In Photos: Mersey Road Run Marks the End of Deregulation
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
We joined the NWVRT for the day, along with local preservation groups Merseyside Transport Trust and the 201 Bus Group. The run marked the end of four decades of deregulated bus services on Merseyside and 125 years of Laird Street garage, and one brand-new bus was there to show what comes next.
Two Milestones, One Road Run
The timing was deliberate. 2026 brings the biggest change to Merseyside’s bus services in forty years, as the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) takes control of the network through bus franchising. For anyone new to the term, it reverses the model created by deregulation in the 1980s. Instead of operators deciding routes, frequencies and fares themselves, the authority sets the network and companies run it under contract, the same principle already in place on Greater Manchester’s Bee Network.
St Helens became the first area to switch on Sunday 6th September, when the entire Jackson Street fleet changed over literally overnight in a handover between Arriva, LCRCA and Stagecoach. The Wirral follows on Sunday 25th October, and it will be the first time in forty years that the buses based at Laird Street have come under authority control. The garage’s operation passes from Arriva to Go North West, which was named alongside Stagecoach as one of the first two franchise operators. Route and timetable details are on the Merseytravel website.
The second milestone is the 125th anniversary of Laird Street garage, covered in more detail below.
Jackson Street: Where the Run Began
St Helens Corporation’s fleet joined MPTE on 1st April 1974 following local government reorganisation. It brought around 130 fairly uniform Leyland Titans and AEC Regents, plus 64 AEC Swifts, the last of which were delivered around the time of the takeover.
The original garage in Hall Street closed after trolleybus services ended in 1957, with the bus fleet moving to an expanded Jackson Street. The current covered building dates from 1964, after operations were consolidated there. Hall Street survives as the home of the North West Museum of Road Transport, which houses several former St Helens Corporation vehicles.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
St Helens was represented on the run by AEC Swift 248 (EDJ 248J) with Marshall bodywork and Leyland Titan 55 (MDJ 555E) with East Lancashire bodywork. Today Jackson Street sits at the front of the franchising rollout, and 60 of the new diesel Wright StreetDeck Ultorliners are already in service there.
Laird Street at 125
Laird Street opened in 1901 as a tram depot, when Birkenhead Corporation began running electric trams, and it is still described locally as one of the oldest bus depot sites in Britain in regular use. It was the home of Birkenhead Corporation Transport, whose blue and cream buses were absorbed into MPTE in 1969. The fleet contributed just over 220 vehicles, mainly Leylands with small batches of Guys and Daimlers. Most carried Massey bodywork built in Wigan, and a final batch of Northern Counties-bodied Leyland Atlanteans arrived just as MPTE took over.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassaor) |
The garage took on a wider role in 1986. Wallasey Corporation’s Seaview Road garage had remained in use until that year, when operations moved to Laird Street on the creation of Merseybus. Laird Street then became the base for all of Merseybus’s Wirral operations, and later passed to Arriva. In October 2026 its operation moves to Go North West, which, as we noted in our coverage of the Treka CitySprints, will run 117 buses on 45 routes on the Wirral Peninsula.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
The garage’s anniversary also got a Birkenhead guest. Former Birkenhead Corporation 93 (RCM 493), a Massey-bodied Leyland Leopard, joined the line-up at Woodside Ferry to join the convoy on to Laird Street, a fitting reminder of the Corporation fleet that once called the garage home.
A Fleet Through the Decades
The event programme listed eleven vehicles for the day. The Corporation era was represented by Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport (LCPT) Leyland Titan L255 (VKB 711) with Crossley bodywork and Leyland Atlantean L501 (501 KD) with Metro-Cammell (MCW) bodywork, alongside the two St Helens buses above and a very special Wallasey bus.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
That bus is Wallasey Corporation’s Leyland Atlantean 1 (FHF 451). It entered service in December 1958 as the first production Atlantean in service, a short while before Glasgow Corporation’s LA1, and was one of a batch of thirty with MCW bodywork. It was withdrawn in 1977 and has been in the care of the 201 Bus Group since 1979.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
The PTE era followed. Merseyside PTE began operating at the end of 1969, and its Verona green livery appeared in the early 1970s, gaining brown relief in 1979 and lasting until 1988. Buying policy settled on Leyland’s Atlantean and National, and if one bus summed up the typical MPTE vehicle it was the Alexander-bodied Atlantean. Exactly 589 of these near-identical AL type buses were delivered between 1972 and 1984, and three of them took part: 1162 (XKC 789J), 1301 (DKC 301L) and 1365 (DKC 365L). MPTE also used East Lancs, MCW and Willowbrook bodywork to a lesser degree, and the run included Willowbrook-bodied Atlantean 1847 (WWM 924W) and Leyland National 1000 (OHF 858S).
