METRO - Laird Street depot

[MTL0201]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot
Rather oddly, 4331 is tracking as a 407 even though it's operating the 413, it was on the 407 yesterday.

[moreton407]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot

(25/10/2026 12:45)Valandil Wrote:  So the 407 interworks with the 487 on Sundays.

What are the shot Sunday 407's doing? Do they interwork with anything and why does the journey times not march any other cross river service by tak8ng about 20 minutes to go through the tunnel when everything else takes about ten minutes.

[Valandil]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot
Hi moreton407,
The 407 longs to Moreton and shorts to Birkenhead seem to interwork with each other and the 487.
It's just a mistake on the Merseytravel timetable that they were given so much running time, but the timetable on BusTimes seems to be correct.

[moreton407]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot

(26/10/2026 12:47)Valandil Wrote:  Hi moreton407,
The 407 longs to Moreton and shorts to Birkenhead seem to interwork with each other and the 487.
It's just a mistake on the Merseytravel timetable that they were given so much running time, but the timetable on BusTimes seems to be correct.

Cheers, I'll take a look.

[mrd97]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot
Don’t know what on earth is going on, but there has been nothing but delays today. Tried the 453 from clatterbridge, it was half an hour late and ended up going via Brimstage rather than Thornton hough. The driver also kept seeming to go to Thingwall corner rather than terminate at Irby according to the tracker on bustimes. Where it’s supposed to terminate, cutting up Mill Hill Road from Manor Road, is an extremely tight bend and I doubt a bus could do that unless it has a short wheelbase.

482 to Heswall was 10 minutes late arriving into west Kirby, didn’t even run as the 480, thought maybe it’s cutting it out to run back to Heswall on time, but it just ended up going back to the depot. I assume they can’t cover all services due to a lack of drivers?

[Y458 KNF]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot
How many vehicles have Go Ahead loaned from other regions? as I've noticed a Salisbury Red Mellor is at LS alongside a couple of Manchester vehicles.

[MTL0201]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot

(26/10/2026 14:53)mrd97 Wrote:  Don’t know what on earth is going on, but there has been nothing but delays today. Tried the 453 from clatterbridge, it was half an hour late and ended up going via Brimstage rather than Thornton hough. The driver also kept seeming to go to Thingwall corner rather than terminate at Irby according to the tracker on bustimes. Where it’s supposed to terminate, cutting up Mill Hill Road from Manor Road, is an extremely tight bend and I doubt a bus could do that unless it has a short wheelbase.

482 to Heswall was 10 minutes late arriving into west Kirby, didn’t even run as the 480, thought maybe it’s cutting it out to run back to Heswall on time, but it just ended up going back to the depot. I assume they can’t cover all services due to a lack of drivers?

It was the same when St Helens went to franchising 7 weeks ago with buses running up to 60 minutes late. I was in Birkenhead bus station earlier on & saw 3, 437s going to West Kirby together, the 438s were running up to 60 minutes late too & this route is 2 an hour until Croft Retail Park [even yesterday the 438A was running up to 60 late at times], the 414A i got was 10 late when i got off it in Moreton, why is it always chaos when change over like this happens, i dread to think what Liverpool & Southport are going to be like.

[MTL0201]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot
Ultroliner 3737 on the 438 that's 203 minutes late which is quite remarkable, it made the service to West Kirby, but not did the return journey until now, unless the ticket machine is playing up

https://bustimes.org/journeys/954782709

[DVG526]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot
There were always going to be some teething issues during the changeover but unfortunately LCR/Merseytravel and Mr Rotheram & Co have got a lot to do. More could have been done in the months leading to the ‘take back’ of control, such as..

The depot. Laird Street isn’t big enough for all the vehicles required, this is causing major issues with capacity and staff parking.

The drivers. I have a few friends who are drivers at LS/RF. The transfer/TUPE is a major issue due to the complex wage structure of each of the operators and this has not been addressed. Not as many drivers as expected have made the move meaning a substantial shortage of established drivers.

The routes. The majority if not all routes (those established prior to the changes) have had inferior vehicles now allocated, with the exception of Cross Rivers altihough i believe the Ultroliners have a slightly lower capacity than the Hybrids. Routes that previously utilised 39/40+ seater Enviro 300s, longer Enviro200s and Streetlites etc now have been downgraded to 30 seater Enviro200s. This will affect many routes particularly the former 41/42/410/411/413/414/487 of which certain journeys were also double deck operated. Some of the new routes don’t make any sense. 408 for example does a random one way loop, the evening/Sunday 417 which also does a one way loop and wastes lots of time sitting at Moreton Cross.

The companies. There appears to have been a total lack of communication between Arriva and GNW which hasn’t helped the transfer due to the politics of the franchise process.

This is just a brief summary of the issues facing passengers, some of which probably could have been addressed prior to takeover. It’s going to be a long road to stability unfortunately.

[MTL0201]

RE: METRO - Laird Street depot
Reliability could be sketchy at times when Arriva & Stagecoach operated the services, the last 17 of the day [when it was the 17.49 from Moreton] was notorious for late running, as i saw it for myself many times when that ran up to 30 late, then you had situations were the 407 ran in 2s, same with 41/42 & plenty of other routes. Also plenty of other routes operating with delays that were that bad, that they had to miss out part of the route to try & get back on time, so it's nothing really new when it comes to reliability.