New Buses Orders

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: New Buses Orders
Thanks for the replies. I’m not attacking either Arriva or Stagecoach who generally do a reasonable if could be better job in Liverpool however I do feel routes like the 10/10A, 12/13, 20/21 and some of the other I mentioned previously do need double deck operation and I also feel despite the scaly problems and vandalism they’re operation would be no worse in this region than what happens in other bigger (and smaller) cities which have more widescale decker operation.

The main reason for this shift to single decks in Liverpool was the availability of 12m step entrance single decks like B10B/Endurances which could seat 49 to 51 and at a push could cope on routes like the 10A and 86 although even at that time I’d have preferred to have seen Volvo Olympians bought for those routes. In addition around the time MTL started buying these Endurances you had an awful lot more competition in Liverpool with the likes of CMT, North Western, Village and even for a shorter term operators like GMN/GMS and Liverbus which were around until 1995. Prior to the Arriva takeover of MTL you had at least 3-4 companies competing on the lucrative Liverpool routes and deckers started to be less of a requirement for routes like the 10A, 26/27, 79, 86 etc. Even then the corridors they operated on had some form of decker operation on peripheral routes like 8/9, 35, 38, 80 etc. Compounding this problem was the shift to low floor single decks. A Scania/Ultralow or B10BLE at best had 40 to 44 seats so MTL shifted to cheaper 37 seat Dart slf’s and the loss of 2 meters standing room resulted in cramped conditions for passengers on routes like the 79. MTL also bought Dart slf’s and Marshall’s in particular because they were cheap and generally saved them the cost of replacing Titan’s and Atlanteans with +£110k Volvo singles or more expensive double decks.

When Arriva bought MTL they foolishly expanded the midi bus buying policy to the extent the majority of the fleet had them, routes were cut and rationalised and whether or not a 12m single decker was more appropriate they bought them for those routes anyway. GTL still lingered around for a few years with ageing Titan’s on many of the profitable routes but even they went down the midi route and even worse when Stagecoach bought them yet more Dart slf’s appeared even though the MAN/ALX300 which was still available would IMHO been more suitable for a scaled down Gillmoss.

Now there’s just two operators and the pattern of competition/frequencies have reduced. However the amount of people using them generally haven’t and now you get Pulsars, Enviros and worse Midi sized vehicles with full standing loads on most of these routes. Okay South Liverpool has rightly seen deckers come back on the 79/82/86’s but the case for having them on the 10/10A, 12/13 and 20/21 is just as strong coming as someone who sometimes can’t get on a bus in Old Swan or the Jolly Miller due to the packed standing loads – and I’m not a regular user of these routes.

Considering the 12/13 it was always a double deck route and it only got single deckers on their due to it becoming part of the SMART initiative in 1996. Even then the 18’s, 75’s had deckers and the 212 and 274/275 had partial decker operation too.

Stagecoach and the 20/21 is another route which really needs the deckers especially at weekends although most of the remaining Stagecoach operations in North East Liverpool and Kirkby that doesn’t compete with Arriva can survive with single decks. A solution could be for the 20/21 to replace Stagecoach journeys on the 82 and become a cross city route to Liverpool South Parkway.

As said before the only way this situation is going to change is if it’s brought to the attention of Arriva, Stagecoach and Merseytravel even the Echo and Buses mag could be good sources to bring this up with as it’s kind of frustrating not being able to board overly packed buses on these corridors or standing on a full bus which is in a ‘doughnut’ convoy after waiting 10-15 mins only to see another bus race past less full.

As said there must be reasons/perhaps good reasons why Arriva and Stagecoach won’t do deckers in East/North Liverpool but overall I see nothing worse happening and/or the users of these routes being no worse than those who use them in the south of the city etc.