Earlier this year, Merseytravel, Liverpool City Council and the city region’s bus operators put together a major overhaul of how buses move around the city centre. Tony McDonough reports

A public consultation on proposed changes to bus routes in Liverpool city centre has now led to the publication of revised plans.

Earlier this year, Merseytravel, Liverpool City Council and the city region’s bus operators put together a major overhaul of how buses move around the city centre with the proposals impacting on 11,000 passengers a day.

The changes, due to be implemented from January 2020, were put out to consultation in the summer during which significant concerns were raised by bus users, businesses and local councillors.

Liverpool City Council sees the overhaul as an important element of its City Centre Connectivity Scheme (LCCCS) which aims to make the city centre “cleaner and more environmentally friendly, changing how traffic moves through the city, reducing congestion and improving air quality”.

Now, following the public consultation, key changes have been made to the proposals, including:

• Some peak time bus services to travel beyond Queen Square and into the commercial district of Dale Street, James Street & Lord Street to support commuter journeys.
• The continuation of a number of bus routes along Hanover Street rather than Duke Street, subject to bus priority measures being introduced on Hanover Street in advance of the January changes. This will be subject to further detail being worked through with all partners.
• More detailed customer information will be published in the coming weeks and in the lead up to the changes in January 2020.

The key principles of the original bus re-routing plans remain, with boarding and alighting points for the majority of services generally focussed in or around Queen Square and Liverpool One bus stations, with a frequent cross-city bus service running between both bus stations for those who need it.

As with the original proposals, the vast majority of bus users will be able to get on and off as they do now. The revisions mean that significantly fewer users will now be affected by city centre re-routing changes.

Cllr Liam Robinson, chair of the Liverpool City Region’s Transport Committee said: “We hope that these revisions will go a long way to addressing the key concerns of bus users, while still supporting Liverpool City Council in its vision for a transformed, cleaner, greener city centre which does involve changes to road layout.

“Merseytravel, the city council and bus operators have been working closely together with the aim of getting the balance right. It remains that the vast majority of people will be able to get on and off as they do now, others may end up closer to their end destination and some may need to walk a bit further, though with the option of cross-city bus provision between the two bus stations if they need it.”