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.

Warrington Bus Station has few positives - It's close to…read moreWarrington Central - It has toilets (Very few toilets, you have to pay for them) - There is a small newsagent and an Iceland - You can go up a lift and get straight in Golden Square Shopping Centre (Yet they regularly break down) It can get pretty airy and can get cold, especially in these winter months. due to the design of the bus station, it also is built so buses have to reverse out which I don't like as much. There was a lack of information around the bus station and I found it hand to find out which bus goes where the fact it was difficult to find any staff around the station other than a toilet cleaner made it even more difficult. Both times I used Warrington's Own Buses, who are the main bus operator who goes from here, my service was both late and the driver was extremely rude. They also never replied to my complaint - I guess it isn't the station's fault its-self but it does play a part. 2* - Other than location there isn't much to shout about for this bus station, as a visitor to Warrington I felt lost, issues with the buses and finding information about services which just wasn't made clear (and that's in comparison to 95% of bus stations I've been to), if you know where you're going or you're The Lucky One, to quote Uku Suviste's Eesti Laul 2021 entry, this place is you. The extra star is mainly for the location and access into the shopping centre (when working).

Good points. It is near central station. Light airy and…read moreclean. Bad Points. There is no pick up drop off point for cars to drop off passengers. The Kiosk point is only open. You have to pay for the toilets. The way the buses have to go around the little round about and back up is dangerous.

Huyton Bus Station is hardly a station, and more of a small circle of bricks where a few busses…read morehappen to stop and drop people off. I'm not really sure why anyone would go to Huyton except to visit the shopping centre if they don't have one closer, the library (for wonderfully bookish people like me!), or to have a random explore (again, for people like me.) But if you do plan to visit, the bus station is there, and very close to the shopping centre. I prefer the train.

This is one of those that looks like a YellowTardis!!! You need twenty pence and nerves of steel…read morebecause I always have visions of the door swinging open whilst you are occupied. It's spotlessly clean though and doesn't smell.

This bus station is very handily located close by to the Newton Gardens shopping centre (Kirkby…read moreshopping centre) in Kirby town centre. It's also only a short distance from Kirby train station, so you could easily walk between the two (a mile or less), but you don't have to because the buses go straight to the train station as well. It's a good little bus station with pretty regular buses to most anywhere you want to go.

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.

One of two railway stations in Warrington - Warrington Bank Quay is managed by Avanti West Coast…read more(Formerly Virgin Trains) providing connections into London, it is also used by other operators including Transport For Wales and Northern. There seem to offer more long-distance trains than Warrington Central into Scotland and London, with other services going into Liverpool, Manchester, Chester, Leeds and Wales. It is in a sketchy part of town, so I wouldn't want to walk into the town centre in the dark, luckily you can get frequent buses outside the station which goes into the bus station, it only takes a couple of minutes but obviously, if you are able to travel into Warrington Central you wouldn't need to do that as it is across the way from the bus station, right in the town centre. There aren't many facilities at the station either - the platforms are sheltered but don't expect to stay warm and dry if you're waiting at the station, there isn't a great deal of shops/cafes nearby other than one independent, small newsagents I saw. Expect long waits for tickets too due to an understaffed ticket counter and very few ticket machines. I didn't notice any ticket barriers either, which for an Avanti station seemed strange. The station is clean, it looks better than Warrington Central and has some good services, but being slightly out of the way, I do prefer travelling into Warrington Central but Warrington Bank Quay isn't a bad alternative, especially if one wants to get into Manchester Victoria, rather than Piccadilly. 3*

This station drives me mad. A virgin trains hub that only has a tiny caféxpresshop. The only…read morehighlight is that the waiting room is really warm. But that is bad in the summer when it is unbearable.

I've been using Warrington Central much more over the past week or so and the station is improving,…read moreespecially in terms of cleanliness and service. While it is an old and basic station, it is pretty nice for an old town and it's pretty easy to get in and out of the station quickly to continue on with your journey. Minimal facilities inside the station but with Warrington's Golden Square Centre being a couple of minutes away, as well as an ASDA nearby that, is helpful. If you're heading into Manchester/Liverpool, there seem to be more services which go from here rather than Bank Quay, including the fastest train into Manchester which goes from here to Piccadilly with East Midlands Railway. 3* - Decent station for a small town, pretty minimal but improving so that's a good thing.

