16 New Buses for Netherton to Liverpool Services 52/52A

Sunday March 1st 2015 saw Arriva North West introduce the latest batch of sixteen brand new double deck buses into traffic at Bootle depot to operate on two of Arriva North West's routes in Liverpool.  This represented £3 million of a £10 million investment in new buses which hit the roads of Merseyside throughout the first quarter of the year.  A small launch for the new vehicles was held on Saturday February 28th in Mons Square in the New Strand Shopping Centre.

They are the first brand new double decker buses delivered to Bootle depot since a batch of twelve Alexander Dennis Enviro400 bodied Alexander Dennis Trident IIs which were delivered to the depot in 2009.  Bootle depot has always had a double deck allocation which in recent times has included former Arriva London DAF DB250s Alexander ALX400 and Volvo B7TL Wright Eclipse Geminis. 

The routes these vehicles will  serve is the 52 and 52A between Liverpool and Netherton via Bootle New Strand.  Previously the route was operated by VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar and Wright Pulsar 2 although on occasions other vehicles types were used on these routes.

The vehicles that will be operating on services 52 and 52A are sixteen brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro400s on the Alexander Dennis Enviro40D chassis.  They are powered by the Cummins ISB6.7EV engine and feature a six speed ZF 6HP1203B gearbox - featuring Euro V emissions. The new Enviro400s feature a higher specification from the vehicles that previously operated this service although they aren't quite to Arriva MAX or Arriva Sapphire specification.

Internally the vehicles have Esteban Civic V2 seats with the lower deck featuring three tip up seats and around twenty modular seats which are found over the wheel arches and the back seats of the lower and upper deck. All the 78 seats are covered by a navy blue e-leather whilst both decks have a bright and airy feel to them due to the LED lighting.  They also feature on board free WiFi which is provided by Icomera's Moovbox.  Front, rear and side LED destination equipment is also fitted.

Howard Farrall, the area managing director for Arriva Merseyside said: "Arriva is committed to providing the best possible service for our customers, and we continue to invest in our fleet.

"New buses not only make a huge difference to our passengers in terms of comfort and reliability, but also have an impressive environmental impact. The 10s are an important group of services which link St Helens, Prescot, Page Moss, Huyton and Liverpool, and are part of the Quality Bus Network, so it's great that we are able to invest in new buses for the route."

"The 16 brand new buses on the 52 service are a real boost for bus passengers in Merseyside. We are delighted to introduce double deck buses to these really popular routes, we hope our passengers enjoy the view from the top deck!"

This batch of Enviro400s follows on numerically from the batch delivered to Arriva North West's St Helens depot for services 10 and 10A between St Helens and Liverpool. For our readers who may be interested the details of these vehicles they are as follows: 4621 SL64 JHX, 4622 SN15 LME, 4623 SN15 LMF, 4624 SN15 LMJ, 4625 SN15 LMK, 4626 SN15 LML, 4627 SN15 LMM, 4628 SN15 LMO, 4629 SN15 LMU, 4630 SN15 LMV, 4631 SN15 LMX, 4632 SN15 LMY, 4633 SN15 LNA, 4634 SN15 LNC, 4635 SN15 LND and 4636 SN15 LNE. 

I sampled two vehicles on their first day in traffic, 4628 and 4623.  I was pleased to find the vehicles to be very warm on what wasn't the warmest of days and the complimentary WiFi powered by Icomera's Moovbox worked very well on both vehicles.  As with the Enviro400's at St Helens, I found the e-leather seating to very comfortable for each journey. 

I look forward to reporting on the launch of even more brand new double deckers for Arriva Bus Wales Chester depot in the next couple of weeks and also at Arriva North West Green Lane depot later on in the year were thirty five are due for services 12 and 13 that operate between Liverpool and Stockbridge Village and service 15 that operates between Liverpool and Huyton.

To celebrate the launch of these new vehicles Arriva North West offered free travel for all passengers travelling on services 52 and 52A on their first day in service. Passengers were issued with a Zero Fare ticket as shown above.