Route History

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Route History
Good stuff on the 47’s, 87, 173/174’s lads.

I first used the 147 as it was in 1988 and took me all over parts of Gateacre, Allerton and Toxteth I’d (then) never been down before. I also used the 87 around that time too and as said that was monster of a route which took in nearly every bit of Netherley including Naylorsfield and 'Alcatraz' which was being demolished around that time and obscure bits of Halewood, Garston and Woolton too. Suppose the 87 was bits and pieces of the old 66/88’s which disappeared at de-reg and I'm not 100% but didn’t the 87 get withdrawn in 1991 when Merseybus did the route/garage review that July?

The 47 later 47A’s lasted a bit longer until the end of ’93 and got extended out to Garston (garage?) some parts of these routes are covered by today’s 166/266,174,188/288’s etc. Just wondering did the current 166/266 188/288 begin after de-reg or did the 87’s cover them? Don’t really remember them being around until the 47’s and 87’s disappeared from the early 90’s. I know Village Group had a turn on these (maybe a Boxing Day/New Year’s runs) in the early 90’s before they got into commercial services in a big way and the Merseytravel services in/around Belle Vale were always quite interesting for independent operators around there like Village, Blue Triangle, (IIRC) JC Travel, Supertravel, Cumfybus, Eazibus, HTL and Avon Buses all providing services there over the years, with HTL along with Selwyns and Stagecoach around today.

Also does anyone remember the original Merseybus ‘Merseymini’, minibus services that operated out of Belle Vale from 1986 to 1988? I know they were numbered in 5** series and I think were a mix of local services in the Belle Vale/Lee Park/Netherley area’s and others which perhaps like the 87 took on bits and pieces of the old 66/88 on to Halewood/Hunts Cross/Woolton/Garston etc. Just curious what routes (numbers) they were as I can’t exactly remember these and never really got round to using them. IIRC I think there were around 4-5 of these services which interworked with each other at Belle Vale or something like that? I do know they got revised in ’88 to become the 561 when ran on to Old Swan via Bowring Park and Broadgreen and 562 which ran similarly via Bowring Park to Huyton. Not sure when but the 562 only lasted a few months and was withdrawn by late ‘88/early ’89 but the 561 stayed on until the summer of 1992 when the short-lived 67A and then Merseytravel's 165 briefly replaced them before the route from Broadgreen to Old Swan was cut and the 165 became a Belle Vale circular service until it’s fairly recent withdrawal and partial replacement by the current 3’s and 204’s. Also what depot ran the 561’s was it Garston or Edge Lane? Merseymini also had the short lived 510/511 services which were Old Swan – Huyton circular’s introduced in summer 1989 and running IIRC via West Derby, Deysbrook, Knotty Ash, Dovecot etc. I only remember using these from Dovecot to Old Swan via the normal Prescot Road route so can’t exactly remember where they went and were withdrawn by the Autumn too.

Does anyone know if the original 11 service only went to Huyton Village via Kingsway before the mid/late 70’s or did MPTE always run on to Cantril Farm/Stockbridge when the estate there got built? Not sure but didn’t the 11’s get revised in the early 80’s to be extended from Huyton to the Farm via Longview and Page Moss similar to what the current 8/9’s do now then run up Stockbridge Lane and do a circular around Waterpark and Haswell Drive? Was it revised when MPTE did the revisions to the 12’s in 1983-85 which saw them become the 12/13’s circulars we have now and eventually saw the 12/13’s transferred from Green Lane to Gillmoss? I know after de-reg the Merseytravel 111 as it became only went to Stockbridge and didn’t run on to Huyton until Merseybus commercialised it again around 1988/89. Another one of the routes Arriva (right/wrong) has withdrawn in recent years bits and pieces of the 11 still exist in the 102’s (Finch Lane), 258’s and 8/9’s today.

Don’t know much about when Merseybus took control of the 284’s but do remember using one the fairly new Northern Counties Olympian’s from Bootle to Liverpool around early-1990 which went to Sir Thomas Street when Skelhorne Street closed so was probably around this time North Western came off it. It was interesting using a GL Endurance on a 284 one Boxing Day/New Year’s in the late 90’s too. ABC Travel I think originally only did the Sunday Merseytravel run's for a time on the 184/284's in the 90's and didn't really run a competing service until CMT had acquired them as I'm sure they only really went on the route commercially after Arriva's takeover of MTL and branded their Optare Excel's for it around 2000? Could be wrong.

Nice one about the Stagecoach Ribble express services they had in the 90’s too and remember seeing a fair few of these at Chorlton Street around that time too. GMS when Stagecoach had the original Stagecoach Manchester competing on the 192's compete against them competed for a time on these with their Charterplan coaches too. Sadly never really got around to using many of them and they seemed a lot more extensive than what’s around now, but I suppose congestion/reliability, Stagecoach selling parts of their former Ribble operations off, passenger numbers and rail competition have probably killed some of these off a couple of decades on.

It’s been good finding out/remembering stuff about these old routes.