100 British Bus Routes: Route 89
St Helens to Liverpool John Lennon Airport
13 November 2023
ABOVE: Arriva Merseyside 4612 (SL64 JGZ), an ADL Enviro400, passes the King George V Memorial Playing Fields in Huyton, Merseyside, whilst working a service to St Helens on route 89. All photos in this article, unless otherwise stated, were taken on Wednesday 14th June 2023.
Runs: Daily
Operator: Arriva Merseyside
Weekday daytime frequency: Every 20 minutes
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: Nine buses
Off-peak journey time: 80 minutes
Estimated route length: 13-15 miles
Operator: Arriva Merseyside
Weekday daytime frequency: Every 20 minutes
Estimated Vehicle Requirement: Nine buses
Off-peak journey time: 80 minutes
Estimated route length: 13-15 miles
About 1.5 miles north-east of Hastings Town Centre in East Sussex is a suburb called St Helen's. I only mention this because, for some reason, it's the first thing that Google offers me when I put search for "St Helens". Some 227 miles to the north-west of that suburb is the actual St Helens that I'm looking for, from where the number 89 to Liverpool Airport can be found.
This is right in the heart of Merseyside, about 11 miles north-east of Liverpool City Centre. It's the home of St Helens R.F.C., a professional rugby league club that competes in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has an impressive record - 17 League Championship wins, 13 Challenge Cup wins and three victories in the World Club Challenge.
Wikipedia records that St Helens (no apostrophe) was famous for its roles in the coal mining industry, glassmaking, copper smelting and sail-making, that drove its growth throughout the Industrial Revolution. The glass producer Pilkington is the town's only remaining large industrial employer.
And thanks to Pilkington's, Queen Victoria can be found overseeing the town from the western side of Victoria Square, in the form of a statue. This was given to the town by Colonel William Windle Pilkington, a member of the Pilkington family, and Mayor in 1902. Designed by George Frampton, and unveiled by the Earl of Derby in 1905, it is Grade II* listed.
ABOVE: Queen Victoria keeps a watchful eye on the town of St Helens in the evening sunshine of Tuesday 13th June 2023
Not quite meriting a National Heritage listing is St Helens Bus Station. Bounded by Corporation Street, Hall Street and Bickerstaffe Street, it's about 150 yards from St Helens Central railway station. With nine official stands, and three more stops adjacent, over 30 bus routes carry people off in all directions.
It's best described as functional, which might explain why I don't have many photographs of the main structure from half a dozen visits. I published one in an earlier article (fourth from the end here) that demonstrated how it does at least provide protection from the rain, and I have one more below:
ABOVE: A view of the bus stop on Bickerstaffe Street, adjacent to the main bus station (on the left). On the right, Arriva Merseyside 3038 (MX10 BZY), a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2, is on route 89. To its left is the completely anonymous 234 (YX23 OSA), an ADL Enviro200 MMC belonging to Huyton Travel. This is the evening service on route 17 from St Helens to Widnes, Green Oaks. The weekday daytime service is provided by Arriva, whilst Huyton also runs the Sunday service (daytime and evening). Picture taken on Tuesday 13th June 2023.
I'm on a mid-morning departure on route 89, in my customary seat at the front of the top deck of an ADL Enviro400. It's a bright, hot summer's day and the leather seat is warm as I settle into it, from the intense glare of the sun through the panoramic front window.
Initially we're following the same path out of town as the trunk routes 10 & 10A towards Liverpool city centre (all three services are run by Arriva Merseyside). We're only a few minutes out of St Helens when an impressive terraced row of houses comes into view, on the Prescot Road between Dunriding Lane and Grosvenor Road:
A little further along I get a glimpse, through the window, of Taylor Park; a "wooded park offering a lakefront trail, athletic field & 2 playgrounds, plus picnic tables & a café". I see that it also offers "kid-friendly hikes" - useful if you have any young goats around.
ABOVE: Taylor Park, St Helens, as glimpsed through the distinctively-shaped front side windows of an Enviro400
Just opposite Taylor Park is a complicated road junction, and we take our leave of the A58 and head into the heart of one of the residential areas, which lies between Thatto Heath and Eccleston Park. It feels quite open, and a little bit countrified in parts.
ABOVE: Scholes Lane, St Helens
Nevertheless, territory like this is bread-and-butter to bus operators, with plenty of potential customers lurking behind the many front doors that we pass, and those many more front doors in the streets behind.
Hattons Travel 131 (LK58 CTF) is an ADL Enviro200. It is seen passing Eccleston Park station on route 297 from Kirkby to St Helens, as a train passes beneath
We come back to a main road, in this case the A57 Warrington Road, at Whiston Hospital. There's a hospital workers strike on, so a line of pickets is on the gate. There's a multi-storey car park on the opposite side of the road and a footbridge to carry people over safely.
Soon after, we enter Prescot; the name of which may have been derived from the Anglo-Saxon for a 'Priest's cottage'. The Knowsley Safari Park is on the edge of town, accessed via a dual-carriageway, but it looks like the nearest regular buses are half a mile away, in Prescot town centre.
I've never visited Knowsley, but it sounds like their "Baboon Bus" is worth a ride. It takes customers around parts of the safari park drive that they might not wish to drive around themselves, for fear of having damage inflicted on their vehicles. Instead, you can use the Baboon Bus, which is "kitted out with ladders and ropes for the baboons to swing about right next to the windows"!
Arriva Merseyside 4616 (SL64 JHH), an AD Enviro400, calls in at the Houghton Street stop in Warrington Road, Prescot, on Tuesday 13th June 2023
The 89 turns into the town centre itself, to serve a small bus station. There's a lovely parish church just around the corner from here - have a look at the Google Streetview picture.
