Ribble Motor Services - Services

Services

Ribble operated the service X60 and X70 between Manchester, Bolton, Chorley, Preston and Blackpool and this service was known as the world's most frequent express service in the sixties. A scheduled departure every fifteen minutes in the summer - with duplicates. Ribble, North Western, and Lancashire United were the most regular performers on this joint service.

The L3/L30 Liverpool, Bootle, Waterloo to Crosby stage carriage service was the most frequent in its class. Operating for nineteen hours a day, in the fifties and sixties a five minute interval peak hour service with a duplicate or two thrown in as well. Bootle depot operated the service, generally using the highest capacity double deckers on the route.

Bootle depot never received any allocation of the first generation of Leyland Atlanteans, this nearly all double-deck stage carriage service depot stayed loyal to the Leyland Titan PD2 and the PD3. In early seventies a downgraded 'White Lady' Atlantean was allocated to the depot. On Merseyside Aintree Depot had two Atlanteans allocated for the 101 service to Preston from Liverpool (1629/1630). In 1974 Bootle received a large batch of the Park Royal bodied Atlanteans, and from then on the Leyland Titan PD3s were in decline.

The least used Liverpool local service was the L11, introduced during the Second World War, the bus operated three times daily (twice on Sundays) from Crosby Bus Station through Little Crosby to Fort Crosby. Fort Crosby being a prison camp for the duration of the War. Little Crosby never had a bus service up till then.

After the war, the L11 was cut back to the section from Crosby Bus Station to Little Crosby (Dibb Lane), operating three times daily, and twice on Sundays. The service was mainly used by schoolchildren attending secondary school in Crosby. The L11 was the only service to leave Crosby Bus Station, turning left into Little Crosby Road. Ribble threatened to withdraw the service on several occasions, but the L11 survived into the seventies.

An unusual arrangement was made at Maghull, service 411 Liverpool, Crosby, Maghull, Ormskirk would meet an Ormskirk to Liverpool (311) at Hall Lane, Maghull. To ensure the two buses linked, the conductors had to obtain the signature of their counterpart from the other bus. Prior to the introduction of the 411 service, service 303 operated from Crosby, via Aintree to Liverpool; and the link was to ensure through passengers from Crosby to Aintree had their connection.

Liverpool Corporation operated several joint services with Ribble in the Bootle area of the city. Service 28 Old Haymarket to Netherton was a joint operation; but operated solely by the Corporation buses (Ribble and Merseyside Transport timetables).

Considered to be one of the most scenic termini in the British Isles is the Ribble service 667 Ambleside - Dungeon Ghyll; the service became 516 in the shake ups of the late sixties and early seventies; and the service passed to Stagecoach Cumberland in the 1990s. Dungeon Ghyll is at the head of the Langdale Valley, and is popular with hikers, and climbers. Towards the end of the route there was a short section of road where buses could become grounded, Ribble would send a delegation in the latest single deck vehicle down the valley, to test if the vehicle was suitable for the route.

In Southport Ribble services were not allowed to run the length of Lord Street, this was the prime area for the Southport Corporation buses. On leaving the Ribble Bus Station, several services operated the full length of the Promenade; whilst the S services and the Wigan services headed up Duke Street. This all changed when Southport became part of the Merseyside Metropolitan area, and Merseyside Transport operated the former Corporation services.

In the eighties when the current Bus Station in Ormskirk replaced the Ribble one, the first bus to arrive at the interchange,scraped the ground. The engineers discovered that there was insufficient clearance for certain types of buses.