I’d put forward the idea of the 217/193/3/3a/3b/3c since 2005 the following have operated the contracted versions of the Halewood to Huyton service following stagecoach shortening the 217 to terminate at Huyton
Arriva Speke and Huyton (192 eve/sun)
HTL (3/192)
GTL (192 morning)
Stagecoach (192 morning and new Sunday 217)
Selwyns (3/3a/3b)
Cumfybus (contract 193 which was commercialised and am journeys from Fazakerley)
Ace Travel (217 Huyton to Halewood then renumbered 193)
Good call there, a very recent change on that too has seen Stagecoach replace Arriva on the M-S Halewood trip(s) that Arriva had done since 192 days
Looking at the current 14A Tower Hill-City Centre, that was originally 15D, with an industrial 15 to Kirkby Admin, main difference to the 14A the 15/15D went via Townsend Avenue & East Lancs Road rather than through Croxteth, the 15D became 155 in the Kirkby renumbering scheme, 15 & 155 were withdrawn at d-reg, replaced by extending the 14 to Tower Hill.
The 15 reappeared in the late 80s, think more as a response to Fareway F4/F5, with the 14 cut back to Croxteth, 15 was withdrawn summer 91, leaving just the F4/F5, mid 90s MTL bought Fareway & dropped F series numbers to become 4 & 5, Stagecoach renumbered them to 14A
Does anyone remember Amberline, small independent who branched out into bus services after d-reg, purchased by National Express who owned Crosville Wales, so Amberline became part of Crosville Wales in similar livery but with the Liverbird instead of the Welsh Dragon, National Express sold Crosville Wales including Amberline to Drawline group who owned North Western Road Car Company, so Amberline became part of North Western, the Amberline route i remember was, A1 Liverpool-Warrington via Speke-Widnes, similar to the old Crosville H1
(18/03/2020 00:59)MTL0201 Wrote: [ -> ]Does anyone remember Amberline, small independent who branched out into bus services after d-reg, purchased by National Express who owned Crosville Wales, so Amberline became part of Crosville Wales in similar livery but with the Liverbird instead of the Welsh Dragon, National Express sold Crosville Wales including Amberline to Drawline group who owned North Western Road Car Company, so Amberline became part of North Western, the Amberline route i remember was, A1 Liverpool-Warrington via Speke-Widnes, similar to the old Crosville H1
Yes, they had some rx Wmpte sheds, or fleetlines given their name. Sure they had a couple of ex Mpte Bkc-K atlanteans at first as well. Eventually taken over by North Western, there is a photo of one of the fleetlines in North Western livery knocking about including in s Barnsley scrap yard where it should have started.
Looking at old timetables from the PTE era, i'm puzzled why the laat 71 which was numbered 71E went from Kylemore Drive to Laird Street via Arrowe Park-Upton & Claughton, rather than just go via the normal 71 & terminate at Central Station, then run dead to Laird Street, quite a bizarre route when you think about it as there was no other direct services.
CROSBY BUS SERVICES 1975-1980
At the end of 1975, MPTE began a rationalisation of Crosby’s bus services in preparation for the improvements to the rail network. Some direct facilities between the town and city centre were withdrawn, but all restrictions that had existed between Ribble and Liverpool Corporation (and had carried on into PTE days) on the picking up and setting down of passengers in the city boundary were abolished and an attempt was made to stagger city-bound services on a 5-minute weekday frequency, with alternate buses running via either Seaforth Station or Seaforth Sands. The PTE introduced some new facilities in Ribble services L22/L23 which operated from Crosby bus station via Thornton, Netherton and Aintree to Fazakerley and Walton Hospitals. These services sparked off trouble with PTE drivers whose Unions claimed Ribble buses were taking work in traditional PTE-served areas. The Agreement that Ribble signed with the Executive meant that the bus company could theoretically be placed on any route in the Merseyside area, but several months later the services were withdrawn and replaced with a Ribble 29 Crosby-Fazakerley Hospital and PTE 30C Crosby-Walton Hospital - Pier Head.
During 1976, the work was begun on a bus roundabout adjacent to Waterloo station. Bus services that had previously ran direct on the main thoroughfare through Crosby and Waterloo were to be diverted via South Road into the bus station and back out again putting an average of five-minutes extra running time on a city-bound journey. Fares were set at an adult standard 6p throughout the Crosby area, but no through bus-rail ticketing would be as yet available.
The new network of services, centred on “Waterloo Interchange”, was introduced in January 1977, four months before the rail extension to Liverpool Central was completed. Most of new pattern was designed and timed to meet trains to and from Liverpool at Waterloo station. Many direct services to the city centre were completely withdrawn or curtailed to Bootle. The PTE initially proposed to do away with all the traditional Ribble “L” prefixed services and number the new network between 201-212. This did not happen, although 211 was used on a new hourly service from Bootle - Kirkby, alternate journeys on 351 Bootle-Ormskirk replaced 381/382. These routes served the busy Liverpool Road in Crosby, and were augumented in the peaks by L9 Crosby bus station – Waterloo Interchange. Ribble’s L5/L6/L15/L25/L80/L86 which served Thornton from the city centre were replaced with L45 Thornton-Skelhorne Street (evening and Sunday journeys terminated in Bootle) and existing L85 was revised to provide an all-day half-hourly service between Skelhorne Street and Thornton. L3 remained, serving the hectic Oxford Road area of Waterloo, along with curtailed L35, which lost its’ Thornton extension and was rerouted in Bootle via Marsh Lane (replacing L8), but still carried on to the city centre via Pier Head. The Southport - Liverpool services S1/S3 were withdrawn, replaced by a shortened S4 Freshfield-Waterloo, which also extended to Skelhorne Street at peak times, whilst remaining S2 carried on with its’ all day 30-minute frequency. 92 was slightly shortened to begin from Crosby bus station, Hall Road Station’s needs were met by new service L21 (replacing L47/48) to Bootle via Victoria Road and College Road (replacing journeys on L1/L2), with enhanced local journeys in the peaks terminating at Waterloo Interchange. Local Crosby circular route C2 was replaced by C3/C4 which carried some characteristics of the former. Only 29 / 30C and long distance Ribble X27/X37 services remained unchanged. Aside from PTE-operated 30C/92, the entire network was operated by Ribble. Local Ribble buses now displayed the PTE “69” emblem alongside their own. The Executive also provided Ribble with “Ultimate” ticket machines complete with PTE-printed ticketing – as used by the Executive’s Liverpool area buses, as opposed to the “Setright Bell Punch” machines used on the vast majority of Ribble’s operations.
