In this next instalment of our new series, we delve deep into Split Routes, focusing on routes such as the 471, 472, 432, 433, 414, and 413. In today’s post, I will be discussing the 471/472 between Liverpool Cook Street and Heswall, calling at Birkenhead Bus Station and Arrowe Park Hospital before splitting into their separate routes. The 471 runs from Arrowe Park via Irby, past Irby High School, and then into Heswall, whereas the 472 goes via Pensby.

Both the 471 and 472 routes start and finish at Cook Street during the week. However, on weekends and some evening services, they begin from Sir Thomas Street (the Metquarter) instead of Cook Street. It appears that all services heading to the Wirral do this on weekends, terminating at Whitechapel rather than continuing to Cook Street. In this post, I am focusing on the 471/472, which are jointly operated by Arriva Merseyside and Stagecoach MCSL in partnership with Mersey Travel.

The route begins on Cook Street, proceeds towards Sir Thomas Street, and continues through the centre of Liverpool to the Birkenhead Tunnel. This tunnel is renowned for its appearance in the Harry Potter films, where Harry and his friend navigate a vortex. It is longer and windier than the Wallasey Tunnel, used by the 432/433 services. After exiting the tunnel, the service continues to Birkenhead Bus Station and then heads directly to Arrowe Park.

I decided to disembark at Birkenhead Bus Station to wait for the next Heswall Bus, which is the 471 operated by Arriva. The 471 travels the same route towards Arrowe Park Hospital before diverting through Irby. Stagecoach also operates the 471 in the opposite direction from Heswall through to Liverpool, while Arriva operates the 472 from Heswall to Liverpool and vice versa. This is the only route that operates in both directions, as the 437/407 and 432/433 are both solely operated by Arriva.

As we make our way through Prenton, heading towards Woodchurch, we pass the 472 and 471 on there perspective routes towards Liverpool from Irby & Pensby. I do rather enjoy travelling on the 472/471 as it takes me near to where my Nan is lives in Pensby. However I was just simply travelling along enjoying the route and getting some much needed pictures for the blog. I also had an idea to bring another series focusing on Circular Routes if your interested in that let me know.

As shown above, the 471 is at Arrowe Park interchange, where you can transfer to services to Seacombe, Woodside, Woodchurch, Moreton, and even Eastham Rake, all operated by Stagecoach and Arriva. I then boarded the 471 again, which took me through Irby towards Heswall, where the bus terminates. It then heads back out towards Liverpool as the 472, passing through Pensby this time instead of Irby.

Once arriving into Heswall Bus Station which I Have also covered in a post recently here on the blog, you can find that here, if you haven’t checked it out I would recommend you do so. Heswall is a lovely little bus station very similar to that of Woodside small but very useful with services to Liverpool, Lower Heswall, Chester & even to West Kirby too. I do hope that your enjoying this new series as we delve into the time tables and routes of split services just like the one where discussing today.

As you can see, we get a fairly frequent service every 10 minutes with the 471/472 joining here at Arrowe Park Hospital, however when they diverge into Pensby and Irby they end up becoming a 20 minute frequency towards Heswall where they both terminate and then start their respective services back to Liverpool, this means you get a 10 minute service from Heswall to Liverpool but make sure you bored the right one depending if you need to get off in Pensby or even Irby for that matter.

As you can see above, the same bus I had just stepped off from on the 471 was now running as the 472, taking me back towards Arrowe Park. It’s always interesting to see how these services interwork, with one journey seamlessly becoming another as part of the wider network. Once back at Arrowe Park, I decided to catch the 414, which took me back towards New Brighton and dropped me off close to where I live, rounding off the day’s travel nicely.

Services like these highlight how closely operators work alongside Merseytravel to provide joined-up, reliable public transport across the Wirral. Through this partnership, routes are planned to connect key locations while making the most efficient use of vehicles and drivers. The next routes I’m planning to talk about will be the 432/433, which operate in a similar split-route fashion. If you have any suggestions for other split bus routes that you think would be worth covering in a future post, feel free to let me know in the comments.

And finally arriving back in Arrowe Park where I started the journey to Heswall via Irby, I took the 472 from Heswall to Arrowe Park via Pensby. The previous route we looked at in this series was all about the 413/414 between New Brighton, Seacombe & Woodside, do feel free to give that a read once you’ve read this one. The 472 has been a route I have used for many years visiting my Nan in Heswall and also just enjoying the route it’s self. From Liverpool the route takes around 40 – 55 minutes in total.