Many Changes But Few Changes
The maps look much the same, certainly more 'same' than those for St Helens! But look closely and ...
.. if closely is too challenging without enlargement (it is for fbb!), please believe that many route numbers have been changed. Apart from the two out-of-area services (1/1X and 22/22A from Chester) all Merseyside Wirral services are now numbered in a consistent 4xx series.
So here is the Moreton area before ...
... and after F-day ..
... not a two digit or singleton route number to be seen!
The good folk of Moreton have seen one route change, however. 
Service 407 used to run from Liverpool to West Kirby ...
From Birkenhead to West Kirby via Moreton they still have the 483/483A GREEN (formerly 83) ...
... and, from Moreton, brand new circulars 483 and 484 GREY.
Actually this is one of the TWO totally new services for the franchised Wirral area.
The other is the 408, a Seacombe local service.
Without local knowledge, fbb cannot really work out why this has appeared.
There is, however, the mysterious school service 653.
In a momentously stunning happening that must be very rare in omnibus history, the school service has become a fully blown Monday to Saturday service 453.
Here is the route according to the Merseyside franchise fanatics' leaflet.
Not only is it a new route, but it doesn't appear on the new Wirral bus network map, either at Heswall ...
... or at Clatterbridge Hospital!
The 471 and 472 are also a challenge to the weary fbb brain. On an old Merseyside timetable, the services are shown as joint between Arriva and Stagecoach.
Then an old Stagecoach on-line map implies ...
... they are both Stagecoach routes - maybe they once were?
Arriva's current on-line but totally out of date timetable list shows 471 ...
... as both in the hands of Arriva.
Thankfully, both are now franchised to GoAhead North West!
They are not!
So everyone loses in Wirral! The dominant operator, Arriva, has gone; a one time major operator, Stagecoach, has gone, and A2B, a significant operator of tendered services, has lost everything.
There was no 125 at the end.
To significantly mis-quote Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 2) "Cruelty, thy name is franchising".
And a diddy Wirral puzzle for you. The former Arriva 414 ...
... has become a Metro 414 and 414A.
Can you work out what the difference between the 414 and 414A might be?
Answer tomorrow.
Next Variety blog : Sat 3rd Oct
I think there was a Seacombe local service in the 1960s on which Wallasey used four Albion Nimbuses (don't start about Nimbi). I am not sure if Wallasey used route numbers.
ReplyDeleteAlanJS
The 471 and 472 interwork, so Arriva only operates the 471 towards Heswall and 472 towards Liverpool, whereas Stagecoach only operates the 472 towards Heswall and 471 towards Liverpool.
ReplyDelete