Whilst the PTE expected some problems with the public disquiet at the withdrawal of more direct buses to the city, the Executive persevered until the rail link to Liverpool Central was opened in May 1977. Exchange was replaced by a nearby station at Moorfields.
In October 1978, further changes were made to the Crosby services. C3/C4/L45/L85 were replaced by a reintroduced C2 and L81 which operated a tandem 15-minute daytime frequency between Thornton and Waterloo, with C2 returning to Crosby, and L81 carrying on to Skelhorne Street via Marsh Lane and Pier Head replacing most journeys on L35 which was reduced to a peak-time only operation. The troubled L22/L23 routes were introduced again, at the expense of 29 and 30C, and ran from Crosby bus station via Waterloo Interchange as a circular and onwards to Fazakerley (L22) and Walton (L23). But the biggest change of all was the withdrawal of S2 Southport – Skelhorne Street, replaced by a new, albeit truncated, S5 Freshfield Station – Skelhorne Street, and along with an extended S4 provided an all-day 30 minute frequency between Freshfield and the city centre. The popularity of the improved Southport – Liverpool train service made S2 redundant, yet the similar limited stop two-hourly X27, which served far beyond the Merseyside boundary, remained, and peak-hour X37 was withdrawn. In early 1979, both 211 and 351 were extended from Bootle to Skelhorne Street. In 1980, 92 was extended from Huyton on alternate journeys to Halewood, becoming the PTE’s longest route with a running time of two and a half hours linking both the north and south of the city.
As mentioned Crosby/Thornton was well overbussed in the early 70s, almost every road had a direct bus to Liverpool, costing quite a lot of money to operate too, so they had to be rationalized.
Just found the booklet for the 1991 Merseybus Liverpool service mergers they were
1, Pier Head-Fazakerley, service withdrawn
2, Service extended to Gillmoss, frequency reduced
3, Service extended from City Centre to Woolton via the 5, diverted from Black Bull via Aintree & Netherton to Old Roan
4/5, services withdrawn, 4 partly replaced by 78A, 5 replaced by 3
8/8/9D, services retimed & diverted to Central Bus Station
10/10A/10B/10C, services 10B Pier Head-Rainhill Stoops & 10C Pier Head-Prescot Thomas Drive withdrawn, new limited stop 10X introduced Liverpool-St Helens, all journeys will now operate to/from Central Bus Station
11, service extended to Netherton replacing the 56 & a new evening & Sunday service introduced City Centre-Stockbridge replacing withdrawn 111
12/13, retimed & will now operate to/from Central Bus Station
14A/14C, 14A retimed, 14C replaced by the 79
15, service withdrawn
17/17A/17B/17C, evening & Sunday 17C withdrawn & replaced by 217, peak 17D withdrawn, all journeys to/from Central Bus Station
18, service extended to Thornton via Bootle, Waterloo & Crosby to replace withdrawn 53/53A, & extended from Croxteth Park to Croxteth
18C, service curtailed to City Centre-Fazakerley, will operate to/from Pier Head The Strand
19/19A, rerouted to Tower Hill & extended from City Centre to Halewood via 72/72A/72B, evening & Sunday service introduced City Centre-Kirkby
20/21 services extended to Speke replacing 82, rerouted in City Centre, 21 will operate via 20 Kirkby Civic Centre-Speke
25, 25 extended from Aigburth to Speke Woodend Avenue,via Brodie Avenue & Garston rerouted from Black Bull via Old Roan to Maghull
Continued
26/27 retimed
30 amended to serve Hood Street Gyrotory & retimed
32/32A, 32A withdrawn, 32 frequency increased
35, Monday to Saturday frequency increased to 15 minutes
41/41D/42/42D, peak 41D/42D withdrawn, all journeys operate to/from Central Bus Station
47/47A, 47A cut to operate City Centre-Garston, & rerouted in Lee Park, Monday to Saturday evening service extended to Garston & new Sunday service introduced
53/53A, withdrawn replaced by 18
55, extended from City Centre to Garston via 86
56, withdrawn, replaced by 11
58/58A/58B withdrawn, replaced by 81A
60, extended from Dingle to Aigburth & rerouted in Dingle
61/61A/62, 61 operates in both directions via Linacre Lane, 61A operates in both directions via Netherton, 62 withdrawn
68/68A, 68A withdrawn, 68 increased to every 20 minutes & rerouted via Allerton Road
72/72A/72B, withdrawn, replaced by 19/19A/19B
73 journeys from Hunts Cross withdrawn
75 withdrawn, replaced by 91
78/78A, 78A rerouted via London Road to replace the 4, times revised
79, extended to Croxteth replacing 14C
79A, 2 morning journeys withdrawn, evening peak service retimed
80/80A, 80A journeys extended to Lydiate via Walton & Old Roan replacing 321/322
81/81A, all journeys operate to/from Speke, 81A extended to Litherland Hatton Hill to replace 58/58A