Birkenhead’s Baffling Buses

Both Wallasey and Birkenhead Corporations ran tram systems but they never met!

Wallasey trams got no further south than Seacombe whilst Birkenhead trams terminated at Woodside. In between lay the vast expanse of The Great Float and Birkenhead Docks.

In a precious blog, fbb showed a Wallasey bus crossing the Wallasey Road swing bridge …

..; presumably happily entering Birkenhead territory. Pictures suggest some joint routes as here with route 10 from Wallasey …

,,, and here from the blue livery of Birkenhead Corporation.

New Ferry takes its name from a new ferry (Clever eh?) across the Mersey well to the south of Birkenhead, Indeed a recent (but far from up-to-date) on-line map shows a route 10A via Wallasey Ferry Road.

But an older map shows 12 and 12A.

Assorted 10s and 11s were running via Duke Street Bridge.

Wallasey buses seem always to be a fairly insipid weak yellow …

… although with the arrival of the Merseyside PTE (which absorbed then Wallasey and Birkenhead fleets) some buses appeared in a PTE version of the paint job which actually looked yellow.

Perhaps they were always yellow and faded a bit in the heat of the Wirral sun? Either way,  all these route numbers would historically have been ex Corporation numbers, or, at least, in a similar historic series.

Then cane a county-wide numberings sort-out! and the Arriva routes in the Wirral were numbered in the 4xx series. So the more recent (but out-of-date) on-line map shows a 410 and 411 (descendants of the former 10 and 11) crossing Duke Street Bridge.

Tower Road, by contrast, had a large variety of numbers, some in the 4xx series.

Cofused.com?

This blog is too short to sort out the history of these services, but for enthusiastic visitors who want to look at these beautiful bridges, it would be good to see which buses you might catch today to get there.

Fortunately, the PTE’s web site has what purports to be an up-to-date map and (pause for excited gasp of breath) it is in full colour.

So we start with buses via Wallasey Bridge Road. 

That’s easy – there aren’t any!

There are buses nearby, at both ends even, but nothing crosses the non swinging swing bridge.

What about Duke Street Bridge?

Merseyside PTE pretends that the Great Float and Birkenhead Docks simply do not exist, but fbb promises you that the 410, and only the 410, does go that way.

North from Birkenhead it runs every 15 minutes.

Southbound, it runs to Clatterbridge Hospital where the PTE provides a modest facility of shelter and timetables …

… but no maps.

We will check out the New Brighton terminus in a Jiffy.

And so to Tower Road Bridge…

… where we now have only a 409 and a 411. Both run from Birkenhead and both are called “Circular” by the PTE. 

They are not! 

They are both straight line routes which end in n a small lollipop reminiscent ot those sucked by “Who Loves Ya Baby?” Theo Kojak.

The blob is needed to get buses round the intricate Birkenhead road network to serve both the Woodside ferry terminal …

… and the Bus Station.

Has it got an enquiry office?

Guess?

But it is horseshoe shaped and in quite good nick.

So the 410 and 411 both run to New Brighton …