Very poor to see the Southport - Liverpool frequency reduced to every 20 minutes as far as I'm concerned. I just don't understand those changes.
I would imagine that idea is that they save money , but this will lead to overcrowding on their pulsars leading people to stagecoach X2 or trains. Be interesting to see how long the reduced service lasts before returning to what it is now.
(23/04/2014 18:14)MPTE1955 Wrote: [ -> ]I would imagine that idea is that they save money , but this will lead to overcrowding on their pulsars leading people to stagecoach X2 or trains. Be interesting to see how long the reduced service lasts before returning to what it is now.
Is there a bigger picture we may be missing here , is this a precursor to the Liverpool- Southport - Crossens service being a QBP route , its probably one area where one is missing at the moment .
(23/04/2014 18:22)wirralbus Wrote: [ -> ]Is there a bigger picture we may be missing here , is this a precursor to the Liverpool- Southport - Crossens service being a QBP route , its probably one area where one is missing at the moment .
I would very much doubt it for several reasons. Following the changes, the 47 will still be more frequent than the X2, so unless Stagecoach introduce an additional bus per hour, a co-ordinated timetable would be difficult. Then you've got the fact both routes take completely different routes within southern Southport and the massive disparity in bus quality between the two operators. Finally, the previous QBP routes all had changes made at the start of the agreement and not before.
(23/04/2014 17:59)507009 Wrote: [ -> ]Very poor to see the Southport - Liverpool frequency reduced to every 20 minutes as far as I'm concerned. I just don't understand those changes.
I think that the most disturbing aspect of these changes is that the service now finishes much earlier. At the moment, the last 47 from Sir Thomas Street departs at 23.17 but from June, the last 47 will depart Queen Square at 22.02. This means that anybody wishing to travel by bus beyond Crosby (towards Thornton and Netherton via Edge Lane) must catch the last 53A which leaves Queen Square at 22.50. At that time of the year it's not even dark!
A very simple solution for Arriva is to renumber the last (Bootle operated) 53 which departs Queen Square at 23.50 to a 53A and extend it to Aintree. Having said that, I'm not too hopeful that this will happen. When Arriva decided to extend the 53A to/from Aintree Station a few years ago, it decided to operate it's first Sunday departure from Aintree Station at 6.15, more than two hours before the first train! In the past two years a lot of fresh air has been carried by these early Sunday morning 53A's.
If Arriva are unwilling to extend the last 53, which to be honest would cost very little, I'm sure the residents of Thornton could put pressure on their local councillors to demand a reintroduction of the Merseytravel 151 service.
The timetable has been updated, all journeys in both directions are numbered 47.
What I have noticed, is that with the withdrawal of the 48, it means that there is no bus at all along Great Howard Street and Derby Road.
And what is going to serve Banks and Riverside instead Arriva always have, and MTL in the earlier days with its 17