Impera

Impera Bus & Coach Limited

A Volvo Olympian with Alexander RH body at Seacombe Ferry.
Founded 2011
Defunct 2013
Headquarters Moreton
Service area Merseyside
Service type Bus services
Excursion
Destinations New Brighton, Birkenhead, Seacombe, New Ferry & Liverpool
Depots 21 Tarran Way North, Moreton, Wirral, CH46 4UA
Fleet Dennis Dart SLF, Volvo B10M and Volvo Olympian
Fuel type Diesel
A Transbus Dennis Dart SLF 10.1m Pointer

Impera Bus & Coach was a bus company based in Moreton, Wirral, Merseyside. It operated registered local bus services on the Wirral Peninsula (with some routes also serving Liverpool), a number of which were under contract to Merseytravel. Impera also operated school services on the Wirral and a range of private hires & excursions.

History

Formed in 2011, Impera expanded its network of tendered services rapidly, initially and mainly based on the north of the Wirral Peninsula.

On 24 April 2011, Impera won its first Merseytravel contract, service 203[1] which operated from Seacombe to Woodside Bus Station. Impera provided early morning journeys including on Sundays. In order to assist with this commitment, Impera borrowed two Alexander Dennis Enviro 300s from JPT of Middleton, with additional hired vehicles thereafter from Diamond Bus in Birmingham and a leasing company. Six months later, on 10 October 2011, Impera gained further Merseytravel contracts 107, 207 & 208,[2] which operate from New Brighton to Moreton Town Meadow Lane (Impera operating early mornings Monday to Saturday). Impera also commenced operating the 164 and 165 from Woodside Bus Station to New Ferry Shorefields during the evening, including Sundays evenings.

On 4 April 2012, Impera began its first commercial bus service, from New Brighton to West Kirby, via Liscard Village, Wallasey Village, Leasowe Merseyrail Station, Moreton Cross, Meols Merseyrail Station and Hoylake. This was due to be operated daily every 30 minutes during the daytime. This service was numbered 39 and continued to run, albeit in a modified form. The evening service was replaced by modified 39A.[3]

On 13 August 2012, Impera intended to start a second commercial service, 30, between Liverpool Sir Thomas Street and Saughall Massie via Moreton, Leasowe, Wallasey and Liscard. This was designed to operate during the daytime Monday to Saturday at 30-minute intervals. On 24 August 2012, however, Impera's Mark Steens apologised that, "The route was never supposed to start, it was planned and registered by a former manager, and I had tried to cancel the registration but without success, thus giving Impera 10 days to find the additional staff to operate this service. We can only try our best but it is a true fact that our tendered operations must take priority over commercial operations. That is why the 30 service is currently disrupted I am doing my utmost to rectify this situation by employing more drivers." [4] The service was officially withdrawn on 10 September 2012 and replaced by Impera's third commercial service, the 39A.

On 17 December 2012, Impera introduced a fourth commercial service, 1A from New Brighton to Birkenhead Bus Station, again at a Monday to Saturday daytime frequency of every 30 minutes.[5] The following month, on 28 January 2013, Impera began yet another commercial service, 27 from Moreton Rail Station to Birkenhead Bus Station via Moreton Cross, Saughall Massie, Upton, Beechwood, Claughton Village, running on Monday to Saturday daytimes every 30 minutes.[6] At the same time, Impera cancelled its 39A, replacing it with an evening 39 service.

As from 29 April 2013, Impera introduced its sixth and seventh commercial services. First was the Service 16 Wallasey Harrison Drive to Birkenhead via Wallasey Village, Liscard Village, Seacombe Ferry and Woodside Ferry (hourly, Mondays to Saturdays daytimes).[7] The second was a 30-minute Monday to Saturday daytime 98, between Moreton and Liverpool via Beechwood, Noctorum, Oxton and Birkenhead.[8] Simultaneously, Impera withdrew part of the 47 to serve only Saughall Massie, the 98 henceforward maintained a direct link between Beechwood and Moreton.

