Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

[Jack]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising
Definitely some welcome standardised frequencies and extra evening/Sunday links for St Helens. The 25 looks like a new service unless the 37/38 are moving away from Eccleston and it's a replacement for those. Interesting that the 360 route is TBC, hopefully won't be a situation like the X5/288 in Altrincham and it gets split. Depending what happens with that, wonder if the 22A will be renumbered back to 360 with the 22 being renumbered too. Still think some missed opportunities though.

I'd have the 17 just St Helens to Widnes via the current evening route missing out Sutton Manor so its more direct. The Chain Lane section could've become a circular service with the 28 operating in each direction. The Sutton Manor section could be replaced by the 32 doing the evening route all day.

Separately i don't know why they don't extend the 33 to loop past Waterside. It has a lot of layover in the town centre anyway so would eat in to that a little. It could even further be extended via the 156 route back to St Helens as a circular too. Would then leave the 156 back as a St Helens to Garswood only service.

I assume the X37 will be a positioning journey maybe for the 37A (152) that starts/ends in Southport. Otherwise it would make sense to have an X37 on Sundays/BHs too especially in the summer at least.