Had to get a replacement bus pass which required the woman working( forgot her name but was working…read moretoday) to ring multiple people but she sorted it as quickly as she could and I got my pass. I should of had to go to Manchester but she sorted it there in Wigan. Was very friendly and I'm very grateful!

There was alot of homeless people sleeping (I do not have a picture as that would be rude to take a…read morepicture of them) my train got delayed for 2 hours I don't recommend this.

From the outside, Wigan Bus Station looks nice with a relatively new sign, from the entrance from…read moreThe Galleries area but on the inside, it is just your typical bus station and in a way resembles Bury station, with a few platforms split off in a few mini-stations. They is a lot of buses which go from here, including to Manchester, Southport, Bolton and The Trafford Center, but I can't help but feel most of the buses are unneeded and go too far, for example Manchester is only around half an hour on the train, but getting the bus here is 85 minutes and when Southport is also around 1/2 an hour on the train, but still the bus takes nearly 2 hours which is ridiculous, considering services available from Wigan Wallgate. I think it is misleading for people who may not know the area for buses to take so long, when the train takes only a fraction of this, and going on one of these journeys is in a way a punishment, and I'm sure it wouldn't be much cheaper (if anything) than getting the train. I feel to get the best of public transport, the station should work with Wallgate and North Western to encourage people to use the train for longer journeys, and then this station can become a local hub, with more buses going to local destinations which will help benefit Wigan and local towns, and give people a better deal. As a station this is merely average and is your typical bus station, with a newsagents etc, it isn't terrible as it is good to have in central Wigan but sadly I don't feel it deserves over 2 stars.

This is the main bus service were I live…read more Getting around town can get a bit frustrated when the bus is rather late or not turned up especially when it cold and raining and there sometimes awful for having breaks in between stops so it takes longer to get to town. Saying that tho most bus drivers can be very friendly and you can have a laugh with them. The prices are reasonable weekly tickets £11.50 and the Wigan dayrider is £3.00 and the day saver any bus is £5.20 after 9.30am but before 9.30am there £5.80.

Stagecoach Bus Merseyside is arguably the largest bus operator in the Merseyside region which…read moreincludes Lancashire, Cheshire, North Wales, Wirral - some bus routes even go between these boroughs including the X2 which connects Liverpool to Preston, via Southport, at 2 hours and 16 minutes this is one of the largest bus journeys's I've come across, this, by comparison, is about the same length of time as a train into London and enough to get the train from Liverpool to Preston and back, with time to spare via Transpennine Express or even the slow Northern train! It amazes me how Stagecoach Bus in Merseyside hasn't been reviewed since July 2010, which is nearly ten whole years. In that time, so much has changed and it seems Stagecoach have got worse, perhaps that is through the complacency of being ahead in the region for too long with little competition. Due to how big Stagecoach is, if you're planning to use public transport around Liverpool you're pretty much going to have to use either Merseyrail or this. They do run train services to Anfield on a match-day, however because of traffic around the ground and the fact the bus has a further route to go after the stadium, they are forced to divert however despite having signs around Queens Square Bus Station and telling the bus driver where I was going, no one told me about the diversion and even other match-goers on the bus didn't seem to know, this was after a long wait for the bus which seemed to suffer delays as well to make it even worse (luckily I didn't miss kick-off!) Buses are typical Stagecoach across the UK, not too modern in most regards. Despite the growth of Arriva in Liverpool, Stagecoach are still the main players and it really does seem that from service, time-keeping and overall condition of buses they are taking that too granted, yet still anything beats First Manchester which caused me trouble for a great number of years closer to home and I do think they make their routes a little clearer than other operators, even if they don't factor diversions into it. 2*

Since my last review, I now have a negative comment about Stagecoach much to my annoyance and shall…read moretherefore drop not 1 but 2 stars in its rating. More recently if you take the 21 route or any other Stagecoach bus that travels along London Road, the driver tends to change driver which could sometimes mean a 10 minute wait which is obviously not good if you're in a hurry to get somewhere. If you're lucky, the switch of driver will take place instantly but on one occasion, I had to wait nearly 15 minutes with other disgruntled passengers because the driver did not turn up, so I had to watch the original driver take a cigarette break whilst I was waiting to get to work on time but ended up late all because of poor service and an arrogant driver who did not even apologise to anybody. Other fed up passengers actually got off and waited for another bus and when that occurred, the driver immediately got back on and started driving; I not only felt sorry for those passengers but thought this was rude and felt as though he was playing games. I requested if he could let me off at the traffic lights as I was already late for work but he simply replied "no" with no apology and without realising that he kept everyone waiting longer than expected. I applaud the group of girls who pressed the stop button several times as they got off. It was obvious that most people were annoyed by the driver's actions. Even though it may not be entirely the driver's fault, Stagecoach should sort out their poor timing when switching drivers (very much unlike them); this took me by surprise. I aim to lodge a formal complaint if this happens more than once and I will suggest others also do so if they experience the same.

