More Merseytravel route contracts have changed between operators today, amongst the changes inthe Liverpool area being Sunday AM route 161 (Liverpool – Rainhill) moving to ACE Travel from Halton Transport, Sunday 168 (Aigburth – Bootle) moving to ACE Travel from Arriva (Peoplesbus still operate alternate Sunday diagrams as before) and routes 173/4 (Belle Vale – Sefton Park/Penny Lane/Allerton Library) moving from Peoplesbus to HTL Buses.

I haven’t been able to get any photographs of route 161 as I’ve been in work however I have ‘before and after’ photos of the other two!

Noted last Sunday on route 168 was Arriva 4431 MX09 LXN Alexander Dennis Trident 2/Alexander Dennis Enviro400 at the Aigburth terminus.

This was probably one of the quietest rides I’ve had on these Enviro400s since their delivery (as they usually run busy route 60) and it was nice to be able to see the interior properly and ride them on the final day!

They differ from the Birkenhead examples in having low back seats and the newer moquette, however they are very pleasant buses to ride and seem to be very well kept.

Noted today on route 168 (with ACE Travel) were Dart MPD 729 V731 DNL & Enviro200Dart 723 MX60 BWY. Sadly due to rain I was unable to get a photo fo 729 V731 DNL however I did manage a photo of 723 MX60 BWY, however even with this the registration is slightly blurred!

A big change to go from an Enviro400 one week to an Enviro200, however the Enviro200 probably is sufficient for most of the day as the Enviro400 I was on was nearly empty! Peoplesbus had similarly sized Optare Solo SR M960 Y1 BUS and Optare Solo M880SL YJ10 EYR on the route today!

Noted earlier in the week on route training for route 168 was Dart MPD 715 X668 LLX.

Route 173/4 with Peoplesbus was operated almost the entire time by Dart MPDs YT51 EAA, KU52 RXF/G/S however in later weeks, silver Optare Solo M880SL YJ10 EYR was a regular on the routes.

Seen during the final week was Solo YJ10 EYR at Belle Vale (LED destinations working properly now too!) and the staff bus MetroRider R437 NFR!

HTL Buses began the route from today, with HTL Dart MPD 55 SN06 BMO and Dawsons Rentals Enviro200Dart KX59 CYW. HTL have another four Enviro200Darts on loan from Dawsons Rentals, KX59 CYV, CYW, CYY, CYZ, while KX58 AVG as a spare should be arriving later this week!

As can be seen by the time I got a photo of SN06 BMO it was raining quite heavily!

The Enviro200Dart has a more ‘basic’ interior than some others, without the central ceiling piece with integrated lights, it has a plain laminate ceiling with normal lighting, but still very pleasant clean quite buses.

Today also marked the change on routes 82 and 86 as they have become Quality Bus Partnership routes between Arriva & Stagecoach such that all services should now use low floor buses with engines to Euro3 or better standards! It is also expected that the first Wright Gemini DL 2s will enter service this week at Arriva Speke as a result so another blog post later in the week with details of these (and maybe more HTL 173/4 photos!) will be made!

To see more of my photos from this week along with many other recent ones I have uploaded please view my Flickr page!