Skelhorne Street Coach Station

[teenagewasteland]

RE: Skelhorne Street Coach Station

(18/12/2012 20:46)MTL0201 Wrote:  

(13/12/2012 20:41)teenagewasteland Wrote:  The thing about Skelhorne Street Coach Station was is it served a purpose. Nothing more, nothing less.

The whole complex, upstairs and downstairs, was cramped to the extreme. But it did its' job, and the facility was right in the centre of town.

The undercover bus stations are really becoming a thing of the past in these times - and it's purely to do with commercial considerations. North Western closed Skelhorne Street, along with Crosby and Southport bus stations within three years of de-reg, thereby cluttering the streets with more buses incurring more dead mileage. Super!

In the lower bus station, buses departing from the first couple of bays had to reverse half way out of the entrance, then go back in to the bus station to the exit, in order to exit. I do remember both levels being quite tight for vehicle movements. Think the owners of North Western at the time who sold the bus stations were asset strippers, more interested selling off any part of what the company owned if it made a profit.

Strange to think all the bus stations in Liverpool City Centre at D-Reg have been all demolished, Mann Island is more of a terminus than a bus station.

Although i do remember Skelhorne Street, i didn't use the bus station much, the time i started crossing the River, North Western wouldn't allow Saveaways on there buses due to a dispute with Merseytravel

The two bays nearest to the entrance you mention were for the L3 to Crosby - which was Ribble's busiest route on Merseyside. All sorts of fun reversing and the like. I can't remember if they had marshalls like at the Pier Head.

I think the bays from entrance to end went (in the mid-80s this is, mind you, I don't think much had changed in the previous 20 years) - L3/L35, 284, 211/351, L81, and then my memory gets hazy because it was all the Aintree depot routes to Maghull, Lydiate, Ormskirk, Skem and Southport, because I'm a Crosby boy!

Upstairs, as an area, was no less cramped, but it was a lot brighter and vehicle movements were less frequent. Upon climbing the stairs and entering the cavernous "shed", just to the right were the waiting stops for the long-distance 727 (ex-X27) to Barnoldswick, and 761 to Blackpool. The Leopard-coach operated 727 was unusual because you could use your Saveaway on it back to Crosby and be home in 20 minutes. I liked the peak-hour 727s to Southport. They were always operated by Bootle depot using Atlanteans. The depot trip back from Southport was rarely patronised, so the drivers often left out Formby, and raced straight down the by-pass towards Crosby.

I think there's an article that deserves to be written about the whole North Western saga, and there's very little of it that's likely to be complimentary. In fairness, I think any operator with significant land assets in the early deregulated period were always tempted to sell. Things suffered more on Merseyside because Ribble was heavily subsidised by the PTE, and the way North Western pulled back on routes was quite frightening, and as you said, the debacle with their refusal to accept Saveaways were downright embarrassing.