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
Deregulation then changed everything. On 26th October 1986, MPTE’s bus operations passed to MTL, which had to face a multitude of competitors almost from day one. It went on to buy large numbers of buses to refresh its ageing fleet, supplemented by 250 Leyland Titans from London, before the company was bought by Arriva, minus Gillmoss garage, which Stagecoach later bought from GTL. MTL was represented by Northern Counties-bodied Volvo Olympian 277.
To The Modern Day
If the preserved buses represented the past, Wright StreetDeck Ultroliner 3704 was the hero of the day. Registered MA76 ZKR, it wore the full yellow, black and grey Metro livery and sat among the visiting vehicles looking every bit the newcomer. The 76 in its registration means it was first registered from 1st September, so it is brand new, and its fleet number falls in the 3701 to 3750 block reported for the 50 diesel StreetDeck Ultroliners bound for Laird Street. In other words, it is a preview of what Wirral passengers will be riding from 25th October.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
Up close it carries the Metro roundel on the front and side, along with Liverpool City Region and Metro Mayor branding, and yellow seating is visible through the windows. It is the same identity first seen on the region’s electric buses, and a long way from the cream and blue of the Corporation buses that parked in the same yard decades ago.
The Metro Fleet Takes Shape
The event also gave a glimpse of the buses LCRCA is providing for the franchised network. A number of Wright StreetDeck Ultroliners were pictured having some much-needed downtime. The electric Electroliners and diesel Ultroliners versions are easy to tell apart, with a glass staircase and a slightly different livery on the rear of the Electroliners.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
The Electroliners have entered service at Gillmoss alongside Alexander Dennis Enviro400EVs, as we reported when Gillmoss was electrified. Sixty of the diesel StreetDecks Ultroliners are now in service at Jackson Street, with the remaining 50 due to be transferred to Laird Street by 26th October.
In addition to the double-deckers, Laird Street and Jackson Street are receiving a large number of Alexander Dennis Enviro200MMC single deckers, like the one pictured below at Jackson Street.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
Over on the NWVRT Facebook group, members have enthusiastically shared pictures of several examples of the longer of the two variants ordered by LCRCA under construction at the Scarborough factory, part of the £57m Alexander Dennis order. A small number of Mercedes-Benz Sprinters with 16-seat Treka Bus bodywork have also been split between the two garages for services that need a small bus, which we covered in our look at the Treka CitySprints.
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| Tom Harrison (Bus Ambassador) |
Timeline
- 1901: Laird Street opens as a tram depot in Birkenhead
- 1957: St Helens trolleybus services end and the bus fleet moves to an expanded Jackson Street
- December 1958: Wallasey puts the first production Leyland Atlantean, FHF 451, into service
- 1964: Jackson Street’s current covered building completed
- 1969: Merseyside PTE formed, absorbing the Liverpool, Birkenhead and Wallasey fleets
- 1st April 1974: St Helens and Southport fleets join MPTE
- 26th October 1986: Deregulation. MPTE’s buses pass to MTL
- January 2026: Stagecoach and Go-Ahead named as the first franchise operators
- 6th September 2026: St Helens becomes the first franchised area
- 10th October 2026: Mersey Road Run from Jackson Street to Laird Street
- 25th October 2026: Wirral franchise begins, with Laird Street’s operation passing to Go North West
- Throughout 2027: Franchising extends across the rest of the region
Join the NWVRT
Events like the Mersey Road Run only happen because of the people who save and restore these vehicles. The North West Vehicle Restoration Trust was set up on 5th August 2011 to bring together people with a common interest in saving and restoring historic vehicles and keeping restoration skills alive for future generations. It is a registered charity (no. 1143261) based in Kirkby, building a collection that reflects vehicle design and operation from the late 1940s through to the late 2000s.
Members get access to events like this one, can help with restoration projects, and can join the Trust’s annual open and running day each June, where the collection can be ridden and photographed. If you would like to be on board for the next one, find out more and join at nwvrt.com.
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