New services including better connections between employment zones and hospitals are to form part of the wide-ranging bus franchising scheme beginning across the Liverpool City Region later this year. It was confirmed in September 2023 that Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram would take the move to bring bus services back into public control.

Under franchising, the Liverpool City Region will become the second area in England after Greater Manchester to bring its buses back under public control. The move will allow the Combined Authority (CA) to commission bus services across the six boroughs of Liverpool, Wirral, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Halton with the power to set fares and routes and make decisions about where profits will be reinvested into services.

St Helens and Wirral will be the first of the authority areas to roll-out the scheme before the remaining four locations next year. With preparations now underway for those initial services, new details have emerged about what we can expect when the scheme expands into Knowsley, Sefton and Liverpool.

New services including better connections between employment zones and hospitals are to form part of the wide-ranging bus franchising scheme beginning across the Liverpool City Region later this year | Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

placeholder image — New services including better connections between employment zones and hospitals are to form part of the wide-ranging bus franchising scheme beginning across the Liverpool City Region later this year | Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

When they meet at Mann Island next week, members of the CA will be asked to endorse an update on the scheme including a series of key improvements to be implemented from day one. Sefton is expected to welcome franchised services from July 2027 with Liverpool and Knowsley following suit in September.

Among the changes being made to the network in Knowsley include a regular link between Kirkby and Halewood seven-days a week via Huyton Industrial Estate, a direct service between Halewood and Whiston Hospital as well as improved provision to Broadgreen Hospital. Greater access will be made to Knowsley Village and Knowsley Industrial Park with evening and Sunday journeys introduced on some services.

Half hour services could be introduced along Great Howard Street in Liverpool alongside further evening and Sunday journeys. Improved connections will be enabled between Speke, Mossley Hill, Smithdown Road, and Vauxhall to Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool Women’s University Hospital, and Knowledge Quarter while a more consistent and customer friendly timetable linking Netherley to Broadgreen Hospital, Alder Hey and the Women’s.

In Sefton, a circular service is to be introduced in Southport improving links to Southport & Formby District General Hospital with a new route linking to Ocean Plaza. The 300 service will operate in full on evenings to and from Southport while Litherland and Pendle will benefit from additional ruins to Aintree Hospital.

Some timetable changes where frequency on common sections can be improved through timetable co-ordination as well as standardised operating patterns. In the months preceding the introduction of the Knowsley, Liverpool, and Sefton networks there will be a program of stakeholder engagement to ensure that customers are fully aware of changes and where to find the information that they need to make their current journeys but also to make new journeys.