BRT turns 35 (Part 2 of 2)

Britain’s first bus rapid transit system (BRT) turns 35 this month. Our Northern Correspondent concludes his post on the Runcorn Busway Part 1 here

Maximum Busway driving speeds were designed for 40 mph, with priority signals where Busway intersected the local road network. Average bus operating speeds were said to be 50 per cent higher than on conventional roads. Crosville Motor Services originally operated the Busway services, initially using dual-door Seddon Pennine RUs followed by Leyland Nationals, the Busway being designed solely for single deck operation. Widnes Corporation Transport found themselves over a small section of Busway in joint operation with Crosville.

A number of post-deregulation skirmishes in Widnes, notably in 1995, between North Western and Widnes Transport successor Halton Borough Transport has led to Halton operating competitively on Busway. These explain Halton’s current Busway services, up to seven an hour on 14, 61 and 62.

Core Busway services are Crosville's successor Arriva North West’s circulars 1 and 2, each operating every five to seven minutes, often using 42 seat Wright bodied Scanias. Hourly evening services operate under contract, by Huyton Travel, with Arriva operating to and from Murdishaw every 30 minutes.

One interesting thing about Busway is that a large regional secondary school has its own bus bays along it.

Busway has seen its share of problems over the years. A small number of double decks have bashed bridges along the single deck only Busway. There have been a small number of crashes, including with private vehicles not supposed to be on Busway. By far the worst issue is anti-social behaviour after dark on an otherwise relatively isolated network seeing few evening services. In spite of these problems, that little is now heard of Busway shows it has stood the test of time.