An VDL SB200CS Wright Pulsar 2

Alongside this, Impera service 1A (New Brighton - Birkenhead) was extended to serve Liverpool City Centre and it therefore no longer served Woodside. Impera also introduced a new Sunday service[9] and a new evening timetable of current Arriva service 411 was to be introduced by Impera. On 2 June 2013, Merseytravel withdrew its service 101 as operated by A2B Travel, which follows the same route as service 411.[10] Finally in April, Impera varied its 39 such that it served Hoylake Road rather than Town Meadow Lane. This allowed some co-orindation between the 39 and 411. Service X39 was re-numbered 39C[11]

Impera operated a significant mileage on behalf of Merseytravel, including contracted school services.

Impera ceased trading at 1700 on 2 October 2013. Its contracted and local bus and school routes were initially operated by Arriva, Avon and Stagecoach on an emergency basis, with some commercial mileage not replaced.[12]

Livery

From 2013, buses sported white and blue Lothian-style livery, the three initial vehicles in this revision being W568 JVV (2568), Y179 CFS (2179) & Y185 CFS (2185). Most vehicles remained in the former standard white livery, with blue skirt and back (X526 UAT (2526), X511 UAT (2511), S538 JLM (2538), KU52 YLB (2523), KU52 YLD (2522), YU52 YLE (2521), R317 LSK (3317), P490 MBY (3490), P429 KSX (3429), S364 ONL (2364), S274 ONL (2374), V152 MVX (2152), V164 MVX (2164) & KV03 ZGP (2031). The rest were in white (X187 BNH (2187), KP51 UFK (2510), P226 KSX (3426)

Impera previously operated an Optare Excel in blue base and back livery (R990 EWU (2990) and three Lances, one of which was in blue and yellow JPT Livery (N527 SPA (2527) one the second in white (DRZ 1977 (2517).

Fares & Passes

An Dennis Dart SLF 10.7m Plaxton Pointer 2.

On Merseytravel supported services, Impera charged fares as specified by the contracting authority. From September 2012, on commercial services, Impera introduced a simple flat-fare structure of £1.10 (adult) and £0.50 (child). Impera accepted all Merseytravel managed season tickets[13] including "Walrus". Plusbus was also accepted on the Merseytravel contracted services only.[14]

Fleet summary

The Impera fleet primarily consisted of Dennis Dart/TransBus Dart SLFs saloons. In addition, the fleet had four Volvo Olympian double deckers, mainly used on school services. In 2013, Impera also received two Lothian SLF Darts. Supplementing the fleet were two LDV Convoy minibuses.[15]

Services

Impera operated the following commercial routes: 31/31A (Liverpool-New Brighton) 15/16 (Birkenhead-Wallasey) 39/39C (West Kirby-New Brighton and Calday Grange Grammar School-New Brighton respectively 47 (Birkenhead-Saughall Massie) 98 (Moreton-Liverpool)

The following operated under contract to Merseytravel: 203 (Woodside-Seacombe) 213 (Birkenhead-Arrowe Park) 164/165 (Woodside-New Ferry) 207/208 New Brighton)-Woodside)

From 4 October 2013, Merseytravel reallocated as emergency contracts the following: All schools to Stagecoach Services 203 & 207/208 & new route 411 replacing 31A to Arriva. Services 164/165, 213 & 39C to Avon Buses.

Services 31, 39 & 98 were not replaced.

References

  1. ↑ "Service 203 Timetable" (PDF). Merseytravel.
  2. ↑ "107, 207, 208 Timetable" (PDF). Merseytravel.
  3. ↑ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20121011135901/http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/pdf/tt_001/39A%20New%20Brighton%20-%20Moreton%20(from%2010%20September%202012).pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ This blog post was written by Tom Harrison (2012-08-22). "The service that lasted just one week!". The North West Bus Blog. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  5. ↑ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20130228110514/http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/travelling-around/timetables/AllTimetables/1A%20Birkenhead%20-%20New%20Brighton%20(from%2017%20December%202012).pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 February 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20130228064544/http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/travelling-around/timetables/AllTimetables/47%20Birkenhead%20-%20Moreton%20(from%2028%20January%202013).pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 February 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20130718070000/http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/travelling-around/timetables/AllTimetables/98%20Liverpool%20-%20Town%20Meadow%20(from%2029%20April%202013).pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑
  10. ↑
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ "Impera Buses have ceased trading". Merseytravel.gov.uk. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  13. ↑ "Tickets". Merseytravel.gov.uk. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  14. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120829095748/http://www.plusbus.info/birkenhead-plusbus-merseyside. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ↑ "Impera Fleetlist". Merseyside Dennis Dart Website. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012.
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