St Helens Bus Network Review (2018)

[Bevan Price]

RE: St Helens Bus Network Review (2018)
I live in the Eccleston area, and in my opinion, it would be a waste of money to reinstate 137/138, 194/195. Passenger numbers were never high when I saw it, especially between Eccleston & Prescot.

As for the 38, rerouting via Kiln Lane & Bleak Hill Road was potentially more useful than the (now reinstated) direct route via Rainford Road, because a lot more people live closer to the Kiln Lane route than to Rainford Road (which has the crematorium on one side of the road, and a lot of rather expensive / "posh" houses on the other side (the type of area that generally has low bus usage.) The main problem is that the running time via Kiln Lane was inadequate if there was traffic congestion (due to roadworks, etc.), and "lateness" sometimes increased steadily throughout the day - these problems could have been eased by a cross-town link of 38 with another service (e.g. 20, 320 Ashton or 329 Warrington). The new 38B could be better timed - at present it is almost on the tail of the 37 for much of the route, so probably only gets good passenger loads if the 37 is late (and then follows the 38B out of town.)

And St. Helens as a whole -- well, in my opinion, things have gone downhill steadily ever since St. Helens Corporation buses were dragged into Merseyside PTE, and have got even worse since Arriva took over -- fewer buses, earlier finishes, evening or sunday services worse (or non-existent) in some areas....