Wigan Album

I remember this service very well,it was always on time.Nowadays the service is run by arriva and only goes to scum side (aka St Helens)and its proberbly the worst service in the noth west ,bring back Wiggin Corpy.

When I worked in Haydock in the mid sixties and didn't have my own transport I remember using the 320 service to get to and from there. It was a four way joint service between Wigan Corporation, St Helens Corporation, Ribble and Lancashire United. Everyone who used it used to dread it being St Helens Corporation turn because it was notoriously unreliable.

first time i went to liverpool as a conductor was on this very bus in 1963 it was a back loader with doors on brings back memories driver was don oliver later insp oliver and min fare out of liverpool was 6d old money

I hated that route, especially in the morning just before 9.30 from Haydock, when you got all the twirly ticket holders trying to get on, and then it was just one price all the way to Liverpool.

The 320 used to be a flyer, missing a lot of the stops. Now it stops every 100 yards. If you want to go from Wigan to Liverpool now, you need to get the 320 to St Helens then a number 10. It takes the best part of three hours!

When I was a pupil at thos linacre from 1953/1957 I used the 320 service regularly. It was known in those days as the Flyer as it used to take 30mins. from Wigan to Haydock as against 45 from Wigan/Ashton/Haydock. It was named Flyer because there were very few stops.It was a 30min. service from Wigan bus station on the hour and 1/2hour and ideal after chips steak pudding and peas at the Savoy chip shop on the bus station,run by Cassinellis the ice cream people.

It certainly was a flyer on the last bus out of Liverpool at 23.00 . Normal time was Liverpool - Wigan in 1hr 20 mins but on that last one normally you was in Hindley ( Platt Bridge) Depot and cashed up by midnight.

Did the 320 go through Hindley throgh to Ashton in Makerfield at some stage in the 1960's?

As far as I know the 320 has always gone through Platt Bridge and Lower Ince. The No 1 used to go from St Helens along the same route as the 320 as far as Platt Bridge, then through Hindley to Atherton.

There was the LUT "No 1" bus that ran between Atherton and St. Helens, passing through Hindley.

Great service the 320 don't remember it going thro' hindley at any time unless because of road works.It was more expensive but woeth it if you were tight for time

I remember this service when I lived on Beech Tree Houses in Bamfurlong (Around 1995)It was run by G M Buses,the ones with the brown,orange and cream liveried double-decker's,I used to get on it at the Bryn Hall pub to go to Ashton for nappies and clothes for the kids,I think it became the 620 run by those rattly old heaps that Blue Bus used to have.

fleet number 115,is actually parked at crich tramway museum on a owners private running day to the museum,this vehicle retained its maroon and white livery all its working life it now resides in the transport museum in manchester.

Used the 320 Bus service when it was operated by GM Buses in the 1980's between St Helens and Liverpool or to Wigan, service only started to go downhill when GM Buses in the early 1990's finished the services earlier to Liverpool less than half a decade before the St Helens - Liverpool section of the route was axed due to the Bus Wars in the 1990s and Bus De-regulation. As a St Helenser , I miss those 320s travelling to Liverpool, their service was second to none, superior/quicker than the services that Arriva operate today.

I used to take the 320 when I went home to Spring View from Liverpool University between 1964 and 1970. It was a good service and because it stopped at the bottom of Taylor’s Lane in Spring View, much faster than taking the train from Lime Street.