Route History

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Route History
Thanks for the info on the Mersemini's at Belle Vale and the 11's and 12's from MPTE days too.

When de-regulation came in, the 11's became Merseytravel tenders which Crosville won. IIRC the 111 was still half hourly but only ran to Stockbridge Village, alongside this was a hourly 107 which I certain ran from Pier Head to Whiston via Huyton missing out the Farm and doing a slightly different route in West Derby to the 111. I can't be sure as I never really had any luck catching it but I think it ran from Deysbrook Lane like the 111's then Town Row, Mill Lane and Millbank rather than doing the Alder Road, Queens Drive, Derby Lane/Prescot Road/Green Lane run to Tuebrook the 11/111's did. I forgot about the 109 suppose that was added to cover the route from the Farm to Huyton and just wondering were Crosville on that too back then?

Crosville also ran the 102's and many other Merseytravel contracts in Liverpool after de-reg and added a fair number of ex-MPTE MCW Fleetline's acquired from the Wirral division and still in MPTE livery alongside their NBC kit on these routes too. It was shame never I got the chance to ride the ex-WMPTE VR's they acquired although perhaps this was a warning things were not good with them was the events which (right/wrong) triggered the industrial dispute at Love Lane and resulted in the depot's closure and Crosville pretty much pulling out of Liverpool, including their commercial routes. My general opinion was Crosville over-reached on these contracts and used the industrial dispute as an excuse for pulling out.

Wasn't the rule with de-reg services couldn't be changed until a few months after it came in? Sure this was the reason Merseytravel couldn't re-award the contracts as quickly as they would today. I know after a few weeks of no service on the 111's Merseybus took it on around the end of February '87. The 107 disappeared along with other Crosville operated Merseytravel contracts like the 173 and if they were on the 109's didn't that disappear around this time too? This also perhaps gave Merseytravel to tidy up some of the subsidised services at that time too and like now there's the rule that these shouldn't compete/duplicate commercially operated services too.

Interesting that the 10, 11 and 510's up to the mid-70's terminated at Castle Street before the law courts got built and noticed a few Flickr pics knocking around with them on layover there. Just wondering if there was a reason they didn't go to the Pier Head and was this the reason the 'Z' bays got built mainly for these east Liverpool routes around that time?

Interesting that Ribble ran the 89's for a while too and must have been strange seeing their NBC red vehicles in what you'd consider was a 'Crosville' territory too. Suppose this was mid-80's and did North Western ever had any time on the 89's in the run up to de-reg too as post-86 always thought of this as a Merseybus route, even if other operators have done the Merseytravel run's on the 189's.