding applied 4477 and 4478 while the other 4444 is awaiting the rebrand.
It looks like 19 buses will be required for the 79 and 79Q route from 30th August. Added to the 500's PVR of 3, that would give Speke an overall PVR drop of 1 bus compared with the current 79/79D and 79C requirements of 15 and 8 respectively.
With single deckers to be used on the 79C once it returns to Runcorn, now would be the time to get rid of the remaining single deckers at Speke and guarantee deckers on all 79/79Q journeys. If the Commanders again become regular fare on this corridor, I can see a lot of buses running full in this time of social distancing.
(21/08/2020 20:00)Barney Wrote: [ -> ]I am a firm believer in the old adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it" and looking at the new 500 route and timetable, it is apparent that common sense has prevailed. On the occasions I used or observed the current 500 service it was obvious that using single-deckers on a stopping service to the airport satisfied no-one. Now that double-deckers are once more to be used that should ease the capacity issues that have plagued the service at certain times and I am really pleased to see that the outbound service from L1 will run via Hanover Street, Renshaw Street and Great George Street as this makes a lot of sense.
Hopefully, when this pandemic is over and flights get back to normal these changes will prove successful.
Agree, i used to catch the old 500 many times from the Airport, & 82A could often be running late sometimes 10-15 minutes late, the 500 was more reliable. Also there could be quite often a load of passengers waiting at L1 for the 500 to the Airport, add that with regular passengers wanting the 500 & only single deck buses allocated is a recipe for a nightmare