Avon Buses

Avon Buses is the largest independent commercial bus operating company on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Based in Prenton, Merseyside, the company has an all-single deck fleet of about 38 vehicles as of May 2011, all of them low-floor.

History
Avon Minis, as the company was originally known, was founded in August 1981 by present proprietor Larry Smith. By 1995 it had six buses and ran mostly school contracts plus one local route. The newest buses were two Leyland Titans.

Since then the company has undergone radical changes from operating School contacts to local commercial services. The business has expanded with services starting in Crosby, Fazakerley and their former outstation in Bootle. A name change to Avon Buses was made in late 2004/2005.

Avon Buses took over former Arriva North West routes 421 & 422, renumbering them to 22 and 22A. Avon then decided to renumber service 22A to 24 so it would not confuse its passengers with Helms Coaches service 23. They also took over five other groups of routes at the same time. After Helms Coaches service was withdrawn earlier this year Avon Buses decided not to up the frequency of routes 22 and 24 but add an additional Sunday 23 service from Heswall to Chester Bus Exchange, which was eventually withdrawn in April 2011.

Operations
The company operates mainly commercial local bus services, primarily on the Wirral, including two to Chester. One commercial service is also operated on the opposite side of the Mersey, between Fazakerley and Crosby. A few tendered services are operated in the early mornings, evenings, and Sundays.

Much of Avon Buses' expansion in recent years has come from commercialising tendered services.

Services
Services operated as of January 2013:

Fleet
The bulk of the fleet consists of Dennis Dart SLF and more recently Alexander Dennis Dart 4 chassis with a mixture of bodywork: East Lancs Spryte, Plaxton Pointer, Plaxton Pointer 2, MCV Evolution and Marshall Capital. There is a solitary remaining Plaxton Primo.

Low-floor buses started arriving in the fleet in 1997, the first being a Dennis Dart with an East Lancs Spryte body (R54OCK). The low-floor fleet grew rapidly with more new Dennis Darts being joined by a number of Dennis Lances with Berkhof bodies and a larger number of Marshall minibus integrals. The fleet now is 100% low-floor, the last step-entrance vehicle in the fleet was a Dennis Dart with Plaxton Pointer bodywork which came from Stagecoach (N63KBW).

Livery
All vehicles are painted in a livery of cream with blue skirt and black around the windows.