One of the most fun experiences in Manchester is riding the tram. I enjoy the city and suburban…read moreviews, the other passengers are always friendly and the most exciting part is when they have a raid on the tram to ensure all patrons have paid the correct fair. The police and revenue protection officers block all doors and its funny to watch people trying to get off and when they recognise regular travellers without tickets.

I have a love-hate relationship with the Metrolink in Manchester, there are so many things which…read moreare good, yet so many things which are terrible about the service. Metrolink is arguably one of the best ways to get around Manchester, in terms of speed, you skip the traffic of the roads, hopping on the tram which is always handy, especially with multiple stops having Park and Ride facilities, meaning you can park your car and go about your journey. Obviously, there are some exceptions, for example, if you're heading to Manchester Airport from the city centre, you would want to take the train which takes around 20 minutes, compared to getting the tram, from Manchester Piccadilly it would be a 57-minute journey, across two trams, changing at Cornbrook. Metrolink are also doing very well during difficult circumstances, they're maintaining the best route frequency to allow people to travel when needed, and space out too, the trams are often around every 10-12 minutes on most routes, meaning there's never too long to wait before getting a tram. They are also cleaning trams every two hours to make sure they are COVID-safe and secure, I think this is a reasonable time-frame given the circumstances. The trams are mainly comfortable and pretty spacious, the floor does get very slippy in the rainy weather, which we get more than our fair share of in Manchester so watch-out! There are 8 lines and 99 stations, all of the lines seem to call through Cornbrook, with 7/8 lines calling at Deansgate-Castlefield and Pomona, so you can pretty much get to any stop from anywhere if you're willing to change services along the way, but it would depend on how realistic it is, for example, it wouldn't be worth going from Sale to Sale Water Park, despite being only a couple of miles away it would be a long tram journey due to the construction of the lines meaning you'd have to change at Trafford Bar. All stations are step-free too, so that supports access for disabled people/trams without the need for ramps, sometimes the access is awkward and it is a good walk from the platform to the street, especially in stations away from the city centre outside of Zones 1 and 2, so again you might want to plan ahead. I do like the zone system as it simplifies the ticketing process (just touch in with your contactless card and be charged the lowest fair), it also means that if you are just going one-stop, you won't be charged for going into two zones, as when the zone changes, the preceding station is the following zone. Example) Sale - Zone 3 Brooklands - Zones 3/4 Timperley - Zone 4 The huge cons I have with Metrolink have to be, their customer service can often be pretty poor, I've tried to phone them many times, even using the customer service help point at the stations only to be greeted with the message "This person's phone is turned off", I get staff are having to work from home during the pandemic, but it's called "work from home" not "turn your phone off and ignore passengers from home" Other issues are, I hate how the trams don't have card scanners, Metrolink is one of the few trams I've used in Europe to not have either a conductor or anywhere you can scan your pass on board, this means if you're rushing for a tram, you could potentially miss your service through having to stop at the platform to touch-in, which is pretty ridiculous. I do think conductors on the trams would be great, especially to avoid this problem and stop anti-social behaviour, which can be a problem especially in certain areas/routes, it would also help tackle fair dodging and provide money to actually improve services, I openly heard a person bragging about the trams being free... due to a lack of inspections. It's great to see Metrolink working on expanding their routes too, in March 2020, they had a quiet launch of the Trafford Centre line, which finally added Metrolink services to the Trafford Centre, calling at Wharfside for Old Trafford Stadium, Imperial War Museum for Media City, and then Trafford Centre, I do think it's pretty strange how the construction of the new line came early, but the new trams for that line came late, this meant the services have to terminate at Cornbrook right now, which is annoying as it means changing trams. 4* - Still one of the better ways to get around town in most cases, the grey and yellow trams are becoming a symbol of Manchester, like the orange buses used to be, it does have its' flaws including the fact that on a match-day at The Etihad Stadium, they never seem to run enough services which often means waiting for ages and then being packed on the tram like sardines.

Leigh Bus Station is a proper old school bus station, it's cold, old-fashioned and split into…read moremultiple parts. It does have a good number of services including the Vantage Buses, heading "fast" into Manchester via the guided busway, as well as services into many local towns including Bolton and Wigan (most services seem to go via one of these two), they even run a matchday bus into The University of Bolton Stadium, which gets you there in half an hour... when fans are allowed to attend at least. I did originally struggle to find my stand due to the bus station being made up of around 3/4 tiny buildings, there are signs around the bus station which says which bus goes from which stand, but I didn't think they are clear or noticeable, and they would have been so easy to miss, especially in the dark. There is a Travelshop and it is in a good location within the town centre, with a newsagent (WHSmith Cannings Local) nearby within Spinning Gate (shopping centre next to the bus station) It would be great to have seen a refurbished bus station in Leigh to go alongside the investment of the new guided busway, I actually find the stops along the guided busway to be cleaner, more modern and nicer overall. 2* - Basic bus station, still providing services in a good location, with limited seating inside.

