Happy Al's...still shown as such on their website.

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I am interested to learn how this name became the name carried on the buses. Which area do they operate in and do they have coach holidays as part of their business that are run by their coaches?

 

[Jellyfish261]

I think they are from the Wirral - they used to operate the Chester Uni shuttle using a Volvo Olympian between Parkgate and Thornton campuses.

The ride was always an experience (to say the least) - I don't think my 21 plate car can match the speed of those journeys... (!)

 

[JD2168]

Happy Al’s usually run around the Liverpool & Chester area. Usually run a number of school services using Gemini’s & a route into Chester. I have seen they have some of the ex First StreetLite’s in the fleet.

 

[martinsh]

Happy Als used to be a business client many years ago. I once met Al - the company name was definitely ironic !

 

[Statto]

Al's are from the Wirral, the depot & headquarters is near Birkenhead Park Station, the depot is also known as Al's corner.

Al's operate mostly Merseytravel School contracts, & of course private hire, but they do operate the 22, X22 West Kirby - Chester, via Heswall, Parkgate, Neston, some journeys go via Willaston, they did operate non School Merseytravel contracts some 10 years ago, but gave them up.

The fleet is secondhand from other operators, mostly ex London stock, but they do have a couple of MMC 400s from new, they have a couple of Volvo B9TLs which were for the A4 Bath - Bristol Airport route branded as Air Decker.

One thing i find amusing, Al's have one of the ex London OmniCitys with the side blind stuck on H91 Hounslow West, which they haven't bothered to remove yet.

 

[Pub]

Als used to operate the Reaseheath Coliege. Nantwich contracr from Wirral, 3 buses but now Selwyns has that work.

 

[83G/84D]

The Happy part was dropped several years ago, it’s now just Al’s.

You can just call him Al now! (reminds me of a song from 1986!)

 

[Leedsbusman]

The Happy part was dropped several years ago, it’s now just Al’s.

You can just call him Al now! (reminds me of a song from 1986!)

But only if he can call you Betty.

 

[Flange Squeal]

The Happy part was dropped several years ago, it’s now just Al’s.

Al could do with updating his website, which still proclaims himself to be happy in both imagery and wording! https://www.alscoaches.com/

 

[Blindtraveler]

They were doing the Stenaline Birkenhead work in 2019 when I sailed from Belfast to Liverpool on a Saturday night. There was a wonderfully cheery half-Liverpudlian, half-Asian driver who was doing the foot passenger disembarkation from the bus on the Sunday morning and the same driver then ran the service to Hamilton Square Station. As it was damp and cold and generally far too early for human habitation, he actually hung around at the ferry terminal way past his departure time so that passengers could sit in the warm rather than be shuttled to the station and dumped outside way before it opened and the first train to Liverpool ran.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Al could do with updating his website, which still proclaims himself to be happy in both imagery and wording! https://www.alscoaches.com/

That website still makes mention of the fact that their coaches are used by the holiday coach travel industry, as an old friend once saw one of their coaches very many miles away at a resort down south, working on a major coach holiday company holiday. I think that the Alfa Travel holiday coach travel company in Euxton used Grayway Coaches based at Ince in a similar manner.

 

[83G/84D]

But only if he can call you Betty.

Very good!

 

[MotCO]

I recall several ex-Metrobus Olympians found their way to Al's fleet.