Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

[Y458 KNF]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

(27/07/2026 15:29)Jack Wrote:  New timetables for most services now on the Merseytravel website
https://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/bus/bus-changes/

Noticed that the new bus interchange isn’t on the timetables is it opening after the 6th of September then?

[chris-s]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

(27/07/2026 16:33)Y458 KNF Wrote:  Noticed that the new bus interchange isn’t on the timetables is it opening after the 6th of September then?

Still a building site at moment with the new hotel and other buildings not even started yet

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising
612 will replace the 20 between Earlestown and St Helens.

There are a lot of improvements. The 23 (former 12) now runs full route most of the week (only short journeys on Sunday evenings), the 24 (former 60) now runs hourly throughout the week. Boundary Road now sees a half hourly service with the 25/25A, the 30 (former 17) now every 30 minutes on Saturdays, the 34 now runs through to Leigh all week, the 37/37A now provide an hourly service to Ormskirk (the Ormskirk - Southport is mostly unaltered time wise apart from the extra positioning X37 journeys, I presume this is probably to do with Lancashire County Council funding), Rainford now half hourly evenings and Sundays with the 37 & 38, the 39 every hour now. The X3 to JLA Airport runs via St Helens Hospital, Lea Green and Cronton (which receives direct service to St Helens for the first time in living memory). The only problem with the timetable is that it dosen't indicate which stops it uses (is it just the timing points or are there other stops).

After having had a drill down into the new timetables, the only minor grievance is that the services serving Marshalls Cross are still timed to follow/run at similar times to each other. I was hopeful that a bit of better planning would have eliminated this.

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

(27/07/2026 18:07)St Helens Rider Wrote:  612 will replace the 20 between Earlestown and St Helens.

There are a lot of improvements. The 23 (former 12) now runs full route most of the week (only short journeys on Sunday evenings), the 24 (former 60) now runs hourly throughout the week. Boundary Road now sees a half hourly service with the 25/25A, the 30 (former 17) now every 30 minutes on Saturdays, the 34 now runs through to Leigh all week, the 37/37A now provide an hourly service to Ormskirk (the Ormskirk - Southport is mostly unaltered time wise apart from the extra positioning X37 journeys, I presume this is probably to do with Lancashire County Council funding), Rainford now half hourly evenings and Sundays with the 37 & 38, the 39 every hour now. The X3 to JLA Airport runs via St Helens Hospital, Lea Green and Cronton (which receives direct service to St Helens for the first time in living memory). The only problem with the timetable is that it dosen't indicate which stops it uses (is it just the timing points or are there other stops).

After having had a drill down into the new timetables, the only minor grievance is that the services serving Marshalls Cross are still timed to follow/run at similar times to each other. I was hopeful that a bit of better planning would have eliminated this.

Other changes include:

The 35 now serves Bold The Pastures towards St Helens Junction
The 33 now serves Lea Green (estate)
The 297 follows a different route and no longer serves the eastern end of Prescot.
The X3 serves Bold Heath restoring a permanent bus service and indirectly replaces the 29.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

(27/07/2026 18:41)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  Other changes include:

The 35 now serves Bold The Pastures towards St Helens Junction
The 33 now serves Lea Green (estate)
The 297 follows a different route and no longer serves the eastern end of Prescot.
The X3 serves Bold Heath restoring a permanent bus service and indirectly replaces the 29.

Also the 35 now runs Gillars Green - St Helens Junction evenings and Sundays. The 297 now runs hourly Monday - Saturday. The 289 also runs evenings and Sundays as far as Rainhill Station.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising
Shame to see the Buses ordered for St Helens are also too small for the routes

The small MMC Enviro200s are only 26 Seats while the Solo SR's are 35 Seats i believe
The longer MMC Enviro200s are just 30 Seats while Pulsars have 44 Seats
The Streetdecks have 67 seats compared to the Enviro400s with 73 or 75 Seats

The Streetdecks being taller also means they cannot be used on the 352 due to the bridge near the Police Station in St Helens, the 920 due to the bridge by St Helens Junction Station and the obvious 32A, 34A, 35, 37 and 38 routes which would not see them allocated anyway.

[CX06 EBK (Administrator)]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising
The Streetdecks and the longer Enviros have less seats than those buses as they have two wheelchair bays which is the standard for the LCR going forward. The EVs in Liverpool have the exact same issue where they have replaced buses with higher capacities.

The bridge on the way out of St Helens is signed at 14'6 much like the one by Aintree Asda which the Streetdecks at Gillmoss are cleared to go under. So I can't see it being much of an issue here - but to start they'll have the ability to use 13'10 Enviro 400 MMCs if it was an issue.

In reference to the X3, I believe it is around 5 stops only across the route - the first of which out of St Helens is at the Hospital. I can't recall the rest of them at the moment. Funny that they haven't taken the opportunity to extend the 89s last trips to the Airport either.

[MTL0201]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising
The X3 is an interesting route, from Lea Green it goes through Clock Face & Bold Heath rather than following the 30 [the new number for the 17] down Mill Lane via the 7 to Tarbock Island, then Knowsley Expressway, Speke Boulevard & Western Avenue to the Airport, the timetable doesn't list the stopping places which is annoying, only lists the route.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

(Yesterday 04:46)MTL0201 Wrote:  The X3 is an interesting route, from Lea Green it goes through Clock Face & Bold Heath rather than following the 30 [the new number for the 17] down Mill Lane via the 7 to Tarbock Island, then Knowsley Expressway, Speke Boulevard & Western Avenue to the Airport, the timetable doesn't list the stopping places which is annoying, only lists the route.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, it is the first service in living memory that links Cronton (which is part of St Helens borough) with St Helens Town Centre.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

(Yesterday 01:10)CX06 EBK Wrote:  In reference to the X3, I believe it is around 5 stops only across the route - the first of which out of St Helens is at the Hospital. I can't recall the rest of them at the moment. Funny that they haven't taken the opportunity to extend the 89s last trips to the Airport either.

Thanks for the clarification. There are about 5 timing point on the timetable, so I presume these are the only stops it serves. It could certainly do with making this clearer in the timetable.