Old Merseytravel Contract Routes

[buses7675 (Website Founder)]

Old Merseytravel Contract Routes
Hi All,

I've been looking through various old timetables and was amazed over time the number of changes that have been made to various Merseytravel routes, some of which even as small circular routes were at times commercial.

On the old forum I remember when HTL took on route 174 (Belle Vale - Penny Lane/Allerton Library) after Peoplesbus, there was a discussion about who operated it over the years and I've managed to find some info and dates.

It seems the route started on 29/11/1993 as a contract operated by Wingates replacing in part the Merseybus commercial route 47A. Route 147 continued to run between Lee Park - City Centre in the early mornings, operated by Merseybus and Liverline at this time.

At this time the 174 didn't interwork with the 173 (which was already running by that time) with the 173 being operated by J.C. Minis.

After that (not sure on exact dates as I can't find timetables) A1A Travel ran it for a short time, after which J.C. Minis operated it, in their case, primarily with yellow MCW Metoriders.

Supertravel won the route for the first time on 27/10/1996 at which time route 147 was also withdrawn so the 174 journeys began earlier from this point to cover for the withdrawn 147. Supertravel operated the route mainly with tri-axle Talbot Pullmans, though occasionally newer minibuses did make it, especially during early 1999 when the 3 Merecedes Vario/Plaxton Beaver 2s S8/9/10 STM were delivered.

On 28/11/1999 route 174 (and route 173) became Smart Eco routes, operated by Dart MPDs. Route 173 was extended to run to Greenbank at this time and presumably (though I'm not quite sure if it did happen earlier or not) this is when the routes began interworking as they do today. Later on various other low floor types were used, some in Smart Eco livery, some in Supertravel livery.

From around 2005 (no exact date sorry!) the evening/Sunday 174 was extended to operate via Wavertree Clock Tower (apparently due to the evening 78 being withdrawn, though how that made sense I don't know!), still operated by Supertravel.

Supertravel dropped the contract after running on Sunday 10/07/2011, after a week with no service (due to short notice of Supertravel dropping the route) Peoplesbus who were due to start the route from October 2011, began operating the routes from Monday 18/07/2011, mainly with 4 Dawsonrentals Dart MPDs, though the odd MetroRider and Solo demo did make it on!

Peoplesbus too gave their notice in on the contract and so from Sunday 09/10/2011 HTL Buses began operating the routes, mainly with Dawsonrentals Enviro200s however other buses frequently noted on it are Dart MPDs and Solo M710SEs.