Further to David Jenkins’s article ‘A Hop around Halton’ (January Buses), I drove for Crosville Liverpool depot from 1969 until the closure of Love Lane depot in early 1987. In 1973, route 76 (Liverpool-Prescot), which passes our house, changed operation from Merseyside PTE to Crosville. The 76 finished when Love Lane closed.
Some considerable time later, after other operators had failed to make a replacement service viable, Halton Transport extended its 61 route, which until then operated between Runcorn and Huyton, through to Liverpool using the former 76 routing. It was operated mainly by Leyland Lynx and the frequency was increased from 30min to every 20min. For a short time, it was increased to every 15min.
Around two years ago it was reduced to halfhourly, but stepped up to every 20min in the peaks and run hourly on Sundays.
The Lynx disappeared many years ago and we have had every subsequent type operated by Halton on the service, including occasionally an Optare Solo and a Mini Pointer Dart. Until some occasional recent appearances, the Scania OmniCity single-deckers never appeared on the 61. I was told this was because they are too long for parts of the route. However, they have the worst sus…