Not the most welcoming first impression of Leigh, but it does what it needs to in a purely…read morefunctional way. This is one end of the line for the new guided busway which has reduced journey times from Leigh to Manchester to less than an hour. Information boards provide information of when the next V1 on the busway is due, though not for other services departing the bus station. A pay toilet is available and there is a kiosk selling season bus tickets. I think a handy addition for the guided busway would be ticket machines to enable tickets to be bought prior to boarding, as too much time is taken along the route as the driver is taking payments and issuing tickets, particularly at busy stops along the route like Leigh & Tyldesley.

Arriva North West is one of the largest bus operators in Merseyside and Cheshire while operating…read moreother services around the North West in areas such as Greater Manchester and Lancashire - although most of their services do involve the Merseyside however, where they operate most bus services. I used Arriva North West on a recent trip to Goodison Park as they offer services from Queens Square Bus Station going to the stadium, they might not offer the most services on that particular route but I found the buses to be nicer, better priced and quieter than their main Stagecoach competitors. The buses seem nice enough and the wi-fi onboard is probably amongst the best wi-fi I've ever received on a bus, especially compared to the days of First Manchester who restrict your use to just a few MB (fair usage - meaning it goes in minutes) Both services I used did seem to run a couple of minutes late and there was confusion to whether the bus would actually come as it disappeared from the screen on the bus station - but this is probably an issue with the bus station of how they displayed the buses, rather than Arriva's - but the lateness issue with them still remains. The drivers seemed A-OK. There still remains a lack of consistency between buses both new and old, double and single decker. Not a bad bus company - they served the route I needed to go at a reasonable price, albeit a slight delay - It is a real shame Arriva North West didn't expand into the Manchester market when they had the chance (First recently sold two of their largest depots in the region to Go-Ahead Group, forming Go North West and Rotala joining Diamond North-West - here's hoping they might consider taking over the Oldham depot!) 3* - Consistency between buses, adding more buses on to popular routes at peak times and improving timekeeping is a must.

In Liverpool there are a few bus services to choose from, howver Arriva is the most expensive. They…read morecharge a flat fee of £1.70 to go anywhere within the Liverpool area which seems pretty reasonable if you're going on a longer journey, however if you just want to pop to into town or only go a few stops it's quite expensive, especially as a return journey will double the price at £3.40. A day ticket is £3.30 which is decent if you're planning to make a few trips throughout the day, and a weeky pass is £12 - £13 as of Sunday. The routes aren't bad but not really very reliable, the buses are hardly ever on time, especially the less frequent ones such as the 78. The regular "every 5 minutes" buses are as the saying goes "just like buses" - there's none for an hour then three at once. If I had my choice, I'd probably pick a different provider if it had a similar route to the one I was after.

St. Helens Bus Station is very well laid out, as it is logical in fashion thus allowing passengers…read moreto easily understand the system in place. I certainly didn't experience any problems when I searched for the correct stand and did not need to ask for assistance. The station is well sheltered to keep you from wind and rain with plenty of seating available. Timetables are clearly positioned on each stand without being confusing. Also, there are tactile controlled and uncontrolled crossings with rotating cones to assist blind and partially sighted people. As a whole, the station feels safe (and well lit at night) with the inclusion of CCTV. Plus, the area is well staffed at all operating times. If you have any queries, there is the travel information centre adjacent to the station. The only thing is that I failed to spot any toilets around.

Birkenhead Bus Station is actually one of the best things about Birkenhead! For a start, it gets…read moreyou out of there as soon as you like, secondly it's nice to look at as it's a huge glass frame, thirdly it's warm, and finally it's secure so you won't get mugged here. I remember when it first got built and people would marvel at its sheer beauty.. Well that's a lie, people would just bicker and sigh that their buses were late, much as they still do today. But it's a great sheltered space with bus routes leading over to Liverpool and all over the Wirral as far as New Brighton, Heswall and West Kirby. They have two help desks in case you're not too sure what bus to take, or you need a bus pass or a TRIO or Saveaway. They also have a machine that vends cans of pop, and one with hot drinks. What more could you want?

It's not too bad as bus stations go. But all the announcements are proceeded with a very loud…read moredoorbell. Incredibly cheap and quite a shock if you're not deaf. Spend any length of time waiting there and you will end up with post traumatic stress. It's actually quite close to Conway Park station. However for buses; considering it's the nearly the last stop before Liverpool there's actually a large gap between Liverpool buses if you don't have the right ticket. Merseytravel couldn't even sort out a shared ticket arrangement whilst the rail tunnel is closed. It really should do better in terms of providing a shuttle link between Birkenhead and Liverpool.. considering this link is completely covered by a Merseytravel Monopoly (Tolls, ferries, buses, train .. all ultimately accountable and paid to Merseytravel). There's no cycle way in the Birkenhead tunnel's lower deck for example. It terms of some buses it's built in the wrong place... most notably peak time 471,472 bypass the bus station and go straight to Liverpool. The ding-dong doorbell announcements say it all ... an expensive project .. but couldn't be bothered going the extra mile.

Great service. I left my phone in the car by accident, and the driver looked after it for me and…read morereturned it to me very quickly the following day. Could not ask for more, a very helpful service.