This might be news to some, who now have a different operator on the route, but for others it will be a long wait for the next one.

From the Merseytravel site...

Impera Buses, who ran bus services throughout the Wirral area and some cross-river buses to and from Liverpool, have stopped running their bus services.

Since we were told on 3 October, we've been working with other bus companies to arrange replacement bus services for most of Impera's withdrawn bus services.

(Details updated at 09:00 on Friday 4 October.)
Impera ran the following services without any subsidy. Here's what's happening to them:
31 Liverpool - New Brighton - not replaced
31A Liverpool - New Brighton
Part of Route 31A has been replaced by new evening Merseytravel Route 411.
39 West Kirby - New Brighton - not replaced
39C Calday Grammar School - New Brighton
Avon Buses are running the morning and afternoon trip on Route 39C until 11 October. We'll let you know if this service continues after this date nearer the time.
98 Liverpool - Town Meadow - not replaced



We've now arranged for all these Merseytravel contracted services to be run by other bus companies. The routes and the times have all remain unchanged:

107 Town Meadow - New Brighton is now being run by Arriva

164 Woodside - New Ferry is now being run by Avon Buses

165 Woodside - New Ferry is now being run by Avon Buses

203 Woodside - Seacombe is now being run by Arriva

207 Woodside - New Brighton is now being run by Arriva

208 New Brighton - Town Meadow is now being run by Arriva

213 Birkenhead - Arrowe Park Hospital is now being run by Avon Buses

A new Route 411 has been introduced, running between Woodside - New Brighton. This bus replaces part of the withdrawn Route 31A. This evening only service is being run for Merseytravel by Arriva. Click here to view the timetable.



Stagecoach are now running the following bus services (which mainly serve schools and colleges). The routes and the times have all remain unchanged:

608 Woodchurch High School – Bidston (afternoon bus)

620 West Kirby Grammar School – Upton station (afternoon bus)

621 West Kirby Grammar School – Shrewsbury Rd (afternoon bus)

625 Oxton - St John Plessington School (morning bus)

625 Shrewsbury Rd – St John Plessington (morning bus)

628 Hilbre High School – Meols (afternoon bus)

633 Moreton Cross – Weatherhead High School (morning bus)

635 Town Meadow Lane – Liscard Village (morning bus)

636 Hoylake Rd – Wallasey School (morning bus)

637 Wallasey school – Hoylake Kings Gap (afternoon bus)

643 Pensby High School – Upton Station (afternoon bus)

662 Wirral Grammar Schools – Thingwall Corner (afternoon bus)

664 Woodchurch High School – Upton Village (afternoon bus)

703 Frankby – Shrewsbury Rd/Sandy Way (morning bus)

711 Ridgeway High School – Bebington Station (afternoon bus)



If you need any help planning your journey, please call our Traveline team on 0151 236 7676. They're open from 07:00 to 20:00 on Mondays to Fridays and from 08:00 to 20:00 on Saturdays and Sundays.

Grrrrr......Impera dissolving- extremly pissed off on several levels (but not in the mood for ranting so shall focus on just one).

I purchased a weekly pass running from 30th September until midnight on the 7th of October as I was on a compulsory course, based in Liverpool and Impera ran practically a 'door to door' service via the 31 bus route.

Was proper pissed off to learn that on the morning of October 3rd- my weekly ticket was defunct as the company was in liquidation!!! Thankfully, I was able to secure an'emergency lift' over to Liverpool (cheers, missmahjong) and secure lifts from attendees for the rest of the week...

This company must have known that they were in liquidation, treated their passengers like shit, by not informing us that weekly passes may not last the week.

I'm not going to put a complaint in because I would rather any pennies left go to the staff-besides, I get my expenses paid anyhow....

One begins to wonder if more local infrastructure will start to collapse due to lack of funds.

Also-in my experience, the 31 route (New Brighton_Liverpool) was a popular bus service.Always packed full of passengers....Do not know why Merseytravel have not replaced this Service?

Because the route itself is already served adequately, the 411 does the New Brighton to Birkenhead portion perfectly well, then you change to a cross river service in Birkenhead which run every few minutes. The 31 was a good route with cheaper fares than the Arriva services but it was designed to compete directly with the Arriva route apart from the variation of the 31 going over four bridges (which in the grand scheme of things saved barely 5minutes) and 411 going over Duke Street hence why Impera had to re-number the evening 411 they ran to the 31A to avoid confusion and to let people with Arriva weekly / daily tickets see the difference between companies.

The 31A was also pretty much a door-to-door service for me to get to work. When it was running as the 1A it was dismally unreliable - services were frequently missed out, and it never ran on time. But at the end of July when it was renumbered to the 31A and re-timetabled it became more reliable.

HOWEVER. Filthy buses, sullen drivers, poor standard of driving (harsh acceleration and braking, no consideration for the elderly trying to get to their seat without falling over) etc. made this very much an inferior service to Arriva's 432/433 or 411/437.

Merseytravel haven't replaced the service because Impera were not under contract to run it for Merseytravel. It was a commercial service running in competition with Arriva.

Merseytravel announcement here CLICKY

my cuz was a driver for these and lost his job so it wasn't the drivers.

just poor management by the looks of things

It wasn't the drivers, some of them were out carrying passengers until 23:00 the day it supposedly went into liquidation at 17:00! Bad money management and a hand or two in the till is what did for Impera. And they had just taken on a new wave of better trained drivers even though they must have known they were in trouble!