First Chester & The Wirral

First Chester & The Wirral

A First Chester and The Wirral Scania L94 bus with Wright bodywork in Bromborough, Wirral,
Parent	First PMT (FirstGroup plc)
Founded	1990
Headquarters	Adderley Green, Stoke-on-Trent
Locale	North West
Service area	Cheshire, Merseyside
Service type	Bus
Hubs	Chester, Birkenhead, Liverpool, Ellesmere Port
Operator	First Group
Website	First Chester & The Wirral Homepage

First Chester & The Wirral is a division of bus operator First PMT Ltd, running local bus services in and around Chester and the Wirral, north west England. The company is a subsidiary of FirstGroup plc, the largest bus operator in Britain.

The operation consists of two depots in Chester and one in Rock Ferry, Wirral. One of the Chester depots is that of the former Chester City Transport, acquired in 2007; the other two depots originally belonged to the former Crosville Motor Services, and were purchased (along with the then Ellesmere Port depot) by Potteries Motor Traction in February 1990. This explains their geographical separation from the traditional PMT operating area, centred on Stoke-on-Trent, which makes up the remainder of First PMT, and is now known as First Staffordshire & South Cheshire. (This split used for marketing purposes does not match that required for licensing purposes, which places the south Cheshire operating centres in the North Western Traffic Area alongside Chester and the Wirral.)

The company also operates eleven Blue Bird AARE 60-seat school buses in the Wrexham area. Wrexham depot is classed as an outstation of Chester depot, although a separate operator's licence is held for these operations, as Wrexham is located in the Welsh Traffic Area.

ChesterBus

File:Chesterbus logo.gif

The ChesterBus logo prior to being bought by FirstGroup.

On 21 June 2007, it was announced that Chester City Council had agreed to sell ChesterBus to FirstGroup, subject to Government approval [1]. ChesterBus, which operates services in and around the City of Chester, was the new name for Chester City Transport following a rebranding and updating of its core network in April 2005. Prior to its sale to FirstGroup, it was wholly owned by Chester City Council and was one of the few remaining municipal bus companies in the UK.

Depot

Unusually, the ChesterBus depot dates back to 1878, is located by the railway station in Chester, and was used in the horse and tram days; there are still some cobbles and original narrow gauge tram-lines on these premises. The company had hoped to move to a new site by the end of 2006, but the old depot was still in use at the beginning of 2008.

Liveries

A ChesterBus Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer

ChesterBus's livery was cream with a 30 cm blue strip running along the base of the bus sides, sweeping up towards the rear of the bus, and two horizontal yellow bands. It was derived from the 'Blue Diamond' identity used on low-floor buses when they were first introduced; this livery was similar but without the sweeping rear treatment and with only one yellow band. The previous livery of maroon and cream was used on step-entrance vehicles until replaced by the ChesterBus livery.

The ChesterBus livery has now been completely superseded by FirstGroup's corporate livery. Eight BMC Falcon buses retain a special 'flake grey' Park & Ride livery.

Former fleet

At the time of sale to FirstGroup, the most numerous vehicles in the fleet were 17 Dennis Darts with Plaxton Pointer bodywork, dating from 1991-6. These have since been replaced, mainly by Scania/Wright low floor single deckers transferred in from other First subsidiaries. Seven Dart SLFs with Marshall Capital bodywork, bought new in 1999/2000, were among the few vehicles retained, and have been repainted into First livery. Eight BMC Falcons bought new in 2003/4 retain their special 'flake grey' livery for Park & Ride services.

Following the withdrawal of Dennis Dominators, the double-deck fleet at the time of takeover consisted of Leyland Olympians, the majority of which had Northern Counties bodywork. These have been replaced by Scania N113 double-deckers, cascaded from nearby Rock Ferry depot.

Seven open top double deck tour buses, which were operated under the City Sightseeing brand, were also disposed of. Replacements, in the form of Leyland Olympians, arrived at the beginning of the 2008 tourist season.

Sale

There was speculation in the summer of 2006 that ChesterBus would be sold to a private operator, and the sale was confirmed in August with Chester City Council announcing that 12 companies were interested in buying.[2]

In October 2006, Arriva North West and Wales registered a network of services, to commence in January 2007, which duplicated a number of ChesterBus's routes. On 11th October 2006, ChesterBus and Chester City Council commenced an action in the High Court against Arriva, claiming that the registrations were anti-competitive under the Competition Act 1998, and asking for an injunction requiring Arriva to de-register them. In December, the registrations were cancelled, though revised registrations for the 1/1A and 15 were made in January.

The claim centred on the allegation that Arriva were abusing a dominant position, but in a judgement dated 15 June 2007, it was held that Arriva had not been demonstrated to hold a dominant position, and the claim was therefore dismissed.

The agreement of the sale was announced on 21 June 2007. The sale left only 14 municipal bus operators remaining in Britain. Since then Arriva has started operating services that duplicate a number of ChesterBus's routes; most recently (from 3 September 2007), Arriva starting operating a route identical to that of ChesterBus's number 9 route. Although the Arriva buses have more expensive fares than ChesterBus (£1.00 for a single, £2.00 for a day ticket, compared with 70p for a single and £1.30 for a return on ChesterBus services), they run more frequently, every 10 minutes compared with ChesterBus's every 15 minutes.

Fleet

The table describes the current fleet as at May 2008, including the former ChesterBus operations as First continue to merge their Chester operations.

Image	Chassis	Body	Number			Year(s) built	Number series
			Rock Ferry	Chester	Total
	Scania L94	Wright Solar	0	9	9	2004-2005	657xx
	Scania L94	Wright Axcess-Floline	11	3	14	1998-2001	60xxx 61xxx
	Scania L113	Wright Axcess-Ultralow	22	24	46	1997-1998	60xxx 61xxx
	BMC Falcon	BMC	0	8	8	2004	62xxx
	DAF SB220	Optare Delta	4	0	4	1990	600xx
	DAF SB220	Ikarus Citibus	2	2	4	1992	600xx
	Leyland Olympian	ECW / Leyland (includes 6 open-top)	0	12	12	1984-1989	300xx 399xx
	Scania N113DRB	Alexander R Type	0	5	5	1990-1991	31xxx
	Scania N113DRB	Northern Counties	0	1	1	1990	31xxx
	Volvo Olympian	Alexander Royale	6	0	6	1998	3080x
	Volvo Olympian	Alexander R Type	13	0	13	1997	342xx
	Dennis Dart MPD	Plaxton Pointer 2	1	0	1	1999	40042
	Dennis Dart SLF	Marshall Capital	0	7	7	1999	41xxx
	Dennis Dart SLF	Plaxton Pointer 2	0	5	5	1998	401xx
	Dennis Dart	Plaxton Pointer	4	8	12	1993-1997	401xx
	Dennis Dart	Marshall C37	2	0	2	1994	401xx
	Optare Solo	Optare Solo	0	3	3	1999	40xxx
	Mercedes-Benz Vario	Plaxton Beaver 2	0	8	8	1997-1998	500xx
	Blue Bird AARE	Blue Bird AARE	0	11*	11	2002	600xx
Overall Totals			64	84*	148	1984-2005

* Includes 11 school buses operated from Wrexham outstation

Both the former ChesterBus depot and First's original depot are included under 'Chester'

External links

• First Chester and The Wirral
• Bus operator details for First PMT Ltd in North Western Traffic Area

See also

• List of bus companies