Life On Cars writer in rare trip on bus!

IT WAS the shortest visit to The Concourse I've ever been on.

Not often do you get off the bus at Skelmersdale's premier shopping centre, dash in for a can of Coke and then get straight back on the bus again, but I wasn't here go shopping. For a change, the story was the journey itself.

Arriva, who provide bus services in both Sefton and West, are promising you'll arrive quicker if you take their newly-launched X85 service, which they're saying now provides the quickest link between the heart of Skelmersdale and the fairground attractions of Southport's Pleasureland amusement park.

With no rail link between the two towns, you're forced to either drive or go by bus if you're planning to make this journey, and Arriva are hoping that by introducing a service with limited stops they're going to make the second option more tempting, and boost the economies of both towns by tempting residents to travel between them.

“Southport is a very popular destination for local people, especially those wanting to go shopping or enjoy Pleasureland and other attractions for the day,” said Vernon Roby, general manager of Arriva Skelmersdale.

“We are really happy to be able to offer this new holiday service, it takes less than an hour to travel from Skelmersdale to Southport giving customers plenty of time to enjoy the day when they arrive.”

Although my trip to Skelmersdale didn't get off to a great start, with the X85 arriving at Southport's Central 12 retail park ten minutes after the timetable said it should have done, I didn't feel so bad ditching the car for a double decker that actually feels more modern than my own motor!

But most impressive of all was the slashing of the journey times you'd normally get going by bus; at just over fifty minutes by my watch, it's only slightly slower than driving, and for once I could actually feel slightly smug that I'd gone green and gone by public transport.

The only thing that worried me was it seemed I was one of a select few sharing the joys of this journey; considering it's a summer service aimed at getting Skelmersdale residents out to the seaside, the bus seemed eerily quiet going in both directions.

Even as the Life On Cars motoring writer I'm actually happy that I took the bus for a change, and chances are you will be too if you're looking for a hassle-free and quicker way of getting to Southport or Skelmersdale.

There is one thing I completely agree with the residents of Skelmersdale on though; the town's really overdue for a rail link.