Warrington Central is one of two major stations in Warrington (the other being Bank Quay), and is…read moreserved by trains on 'southern route' from Liverpool to Manchester. The line was opened in 1873 by the Cheshire Lines Committee, a venture formed by the Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and the Great Northern railway, joined by the Midland Railway. The line originally ran from Manchester Central to Liverpool Central via Garston, although services were concentrated on Piccadilly and Lime St stations respectively from the late 1960s. The station has two platforms, built on a viaduct: the original main station building on the north side, in an Italianate style of yellow stock brick with red and blue brick details, has been converted into commercial offices, and a new smaller building built on Winwick Street. The station's modern entrance houses a ticket office, small shop and coffee stand, leading via stairs (or newly-installed lifts) to the two platforms. These retain the attractive original retaining walls and their canopies, with decorated brackets, although the original wooden awnings have unfortunately been replaced by ugly corrugated steel versions. The Manchester-bound platform (1) has toilets and a waiting room, whereas the Liverpool platform (2) has only a modern glass waiting room. The station is served by three rail companies: Northern operate a half hourly Liverpool (Lime St) to Manchester (Piccadilly) service, some of which stop at all stations, with others semi-fast. TransPennine Express operate an hourly fast service to Liverpool westbound and Leeds via Manchester eastbound, some of which continue to York, Scarborough or Middlesbrough. East Midlands trains operate an hourly Liverpool to Norwich via Nottingham and Sheffield service, taking over 5 hours to Norwich! There is level access throughout, and Warrington's Bus Station (known as the 'Interchange') is a short walk away under the railway bridge.

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.

Diamond North West are the new kids on the block on the Bolton bus scene after the purchase of…read moreFirst Manchester's Bolton depot - meaning they now cover services running from Bolton as well as their existing base in Atherton/Wigan - they are owned by Rotala who also run bus services in other parts of the country and are based in Birmingham, however, Diamond North West's communication is based around Atherton. They have taken over multiple routes now serving the city centre including the 163 from Bury to Manchester Piccadilly via Middleton, the 8 services from Manchester to Bolton via Spinningfields and Bolton as well as many other services connecting Manchester and Bolton and the X39. One thing which impressed me is how they've set out to have brand new buses which just aren't converted buses from their predecessor on their new routes from day one - the new buses are multiple tones of blue with 2019 registration plates and from the outside do look pretty good. While they are still running some of the old First buses rebranded with their logo stickers over First - it still is a slow process which could take a while as they have a large number of buses to either completely re-design or replace - this is compared to GO North West who taken over First Manchester's depot based in Cheetham Hill who spent a while introducing some of the newly branded buses and those are still converted First buses and not brand new. As well as looking good from the outside, the new buses look pretty decent from the inside with USB sockets everywhere however especially on the 19 models they've really missed a chance to improve technology on the bus for people with disabilities. 1. Why not announce bus stops like London which can help tourists or people who struggle with sight 2. The wheelchair designated space is not big enough to support a wheelchair as it is split into two areas, the other designed for a buggy, this green pole gets in the way meaning the wheelchair has to turn to block part of the aisle into an illegal position. The ramp to get onto the bus remains manual. Services are starting to run more on time which is good but to be fair even a tortoise could beat First and there are still improvements which need to be done on that front with some services still running late or not turning up at all, which isn't a good impression to be starting off with - this does mean however sometimes having to wait at stops if they are running early to make the difference two minutes or less - it is annoying especially when the driver doesn't announce anything which causes confusion but still running on time is pretty fair for everyone. Drivers again are mixed, some coming from the company existing based in Atherton, some being brand new or coming over from First - On most occasions, I've found the bus drivers to be rude and ignorant -one of them even overcharged me costing £4.40 for a single journey: 1. In London, this would have been £1.50 or £4.50 for a whole day of bus travel or £7 for zones 1 and 2 if you want to combine the tube and DLR - which shows the expense 2. I could have got a "night" ticket for the same price, rather than charging this for a whole journey, which was just £0.40 less than a day ticket to use any service from First, Diamond or GNW in Manchester - there was also a ticket much cheaper for £3.80 - it seems unless you know prices beforehand drivers love to overcharge you with Diamond. Is Diamond an improvement on First? Yes. Overall - other than two major issues for disabled people and ticketing they are pretty solid. 3*

Joke of a company, calling them a company is a push! Terrible services by poorly organised middle…read moremanagement who are more interested in micro management and getting one over on their colleagues than providing a good service!

Prestige Travel is a St Helens based min bus firm We used…read morethem for our holiday airport run this year and they were very professional we were given a quote of 10 per head return which is an amazing price!! They shown up on time and helped us load the baggage into the uhaul, even let us bring my sons cars seat and kept it in the uhaul for us he shown us where our check in desk was at the airport because we wasnt sure when we were coming home he was stood the in the airport with our family name on a piece of card to we could clearly see him