Scania L113s in 1996 22 new Northern Counties Palatine II bodied Volvo Olympians in 1998 for operations based at Gillmoss depot in North Liverpool and branded The Millennium Fleet 4 new gas-powered Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Super Darts for use on park and ride services in Southport 75 new Marshall Capital bodied Dennis Dart SLFs in 1999 Fareway Passenger Services Ltd/MTL Fareway Fareway Passenger Services was Merseyside's first major newcomer to bus operation in the post-deregulation period. It was established by four former Merseyside Transport bus drivers who re-mortgaged their homes and used the redundancy payments they received prior to the formation of Merseybus in 1986. Fareway commenced operations in January 1987 with a fleet of 15-20 ex-Merseyside Transport East Lancs bodied Bristol VRs on the F1 service between their depot at Hornhouse Lane on the Kirkby Industrial Estate to Liverpool's Pier Head. Prior to the arrival of Fareway, Merseybus had significantly increased the fare scales previously used by Merseyside Transport and reduced/withdrawn service levels on a number of routes across Merseyside. Fareway tapped into this by having fares significantly lower than Merseybus and plugging a gap with the F1 route along the popular Black Bull/County Road/Scotland Road corridor. This was very popular with bus users in North Liverpool and Kirkby which at the time had high levels of unemployment and low levels of income and car ownership and the success of the F1 set the tone for Fareway's expansion. The F1 quickly gained 30-minute evening and Sunday operation and over the next 18 months Fareway expanded rapidly. 40-50 Northern Counties/Park Royal bodied Daimler Fleetlines originally new to Greater Manchester Transport entered the fleet along with 10 ex London Transport Fleetlines which came from Cumberland Motor Services as well as Fareway's first new vehicles, 10 Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians which arrived in 1988/89. Fareway's route network also expanded during this period and by the end 1989 Fareway had a core network 7 high frequency commercial services on the major bus corridors linking Kirkby and North Liverpool to Liverpool city centre and a number of Merseytravel contracts. Merseybus was generally complacent to the competitive threat posed by Fareway and it took a while for it to respond. However, with its profitable routes under threat and passenger opinion becoming negative to Merseybus and more favourable to Fareway, it responded with a re-launch of its Kirkby and North Liverpool service network in