Arriva Cross River Express Services Merseyside

[ivanhoe]

Just come back after spending a few days in Liverpool. Being billeted in Victoria Street, I noticed the many Cross River Expresses operating, in many cases to areas well served by Merseyrail.
Have these splendid buses taken passengers from Merseyrail or have they encouraged new passengers who may well have driven before? They looked well loaded, albeit it being morning rush. If my memory serves, there were few such services prior to bus deregulation. Indeed, I could only remember the night tunnel bus.

 

[jamesst]

They generally serve the areas that aren't particularly close to merseyrail. For example the 437 (West Kirby to Liverpool) goes via Greasby and Upton whereas the West Kirby Merseyrail line goes through Hoylake and Meols.
The 432 (New Brighton to Liverpool) goes via Liscard, the railway line goes through Wallasey.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

. If my memory serves, there were few such services prior to bus deregulation. Indeed, I could only remember the night tunnel bus.

Prior to deregulation there was the 31 and 32 Liverpool to New Brighton services which I believe were a kind of replacement for when the ferry to New Brighton stopped running.

 

[Statto]

The cross river routes[Stagecoach included] were popular before the loop shut down, the routes might pass by stations but serve large areas that are beyond walking distance to stations, like 464 Liverpool-New Ferry passes Bebington station but serves a large area Higher Bebington that's not near the station.

Stagecoach are upgrading the 471/472/X8 to Stagecoach Gold standard buses in the Autumn.