Bus from Netherton to Bootle

[J.F.G]

Good Morning

Not sure if people remember, but in the early 80's the Government de regulated the Bus industry, not in London though !!

This brought buses onto our roads which had obviously been languishing in scrap yards, dozens of Bus companies sprang up, a lot more buses on the same route fighting for passengers, I was a Traffic Police officer and vehicle examiner at this time, I remember issuing Prohibition Notices on numerous buses that should not have been on the public highway.

Regards

John

[Dan]

Afternoon John

I was going to do a bit on the deregulation of the buses on October 26 1986.

It was a bit messy up here. North Western had minibuses doing a circular Netherton-Strand-Netherton (see below).



Below is wikipaedia's attempt at explaining what happened.

"Liverpool's Prince Alfred Road (Penny Lane), Litherland and Wallasey's Seaview Road depots were not transferred to Merseybus and remained with Merseyside PTE, ultimately being sold for redevelopment. Prior to this Merseyside PTE used these depots to store 'non-standard' vehicles Merseybus did not take on. These included a batch of five relatively modern Willowbrook-bodied Dennis Dominators that had been based at the Speke depot. Four were purchased by Maidstone & District, the other by Citybus of Hong Kong. Other notable types not operated by the privatised Merseybus included the East Lancs bodied Bristol VRs, many of which ended up with Merseybus's first notable competitor, Fareway Passenger Services, Scania Metropolitans and some life-expired Leyland Atlanteans and Nationals. However a significant proportion of the vehicles taken on by Merseybus were considerably older than these vehicles and included some of the K and most of the L-registration Alexander bodied Leyland Atlanteans dating from 1971–73 and the increasing age profile of the Merseybus/MTL fleet - including the companies MTL would eventually acquire - would become a major issue for Merseybus/MTL right up to its acquisition by Arriva in 2000."

Love the term "life-expired".

As late as 2009 the daytime bus service ceased at 18.00 hours, with small independents providing a skeleton evening service.


.

[J.F.G]

Thanks for that Dan , very informative,

The ex M.P.T.E buses must have been a good buy for someone, My Uncle Owen was a coach / body builder for them based at Edge lane, I remember him telling me during a vehicles lifetime, it would be totally stripped to its bare chassis, the bodywork was overhauled as was the engine, gearbox and transmission, and it was a new bus when it went back into service, seemed to be a lot more pride in the service then.

Regards

John

[oriel55]

Only the 60, 60a Dingle buses terminated/commenced their route in Oriel Road next to the railway station. The 81 passed through Oriel Road on its way to Speke.

[BossHogg]

I left Bootle in 1986 to join the army and missed all of the mayhem that was deregulation, my parents told me about it, by the time I came home, I'd passed my driving test and got a car, I've owned cars ever since and never been on public transport since.

[Daft Apeth]

One from memory when the 55A used to stop/start at Fleetwoods Lane (Rather than from the Marion Square). Judging by the pic it looks like it's just gone past the Richmond Sausage works.



[url=https://postimg.cc/8sV7Y7fG][img]https://i.postimg.cc/8sV7Y7fG/55-Bus.jpg[/img][/url]

[BossHogg]

Neatened your link for you.

[Daft Apeth]

Many thanks