 | |
 Plaxton Pointer 2 bodied Dennis Dart SLF at Mill Park in September 2016 | |
| Parent | Larry Smith |
|---|---|
| Founded | August 1981 |
| Defunct | 5 October 2018 |
| Headquarters | Prenton |
| Service area | Merseyside Cheshire |
| Service type | Bus services |
| Hubs | West Kirby Birkenhead Arrowe Park Hospital Heswall Chester Crosby Clatterbridge Hospital |
| Fleet | 41 (February 2017) |
Avon Buses [1] was a bus operator based in Prenton providing services in Merseyside and Cheshire, England.
Avon Minis, as the company was originally known, was founded in August 1981 by Larry Smith. By 1995 it had six buses and ran mostly school contracts plus one local route. The newest buses were two Leyland Titans. [2]
The company expanded with services starting in Crosby, Fazakerley and a former outstation in Bootle. The business was renamed Avon Buses in 2004/05.
Avon Buses took over former Arriva North West routes 421 and 422, renumbering them to 22 and 22A. Avon then decided to renumber service 22A to 24 so it would not be confused with Helms Coaches service 23. They also took over five other groups of routes at the same time. After the Helms Coaches service was withdrawn, Avon Buses decided not to raise the frequency of routes 22 and 24 but add an additional Sunday 23 service from Heswall to Chester Bus Exchange, which was withdrawn in April 2011.[ citation needed ]
In October 2013 Avon took on eight routes from Impera Bus & Coach [3] after Impera ceased to trade. [4] [5]
29 June 2014 saw the end of two commercial Avon routes, (Route 40/40A Saughall Massie - Mill Park) & (Route 80 Woodside - Arrowe Park Hospital) It also saw the end of Merseytravel routes 197 & 213
On 6 July 2014 Avon took over Cumfybus's daytime 135 and 235 service between Bootle and Aintree.
On 10 August 2014 Avon took over Merseytravel services 144/145 from Peoplesbus running between Litherland and Bootle. Two morning and two afternoon services started and finished at Arrowe Park Hospital, numbered 143.
In September 2014 the 22 was withdrawn and replaced by Stagecoach X22 running between Heswall bus station and Chester, avoiding Williston.
From 8 December 2014, some of the longer Avon routes were split up, interworked with one other. Routes 86/87 were cut back to Heswall, whilst the section of route between Heswall and West Kirby was renumbered 88. Routes 77/77A were also cut back to Heswall, with the section of route between Heswall and West Kirby becoming the 82/82A. This had also happened before in August 2012 when routes 12 and 12A were split to become 12 and 93: the route remained unchanged with through journeys still possible.
On 1 September 2015 a new timetable was introduced on many routes and the 22 returned to its pre-September 2012 route.
On 5 September 2016 many of Avon's services were re-routed, cut or new destinations added. The 22 was extended from West Kirby to Moreton Cross and significantly rerouted to serve Newton, Greasby, Arrowe Park Hospital and Pensby. The 83 became a three buses a day service in each direction between Prenton and Liverpool.
As of August 2018 the fleet consisted of about 35 buses. [6]
The bulk of the fleet at the end consisted of Dennis Dart SLF and Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 Darts chassis with Caetano Nimbus, MCV Evolution and Plaxton Pointer 2 bodywork. September 2017 saw two former First Essex and Great Yarmouth ALX400 buses joined the fleet doing most School runs and some bus routes usually Monday-Friday
The initial Avon Buses livery was a dark blue with cream. In 1993 the livery became predominantly cream with blue stripes lined in gold. In 1998 the livery evolved again into cream with a blue skirt and black around the windows. A new livery was introduced 2016 with the arrival of five short Enviro200 buses. This livery was white with a blue skirt with the blue raising to the roof towards the rear, broken with a cream sash.
There were very few exceptions to the Avon livery although during the 1990s, some coaches operated in a red livery branded 'Avon Executive' and a Leyland National Greenway carried a Merseytravel livery of yellow, white and black as a dedicated bus for a contract between Heswall and West Kirby.
2017 saw Avon expand operations in the Liverpool area but a driver and vehicle shortage led to many service cancellations and the company at late June 2017 was in a state of crisis with most Merseytravel tendered and commercial services not running. However the crisis appeared to have been resolved by the end of June with most scheduled services running, but during July services were regularly cancelled again. Late August 2017 saw the company's fortunes improve.
