In today’s Post, I visit Kirkby Bus Station in Merseyside as part of my series exploring various bus stations across the UK. This aims to demonstrate their operations, layouts, and compare them to other stations I’ve visited. I took the 217A from Huyton to Kirkby and was surprised by the station’s small size upon arrival.

The Bus Station in Kirkby underwent major redevelopment around 11 years ago, in 2014. The area has been undergoing regeneration since approximately 2006 and, as of 2025, it appears that this process is still ongoing. From what I’ve observed, the area still feels very run down and unloved. It’s as if the £200 million has vanished.

The original Kirkby Bus Station opened in 1994, with renovations occurring in 2014 and 2016, resulting in the current bus station we have today. Compared to Huyton, which I have also visited, this station seems a bit unloved and plain. Where there is meant to be grass, there are just paving stones, making it not very appealing at all.

I will also include photos from Huyton Bus Station and Kirkby Bus Station, which I visited on the same Sunday. Bus spotting on a Sunday in certain locations can be quite dull due to the limited number of buses. However, I did manage to capture a few different buses at Huyton, such as this Wright Pulsar 2 heading for John Lennon Airport.

As you can see from my photos, Huyton bus station is more appealing compared to that of Kirkby Bus Station with it’s plane bus stands, here you have plenty of greenery and shrubbery along with trees and just a more appealing atmosphere. The stands here remind me that of Queen Square Bus Station along with the Mersey Travel ticket office as well.

As you can see, they closely resemble Queen Square bus station in design, with glass and concrete structures for the bus shelters. There are only seven bus shelters here, compared to six at Kirkby Bus Station. In contrast, the larger bus stations of Liverpool One, Queen Square, and Birkenhead have around ten or more bus shelters.

The routes differ from each bus station. From Huyton, you can take direct buses to Liverpool Queen Square and Liverpool One Bus Stations on services such as the 10, 10A, and 10B, operated by Arriva North West. Additionally, there is the 7 to Warrington and the 217A to Halewood and Kirkby via Huyton, operated by Stagecoach. There are also smaller operators like HTL Buses, although I wasn’t able to capture that on the day.

From Kirkby, you can access services such as the 14A, 14, 19, 20, 21, and several other smaller routes, though I can’t recall all of them for this post. On Sundays, I primarily observed Stagecoach operating services to and from the Bus Station. They also follow most of the line from Kirkby Station on Merseyrail, stopping at Fazakerly and Rice Lane along the way. This makes it quite convenient to catch the 20/21 services in case of delays or cancellations on Merseyrail.

I am thoroughly enjoying writing about these various bus stations and plan to visit more in the coming weeks. If you have any suggestions or ideas for bus station locations, I would greatly appreciate them. I am hoping to visit Stockport in Manchester, as it opened in 2024, and there are plans to introduce trams there too.

I want to leave with this final note. Since I’ve stopped doing YouTube and TikTok for the foreseeable future due to the amount of hate, are you guys who are reading these blog posts enjoying this series? I’ve covered quite a few bus stations, which you can find in my category named Bus Stations. I’ve also visited Queen Square, L One bus stations, and Birkenhead. Thanks for sticking around!