The Three Queens Visit

[E400]

RE: The Three Queens Visit
Wirral Council must be expecting a lot of people as they're recruiting volunteers to help police the event and guide people around.

I should imagine the best approach would be to line a load of buses up at Woodside and Seacombe, which I would imagine would be popular places to head for and run them to key places such as Liscard, Birkenhead bus station and Whitechapel - not necessarily 'proper' bus services, just special ones to disperse the crowds. The same approach would probably be required in Liverpool - park buses up James Street, Victoria Street and Hanover Street (if that will be open by then), just to get rid of people. Once the main crowd has dispersed, roads reopen and normal service can resume. It could even be that to reduce the strain on Liverpool services, there are two special Wirral services which run to Birkenhead Bus Station and Liscard respectively and back, while usual cross-river services run only so far as Birkenhead before running back out from there- this would reduce crowding in both Liverpool City Centre and Birkenhead Bus Station.

I think Merseytravel and the transport operators have a lot of responsibility for the safety of the public here. Merseyrail can't really be blamed for the closure of James Street due to crowds - Moorfields is perhaps questionable, but it is in need of refurbishment, although this will inevitibly strain the rest of the central network - and Lime Street has no option but to deal with the deluge of out of towners that it will be 'blessed with'. Therefore, the bus companies offer the only really feasible way of moving people away from the city quickly enough and in any great capacity. Its not like it is financially straining to the likes of Arriva or Stagecoach to lay on some extra services which provide guarenteed custom. Even if they were paid for by Merseytravel, who would profit from the extra money brought in from fares, this would still see the crowd situation dealt with in the most efficient way possible.