ABOVE: Turning into Prescot Bus Station, and following the exact route I am describing, is Arriva Merseyside 2992 (MX59 JZH), a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2.
ABOVE: Also in Prescot bus station that morning was Huyton Travel's no. 70 (YD63 VCE), an Optare Solo SR, on route 289 to St Helens via a much less direct route than the 89
It's a straight-forward run from Prescot to Huyton.
Wikipedia tells us that Huyton hosted three wartime camps: an internment camp, a prisoner-of-war camp, and a base for American servicemen. The internment camp, first occupied in May 1940, was formed around several streets of new, empty council houses and flats and then made secure with barbed wire fencing. The camp was sited in and around what became known as the "Bluebell Estate", and the names of many of the streets have World War II connotations, such as Alamein Road, Montgomery Road, Arnhem Road and Tobruk Road.
Huyton bus station is right next to the railway station, and close to the town centre - just what an interchange should be, in fact.
ABOVE: Cumfybus 162 (YJ13 HNK), an Optare Solo SR, is working local circular service 246 when seen at Huyton bus station. The wires of the railway line can be seen behind.
ABOVE: Lots of plant features enhance the bus station at Huyton, as seen here. An Arriva Merseyside vehicle approaches, and a Stagecoach double-decker can just be seen parked up behind the trees on the left
We pass under the M62 motorway, just a mile or so west of the junction with the M57 in Tarbock. Next to the pretty Kelvin Cottage is what looks like farm land - there are grazing horses in view. This is Wheat Hill Road, and it's very unspoilt.
Well, for a few hundred yards anyway, then we reach the edge of a housing estate. I believe this comes under Netherley, but it's very close to the border with Belle Vale, which we enter next.
ABOVE: A view looking north-west along the Childwall Valley Road in Belle Vale
We're back into a fully built-up area now. A retail complex leads on to the Community Fire Station - quite a striking building.
Just around the next corner is another retail park, the Belle Vale Shopping Centre, with a dedicated area for buses (not sure if I would go as far as to call it a bus station).
A different view of this point is provided by Google Streetview which, at the time of writing, hasn't filmed this since 2008, at which point the shopping centre was under construction and the buses were all white and purple-liveried examples from a company called Supertravel. Today, Arriva dominates.
ABOVE: A "wheel-forward" Streetlite and a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2, both from Arriva, at the Belle Vale Shopping Centre
We come to the pretty junction at Gateacre Village Green. On the left is a large chimney. As it sits on a private road called "Brewery Gardens", I can surmise that it probably belonged to a brewery!
And indeed it did! The Thomas Gregory Gateacre Brewery is recorded in the present building - now Grade II listed - from circa 1867. The business continued to operate as a brewery and malthouse until the 1920s, when it became the Felt and Flock Factory of Messrs Arthur Clegg & Son. Cleggs ceased operations in December 2003 (source: Names.co.uk). The site is now residential.
Also visible is the Wilson Memorial Fountain, dedicated to John Hays Wilson, the chairman of the Liverpool Water Authority, in recognition of the development of water supplies in Liverpool. Given the background, a fountain feels particularly appropriate!
ABOVE: Gateacre Village Green is situated on the right behind the Wilson Memorial Fountain. On the left is the chimney, and presumably other buildings, of the Thomas Gregory Brewery
A matter of yards further on is the 'Black Bull' public house - some of the roof timbers here have reportedly been identified as 16th Century:
There's another row of pretty buildings in Woolton:
ABOVE: Allerton Road in Woolton
The bus crosses the railway line at Hunt's Cross and we come to Speke (so to speak). We're now about 7.7 miles south-east of the city centre, and close to the widest part of the River Mersey (it's 2.3 miles to the other side from here).
ABOVE: Arriva Merseyside 4690 (SK15 HAU), an ADL Enviro400, turns from Central Way into Ganworth Road in Speke, working route 82 (Speke to Liverpool)
John Lennon Airport is in Speke, and the airport was known as Speke Airport until it was renamed in 2001.
Lennon himself surely needs no introduction, but I have seen a suggestion online that he may have worked at the airport as a baggage handler before he became famous. I haven't been able to corroborate that so it's probably not true, but if it is, I hope he had a ticket to ride.
ABOVE: Arriva Merseyside 4588 (SL64 JDJ, right), an ADL Enviro400, is parked up outside the Hampton by Hilton hotel, opposite the entrance to John Lennon Airport, having just brought me from St Helens. To the left is the rear of 4435 (MX61 AUT), a VDL DB300 Wright Gemini 2, is taking a break between trips on route 500 to Liverpool city centre
After an hour and 20 minutes, we have reached John Lennon Airport. It's been a relatively quiet run, and I've enjoyed the journey through some pretty suburbs, and passed through some areas that have looked quite affluent. And all for two pounds!
Whilst the bus station at the Airport is largely exposed to the elements, it does score over similar facilities (such as Bristol Airport) by having bus shelters, and by being right next to the entrance of the terminal building.
ABOVE: The frontage of John Lennon Airport, and the bus stops outside. The bus in the distance carries the display "Driver on Break"!
And the terminal building is very practical. Although I am just changing buses, I'm able to get a cup of tea and make use of other facilities while I'm here.
As I leave, I spot a poster that clearly sets out the Arriva bus options from here:
Looking at the map now, I think I should have tried out the 81A to Bootle - a route that crosses Merseyside without calling into the City Centre. Oh wait, I've just done a route like that - and I've really enjoyed the ride!
So, instead, I decide to catch the 82A, so that I can check out the Runcorn Busway...