MERSEYSIDE BLUES

Not Everton FC I'm afraid. This is a video about Merseyside Transport in the 1980s.

In the 1980s, Mrs Thatcher (Prime Minister) was selling off all the public

industries to the private sector. The privatisation of the bus industry

took place on 26th October 1986. Management and unions were united

in their efforts to prevent this happening, but it went ahead. The

management of Merseyside Transport put two buses at the Union's

disposal to decorate and use to campaign on the streets. One was

Atlantean 1271 (BKC 271K) which appears in this video. The other was

Metropolitan 4068 (HWM 68P). This was painted yellow and named

"The Battle Bus". I have no colour pictures of this, but if anyone can

supply one, please contact me.

Mary Kelly, whose late husband Charlie was a driver at Garston depot, recently found the old vinyl 45 record, made by the "Penny Lane Busmen" back in 1985. It was sung by five drivers who worked for Merseybus at the time. (See the photograph below the video). The photographs used in the video (which I made in June 2010) are from the collections of John Cartwright and John Salmon, with a few of my own thrown in.

INSTRUCTIONS: Make sure you've stopped the website music first, then click the middle of the picture to watch the video. (If it fails to play, click the YouTube logo to watch it on the YouTube site).

Then scroll down to see some photographs at the bottom of the page.....

THE PENNY LANE BUSMEN are pictured below, with the "Battle Bus", 4068, in a picture used for press releases at the time.

Left to right: Gerry O'Leary - still driving at Speke depot for Arriva

Dennis Fleming - still driving at Speke depot for Arriva

Eddie O'Hare - shop steward at Prince Alfred Road depot, left shortly after deregulation

Alan Spencer - also left after deregulation

Joe Grant - still driving at Speke depot for Arriva.

More of this group's work still survives - watch this space, I'll add the tracks when I get hold of them.......

MORE MEMORIES...

David Graham took these two photographs and has kindly given me permission to include them on this page.

Thanks are also due to Ed Quinn (Mary Kelly's brother) for being the link between us.

The first picture was taken at the Pier Head on 8th September 1962 and brilliantly captures the atmosphere of those days. Although aimed at the fruit sellers, the picture shows a varied array of Liverpool buses and the classic Ford Anglia.

The bottom picture was taken after the remodelling of the Pier Head bus terminus, and shows AEC Regent V A111 (SKB 111) arriving from Aintree on route 30. This scene was captured on 12th May 1966.

The Pier Head bus station survived in this form until 1990.