Merseyside Bus Alliance

[SL64 JFK]

Merseyside Bus Alliance
Arriva, Stagecoach and Merseytravel are going to be working together to form a new 'Bus Alliance', which will lead to increased investment in new, greener vehicles, as well as the retrofitting of USB charging and WiFi to all existing vehicles, with new ones having both features fitted as standard.

More information here on the Arriva website

[wirralbus]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance
Hopefully will lead to a unified bus fare scale as well , not the present fare scale where Stagecoach fares are cheaper than Arriva's but all the same price .

[E400]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance
Hopefully they'll run a proper QBP then and allow all tickets from each operator regardless of who is running the service.

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance
Hopefully Stagecoach will start investing in double deckers for Merseyside too

[RedPanda]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance
Is this for all merseyside bus routes operated by two or more operators or for that and routes operated by one operator?

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance

(04/12/2015 12:37)wirralbus Wrote:  Hopefully will lead to a unified bus fare scale as well , not the present fare scale where Stagecoach fares are cheaper than Arriva's but all the same price .

Hopefully not, Stagecoach would upscale them to the rate of Arriva

[RedPanda]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance
Just had a thought with the new powers Liverpool and Manchester have, we could see a bus unique to the north. Something like London's Routemaster but made by East Lancs for obvious reasons.

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance

(04/12/2015 21:26)RedPanda Wrote:  Just had a thought with the new powers Liverpool and Manchester have, we could see a bus unique to the north. Something like London's Routemaster but made by East Lancs for obvious reasons.

I really can't see that happening to be honest. A bus that is developed and built for operation in a specific city or region can be extremely expensive to develop and manufacture - and these combined would undoubtedly lead to a very high purchase cost in comparison to an "off the shelf" vehicle from any of Alexander Dennis', Wrightbus' or Optare's ranges

Do Liverpool and Manchester actually need a unique bus when there's plenty of other much cheaper (and proven) vehicles to choose from already on the market? Personally I really don't see the point in buying a Range Rover when a Ford Focus would do the job just as well

[RedPanda]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance

(04/12/2015 21:38)Dentonian Wrote:  Aren't you getting ahead of yourself? What if the Buses Bill doesn't get enacted? What if Elected mayor's don't want franchising powers? Worse still (given the actions and words of current mayors and candidates, what if they DO get powers and decide to slash suburban bus services - after all we do have 100% car ownership.......don't we? Why DOUBLE the price of each bus, just to copy London? Oh, and one minor technicality; East Lancs was taken over by Optare some years ago and subsequently shut down!

Probably I am getting ahead of myself though it is possible we could see buses by Optare... Not East Lancs
Other manufacturers are available

I don't know but it could boost tourism in for Liverpool having a unique bus

[MPTE1955]

RE: Merseyside Bus Alliance
Don't see how having a bus unique to the area could boost tourism, people that are not into buses really won't care that much. Like has already said such a thing costs more money and really there are better things to do than spend a lot more than is required by just getting a unique bus.