Liverline: Scania Northern Counties

As at Manchester just down the road Deregulation brought intense competition on Merseyside and there was enough business for the newcomers like Liverline to build up decent sized fleets of newish buses including double-deckers. Indeed in Liverpool the new operators buses at times seemed to outnumber the former PTA operator Merseybus vehicles. By the time this photo was taken even though Liverbus retained a separate identity it had been become part of what had once been the local Ribble operation now named North Western. In the end though Merseybus joined Liverline and North Western as part of Arriva.