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+--- Thread: Merseyside Bus Alliance (/showthread.php?tid=1070)
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RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance - Metroline1511 - 05/12/2015 21:42
(04/12/2015 21:26)RedPanda Wrote: Just had a thought with the new powers Liverpool and Manchester have, we could see a bus unique to the north. Something like London's Routemaster but made by East Lancs for obvious reasons.
April's Buses magazine had an article on a "New Mancunian" but this was just a slightly mistimed April Fool's joke!
RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance - Barney - 21/12/2015 13:58
In Arriva's press release, one of the incredibly ambitious targets identified is to raise bus usage by 10% within the next 16 months. It also noted that only 10% of current journeys are made by commuters within Merseyside. In my view this target could be partially achieved by re-introducing limited-stop 5** or Rapidride 4** services through areas that have high employment rates, at least initially at peak times. With the exception of the X1 (Runcorn-Liverpool) and the cross-river 420 which Arriva wanted to withdraw last year, as far as I am aware there are no other limited stop services operating within Merseyside as Stagecoach's X2 and X3 are both stopping services and express in name only.
As a motorist, why would you be prepared to make the same journey by bus to your workplace if it is likely to take three times as long? On the other hand, if the journey times were comparable, you might consider it.
This month's issue of Buses features a really interesting article on how Trent Barton has developed a non-stop service between Derby and Nottingham (a distance of 16 miles) from an hourly service in 1995 using nine-year-old vehicles to a ten-minute frequency using brand new tri-axle 57-seat VolvoB11Rs.
Some bold and imaginative strategies are needed if this target is to be achieved.