On 5 October 2018, drivers were told that the firm was to cease trading immediately. Issues cited for the closure included rising insurance and fuel costs, [7] [8] and Merseytravel's MyTicket, a youth ticket that provided unlimited travel for £2 a day. The use of MyTicket led cash-bought tickets on buses to decrease. [9] [8] Following the closure, Arriva North West would provide limited services for services 10, 10A and 83A. [7] [10]
Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire began running the 22/X22 beginning on 8 October 2018. From 5 November 2018 Stagecoach took over the 16/17 and 80/82 and Eazibus were given the contract to run a new route called the 73. [8] [10]
Merseyside is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Welsh county of Flintshire across the Dee Estuary to the southwest, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Liverpool.
Merseyrail is a commuter rail network which serves Merseyside and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail serves 69 stations, 67 of which it manages, across two lines – the Northern Line and the Wirral Line. The network uses 750 V DC third rail electrified lines having 75.0 miles (120.7 km) of routes, of which 6.5 miles (10.5 km) are underground. Since January 2023, Merseyrail commenced replacing its train fleet, withdrawing the Class 507 and 508 trains and introducing 53 new Class 777 trains. The network carried 25.5 million passengers in the 2022/2023 statistical period.
Heswall is a town on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England and a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 it was part of Cheshire.
Merseytravel is the passenger transport executive, responsible for the coordination of public transport in the Liverpool City Region in North West England. Merseytravel was established on 1 December 1969 as the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive. From 1 April 2014, with the creation of the Liverpool City Region, Merseytravel expanded its area of operation from the metropolitan county of Merseyside to also include the Borough of Halton.
Upton is a village in the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula, England, and is situated within 4 miles (6.4 km) of Birkenhead, 4 miles (6.4 km) of the Dee Estuary, a similar distance from the River Mersey, and 2 miles (3.2 km) from Liverpool Bay. The village is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the metropolitan county of Merseyside. Upton was in the traditional county of Cheshire. At the 2011 census, the population was 16,130.
Irby is a village on the Wirral Peninsula, in Merseyside, England. The village covers an area of 20 square kilometres. To the north of Irby lies the associated hamlet of Irby Hill. It is part of the Greasby, Frankby and Irby Ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral and is within the parliamentary constituency of Wirral West.
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Stagecoach Merseyside is a major operator of bus services in the city of Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside region. It is a sub-division of Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire.
The City Line is the brand name used by Merseytravel on suburban rail services in the Liverpool City Region starting eastwards from the mainline platforms of Liverpool Lime Street railway station.
GM Buses was a major bus operator serving the ten metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester in North West England. The company was formed in February 1986 by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive prior to deregulation on 26 October. In December 1993, it was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South in order to increase competition for services in the area, before they were sold to the FirstGroup and Stagecoach respectively.
Ribble Motor Services was a large regional bus operator in North West England based in Preston.
North Western Road Car Company was a bus operator based in Liverpool, England. The company operated between 1986 and 1998.
Glenvale Transport (GTL) was a bus company that operated services in Liverpool between July 2001 and July 2005.
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Stagecoach Midlands operates most bus routes in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire; the legal name for the company is Midland Red (South) Ltd.The company was previously split into Midland Red in Warwickshire and United Counties Omnibus in Northampton; however, the two were merged together under the Midland Red identity in 2021.
Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire is a major operator of bus services in North West England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and has its origins in the purchase of Ribble Motor Services in 1988 from the National Bus Company and Glenvale Transport in 2005. The head office of Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire is in Liverpool and was formed in 2011 following the merger of Stagecoach Merseyside and Ribble Motor Services which was the Chorley and Preston operations of Stagecoach North West.
Merseybus was a bus operator running bus and coach services predominantly in and around Merseyside, England. Based at Edge Lane, Liverpool, Merseybus was formed as an "arm's length" operation of the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive out of its bus operations following bus deregulation in Great Britain, and would be sold to Merseybus management and staff in a £5.9 million Employee Share Ownership Plan in 1993, forming the core of MTL's bus operations. Merseybus would later be sold along with all MTL operations to Arriva on 17 February 2000, and operations today trade under Arriva North West.
Media related to Avon Buses at Wikimedia Commons
