Steve, Stagecoach and St Helens
St Helens Chapel appears [upper left, above) on a 1610 map, But the development of coal mining and glass production characterised the town during The Industrial Revolution. The borough's Town Hall gives some idea of the industrial status of the community ...
... wealthy and proud!
Its municipal transport followed a normal pattern, starting with horse trams ...
... then electric trams ...
... followed by trolleybuses.
The PTE was privatized on its sale to Arriva. Until recently, the main operator in the town has been the blue of Arriva.
But, earlier this month St Helens became the first Merseyside area to become a "franchise".
From Day 1, Arriva buses disappeared ...
... replaced by buses in "Metro" livery and operated by Stagecoach - although you would never know! The transfiguration is almost 100% complete.
An occasional bus from Stagecoach North West has been spotted ...
... dating from before this first contract was awarded.
Mostly, the new St Helens network was in the hands of "Metro" owned vehicles devoid of an operator fleet name.
There has been much hype to accompany the change ...
... with some prominence given to big cheese Steve Rotheram. That's him on the right, below.
At least he has no aspirations to be Prime Minister - as far as we know!
And many, many changes there were! There was, of course, a bright yellow gazebo as well.
There were plenty of headlines for the press to promulgate.
Real people have been around to help!
So why has this effort been more obvious, more "in yer face" that down the East Lancs Road at Manchester?
Quite simply, there have been significant changes in routes, route numbers and timetables throughout St Helens.
In Manchester there has been little change, except Bees and yellow paint.
Unfortunately, lacking a correspondent in the area, fbb mussed the September 6th launch. Not only that, and thanks to Mr Rotheram's efficient team, all activity before 6th inst has vanished from the interwebnet!
fbb cannot do his usual contrast and compare when big changes happen. He really missed the bus.
But at least your incompetent blogger has the "Metro" list of changes to peruse.
So, tomorrow, the old bloke will begin with trunk route 10. Sadly, his historical knowledge of route 10 is slightly less than nil. One thing we do know is that the road between Liverpool and St Helens was the subject of substantial competition.
Next St Helens blog : Tues 22 Sept
Oh dear. Three things wrong, at least:
ReplyDelete- the PTE was not privatised on sale to Arriva. It was sold to a management buy out that later held a rail franchise and ran buses in London.
- the portacabin facilities are because the bus station is closed for rebuilding. Buses stop strung along a road on the opposite side of the town centre
- it is not Stagecoach North West that is the franchisee (that company runs in North Lancashire and Cumbria) but Ribble Motor Services Ltd, managed as part of Manchester & Merseyside.