Former Liverline Buildings - Liverpool - August - 2012 -

[georgie]

some history taken from wiki on how liverline was formed


History

In 1986 prior to deregulation the of bus industry the then Conservative government under the direction of the Secretary of State for Transport Nicholas Ridley stipulated that some former National Bus Company (NBC) divisions needed to be split in order to boost competition. Ribble Motor Services whose operations stretched across North West England - from Cumbria to the East Lancashire/West Yorkshire borders and Greater Manchester to West Lancashire/North Merseyside was one such company and in the Summer of 1986 its Merseyside - Aintree and Bootle, West Lancashire - Skelmersdale and Greater Manchester - Wigan depots were incorporated into a new company - North Western Road Car Company Ltd taking the name of a company which historically had been based in Stockport and whose operations in Cheshire, Derbyshire, South-East Lancashire and what became Greater Manchester had been absorbed by NBC into Crosville Motor Services, Ribble and Trent Motor Traction and the SELNEC PTE in 1974. The head office for this 'new' North Western was at 503 Hawthorne Road, Bootle (next door but one to Bootle Depot at 499 Hawthorne Road) later moving to the Aintree depot in Liverpool and a new livery of red and blue separated by a grey diamond stripe replaced NBC's poppy red along with promotional branding of A New Kind of Service, From a Different Kind of Bus Company.

Drawlane ownership

In March 1988 North Western was sold by NBC to one of the emerging groups in the British bus industry the Drawlane Group Ltd - later known as British Bus Ltd. Prior to this North Western had been expanding - the most notable being the introduction of high frequency minibus services to areas of Liverpool/Merseyside like Kensington, Wavertree, Old Swan, West Derby, Broadgreen/Knotty Ash/Dovecot and Huyton which traditionally were not part of Ribble's operating territory and had seen a decline in service provision from former PTE/NBC operators Merseybus and Crosville in particular after Crosville closed its Liverpool depot after an industrial dispute in February 1987. Many expected Merseybus to retaliate against North Western, but it was under siege from new companies like Fareway and Liverline (see later) who began extensive operations in North/South Liverpool. This allowed North Western's competitive moves to pass unchallenged and further expansion in Liverpool seemed likely. However the next opportunity for expansion came with the troubled Crosville Motor Services.

Crosville acquisition

Crosville like Ribble had seen its English and Welsh operations - now Crosville Cymru, split and after abandoning Liverpool (see above) what remained of Crosville in Cheshire and in particular the Wirral was unprofitable due to increased competition not only from Merseybus but also from Staffordshire based Potteries Motor Traction (PMT) which was in a phase of expansion and began a new operation on the Wirral called Red Rider as well as new entrants like Busman Buses, CMT Buses, Gold Star and Wirral Bus. Crosville was sold by NBC in 1988 to American banking consortium ATL but ATL's acquisition of Crosville was thought to be a short term move for them to sell the company on for a profit and indeed ATL did sell Crosville on to Drawlane in the Autumn of 1989. Initially Drawlane claimed it wanted to develop Crosville and by the end of 1989 a brighter 1980s style green/cream livery and Crosville logos was introduced. However these operations bordered not only North Western's but those of Midland Red North which was also owned by Drawlane and at the beginning of 1990 Drawlane took the decision to absorb the Crosville operations at Runcorn, Warrington and Winsford into North Western with those at Crewe and Macclesfield becoming part of Midland Red North. Additionally the Crosville depot's at Rock Ferry - Birkenhead, Chester and Ellesmere Port were sold by Drawlane to PMT who maintained Crosville fleetnames albeit with PMT's red/yellow livery.

Bee Line, Amberline and Liverline

In the early 1990s Drawlane purchased Greater Manchester-based Bee Line Buzz Company Ltd from the BET Group. Bee Line used high frequency minibuses and was a major competitor for former PTE operator GM Buses. After the Drawlane takeover Bee Line became a subsidiary of North Western who retained Bee Line branding but began to refocus the service network more towards the south of Greater Manchester with conventional sized vehicles replacing most of the minibuses. In the Spring of 1993 British Bus Ltd - what Drawlane had become, acquired Crosville Cymru from the National Express Group who in 1989 had purchased a Liverpool based operator Amberline. This proved a good move for North Western as Amberline's South Liverpool operations were consolidated further when British Bus acquired of one of Liverpool's three medium-sized independents Liverline Travel Services Ltd in the Spring/Summer of 1993. Liverline were one of the newcomers to the bus industry and like with Bee Line in Manchester North Western retained the Liverline branding for this mostly South Liverpool operation.

just to save space and instead of copying and pasting all the txt ,heres the current state and plans for the building

http://forms.sefton.gov.uk/planning/..._Statement.pdf

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...0252-30263725/

was passing this place and decided to take a look after i remembered it closed some time ago

last use was with arriva for there northwest body repairs and paint shop operations

sadly no reminders of liverline or north western anywhere in these buildings

explored solo

[Clough]

Looks rocking to me!

[georgie]

Looks rocking to me!

cheers man not much but every little helps lol