Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire 10574 - SN16 OTL
In yesterday's misadventure, I gatecrashed my sibling's trip out with a friend of hers (they're fine with it, by the way, I did buy some things for myself) and got on a coach out to the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet, a destination seemingly avoided by the enthusiast crowd like the plague. While I don’t mind a good day out in a different part of the country, scouting the site on bustimes.org didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence at first. To that, knowing that goal-setting to this extent caused problems last time, I identified three targets:
1: Get Stagecoach service 1,
2: Get Stagecoach service 2, and
3: If at all possible, get Arriva service 5.
How did I do? Well, on evaluation when I hit the ground and scouted my surroundings, target 3 was written off immediately because of how far I'd had to walk from the outlet. And so, following a stop for lunch, it began.
And it was quite possibly the worst bus spotting experience I've had to go through. Entering Cheshire Oaks from the main roundabout off the M53, you will drive onto a dual-carriageway cleverly named 'Cheshire Oaks Way' which, after a set of traffic lights, has another lane to turn left into a massive car park. Go straight on from there, and there's the only bus stop in the main Cheshire Oaks complex. Now, if you want to get photos opposite this bus stop, you will have to walk across a zebra crossing onto a footpath in Car Park A that seemingly just dumps you at the entrance and exit gates, with no barriers separating you from the road. The way these paths are laid out, you would think there would be a crossing here - instead, they are located on the far ends of the road. In fact, I saw one or two people trying to cut across the road from where I stood. This part of the Designer Outlet feels very poorly laid out, and, worst of all, extremely car-dependent. Hence why this was the only photo I managed from this side.
The only bus I was willing to catch from this angle, having managed to miss a total four or five more that came this way - including two driver trainers in a row! - Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire's 10674, a 2016 ADL Enviro400 MMC - this will be a running theme, so strap yourselves in - is seen departing from the bus stops on Cheshire Oaks way on an X1 to Liverpool City Centre. I'll give them that, there's semi-frequent buses running around the site, but its definitely a long way to come on the bus from Liverpool or Chester itself.
Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire 10574 - SN16 OTL
In yesterday's misadventure, I gatecrashed my sibling's trip out with a friend of hers (they're fine with it, by the way, I did buy some things for myself) and got on a coach out to the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet, a destination seemingly avoided by the enthusiast crowd like the plague. While I don’t mind a good day out in a different part of the country, scouting the site on bustimes.org didn’t fill me with a lot of confidence at first. To that, knowing that goal-setting to this extent caused problems last time, I identified three targets:
1: Get Stagecoach service 1,
2: Get Stagecoach service 2, and
3: If at all possible, get Arriva service 5.
How did I do? Well, on evaluation when I hit the ground and scouted my surroundings, target 3 was written off immediately because of how far I'd had to walk from the outlet. And so, following a stop for lunch, it began.
And it was quite possibly the worst bus spotting experience I've had to go through. Entering Cheshire Oaks from the main roundabout off the M53, you will drive onto a dual-carriageway cleverly named 'Cheshire Oaks Way' which, after a set of traffic lights, has another lane to turn left into a massive car park. Go straight on from there, and there's the only bus stop in the main Cheshire Oaks complex. Now, if you want to get photos opposite this bus stop, you will have to walk across a zebra crossing onto a footpath in Car Park A that seemingly just dumps you at the entrance and exit gates, with no barriers separating you from the road. The way these paths are laid out, you would think there would be a crossing here - instead, they are located on the far ends of the road. In fact, I saw one or two people trying to cut across the road from where I stood. This part of the Designer Outlet feels very poorly laid out, and, worst of all, extremely car-dependent. Hence why this was the only photo I managed from this side.
The only bus I was willing to catch from this angle, having managed to miss a total four or five more that came this way - including two driver trainers in a row! - Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire's 10674, a 2016 ADL Enviro400 MMC - this will be a running theme, so strap yourselves in - is seen departing from the bus stops on Cheshire Oaks way on an X1 to Liverpool City Centre. I'll give them that, there's semi-frequent buses running around the site, but its definitely a long way to come on the bus from Liverpool or Chester itself.