Catalogue description MERSEYSIDE PASSENGER TRANSPORT EXECUTIVE

Records of MPTE and predecessor undertakings main classes of records

M 388 MPT/A MPTE, 1968-1988

M 388 MPT/B Liverpool Corporation Transport, 1870-1977 includes

Annual report & accounts, 1901-1969

PTC resolution and report books, 1919-1954

Special Committee minutes, 1923-1962

Administrative records, 1934-1974

Agreements (co-ordination of services), 1902-1969

Staff and traffic orders and notices, 1935-1970

Information re vehicles, buildings, fares etc, 1905-1971

Personnel records, c1887-1983

Miscellaneous and ephemeral records include:

Press cuttings from 1912-1969

Maps and plans

Glass slides

Fare and timetables

Route maps

Advertising and publicity material

M 388 MPT/D Birkenhead: records include

Annual report & accounts, 1902-1969

Correspondence, 1924-1972

Contracts, tenders & agreements, 1961-1970

Route mileages, statistical returns, 1939-1968

Maps & plans, c1930-1960

Time and faretables, 1903-1969

M 388 MPT/C Wallasey Corporation Transport, 1929-1971: few records but includes material relating to

Finance & administration, 1966-1969

Operations, 1946-1967

Staffing, 1946-1966

Maps & plans, 1929-1966

M 388 MPT/E Southport Corporation Transport, 1900-1985 records include:

Annual report & accounts 1902-1973

Reports, 1912-c1970

Monthly record books, 1955-1985

Agreements & specifications, 1918-1960

Personnel, 1903-1974

Miscellaneous and ephemeral records include:

Press cuttings, 1959-1973

Photographs

M 388 MPT/F St Helens Corporation Transport, 1900-1979 records include

Annual report & accounts, 1937-1968

General Manager's reports to Transport Committee, 1945-1974

Administrative files, 1920-1972

Statistical record books, 1927-1963

Agreements, 1902-1931

Traffic and staff circulars & notices, 1927-1973

Vehicles/plant & building (inc. bus shelters), 1939-1964

Road service licences

Personnel records, 1920-1979

Miscellaneous records include:

Press cuttings, 1905-1967

Maps & plans

Faretables and timetables

M 388 MPT/M Miscellaneous: records of other organisations, 1927-1988 include:

North West Traffic Commissioners, 1931-1981

MALTS and transport plans

Tramways, Light Railways & Transport Association, 1932-1939

Municipal Passenger Transport Association, 1927-1975

Public Transport Association, 1944-1967

National Joint Industrial Coun for the Road Passenger Transport Industry 1937-1971

Mid-Lancs. Transport Co-ordinating Committee, 1967-1971

Operators' Safety Council, 1956-1963

Transport Users' Consultative Committee for the NW 1981-1983

Other miscellaneous records include

Summaries of questionnaires; vehicle plans & diagrams; material re other local operators; advertising material; maps.

M 388 MPT/9 Wallasey Corporation Ferries, c1884-1973 records include:

Administration, 1930s-1966

Finance, 1951-1969

Staffing, c1884-1970

Reports, 1903-1964

Seacombe Ferry landing stage, 1926-1961

Ferry vessels, c1895-1970

M 388 MPT/10 Birkenhead Corporation Ferries, 1835; 1901-1970 records include:

Ferry manager's reports, 1897-1926

Ferry manager's reports (misc) 1924-1958

Finance, 1902-1970

Staffing, 1835-1970 (one wages book from 1835; other records start c1855)

Ferries/property, 1934-1970

M 388 MPT/11 MPTE Ferries (& earlier joint arrangements), 1935-1985: Material from 1935-1974

Summary of lists

M 388 MPT/A MPTE, 1968-1988

M 388 MPT/B Liverpool Corporation Transport, 1870-1977

M 388 MPT/C Wallasey Corporation Transport, 1929-1971

M 388 MPT/D Birkenhead Corporation Transport, 1902-1971

M 388 MPT/E Southport Corporation Transport, 1900-1985

M 388 MPT/F St Helens Corporation Transport, 1900-1979

M 388 MPT/M Miscellaneous, 1927-1988

M 388 MPT/9 Wallasey Corporation Ferries, c1884-1973

M 388 MPT/10 Birkenhead Corporation Ferries, 1835; 1901-1970

M 388 MPT/11 MPTE Ferries (& earlier joint arrangements), 1935-1985

Further reading:

The Development of Transport on Merseyside Since 1945, J S Dodgson, in Commerce, Industry & Transport - Studies in Economic Change on Merseyside, B L Anderson & P J M Stacey, Liverpool 1983

Liverpool Tramways 1943-1957, R E Blackburn, Cardiff n.d.

Liverpool Transport (3 vols.), J B Horne & T B Maund

Local Transport in Wallasey, T B Maund (Omnibus Society, c1969)

Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive

Merseyside Record Office, Cunard Building (4th floor), Pier Head Liverpool L3 1EG. Tel: 051 236 8038. Fax 236 5827.

Mon-Fri 9.15-4.45 (lunchtimes according to staff availability)

An appointment is advised.

Provenance: details of the accession are sketchy and apocryphal, and few written details exist. Some of the records were transferred from the modern records system - Consignments 18, 42, 44, 59 & 65 - but there are no details of the accessions beyond what are in the Record Office's consignment book. It would seem that, assisted by MPTE H(istorical) A(nd) T(ransport) S(ociety), the Archivist cleared out one or more MPTE offices (almost certainly, at least those of Mersey Ferries & St Helens Division). Some minor accessions - Road Service Licences etc. - are of a later date than the bulk of the accession: Acc. 189 (DX471), 190 (DX473), 1990-7 & 1990-15.

The archive comprises records of MPTE and each of its former municipal undertakings. Each of these, as administrative entities, has been listed as a whole. Birkenhead and Wallasey ferry records have been listed separately up to their merger, and then together after it. All photographs, (except for a collection of Southport photographs which were found already separate) have been listed together, under the MPTE heading.

The organisation of the records is as accurate a reflection of the administrative organisation of the MPTE and its predecessors as it is possible now to get: many of the record groups and classes were rearranged and broken up before the Record Office was able to start this listing. (For example, in some cases the archivist has had to reconstitute files: this is noted in the list when it occurred).

Note: the initials "DD" refer to an amateur transport enthusiast who listed some of the material before the MRO and who sometimes disrupted the orginal order of files and papers.

• Transport

Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority & Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive were set up after the Transport Act of 1968. MPTE was formed in November 1969 and from 1 December assumed responsibility for the bus and ferry fleets of the former Liverpool, Birkenhead and Wallasey municipal undertakings. The MPTA was at first made up of representatives from each of the 18 councils on Merseyside; after 1974 the MPTA was Merseyside County Council, through its 23-member Passenger Transport Committee. The MPTA (the "shareholders") was responsible for overall policy decisions on public transport - fares, frequency of services, etc - and the MPTE (the "board of directors") was to handle the day-to-day running of the transport, i.e. putting those policies into action.

To control its operations the PTE was split into three traffic divisions: Wirral (formed from the Birkenhead and Wallasey undertakings and including the Mersey Ferries) and North and South Divisions (based on those adopted latterly by Liverpool City Transport, extended to the PTE boundary). Following local government reorganisation in 1974 Southport and St Helens were added to the the PTE's sphere of operations, as Districts within the existing North and South Divisions respectively. In 1981 these Districts became Divisions in their own right. Following further local government changes in 1986 MPTE became Merseyside Transport Ltd.

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