the spring of 1988 with similar fare levels to those of Fareway, new services which mirrored Fareway's and increased frequencies. North Western also competed with Fareway on its F1 service using high frequency minibuses with Faresaver''' branding on a Monday to Saturday daytime from the summer of 1988. However North Western was unsuccessful and withdrew their F1 service by the autumn of 1989. Despite this competition, Fareway would successfully maintain its network of services in Kirkby and North Liverpool for the next 2–3 years and modernised its fleet with newer ex-Greater Manchester Northern Counties bodied Leyland Fleetlines and four Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians new to London Buses' Bexleybus division in 1987, that were originally intended for GM Buses. In addition a coach excursion/private hire division was also established. However, by 1992 rumours began circulating that Fareway was in financial trouble and the once generally clean, well maintained fleet was starting to look tried and dirty. With Merseybus now part of MTL Trust Holdings and engaged in a programme of consolidation and expansion acquiring Fareway would naturally be of interest to MTL especially if Fareway was in financial difficulty and in the early spring of 1993, Fareway was acquired by MTL. Initially MTL kept Fareway as a separate entity from the core Merseybus division maintaining the Fareway route network and its yellow and blue livery. The only sign of MTL ownership of Fareway were stickers for the SuperSaver season ticket that Merseybus had introduced in 1990, now also valid on Fareway services. Fareway was also a useful weapon for MTL to defend itself from GM Buses (North/South) who launched a network of commercial services in North Merseyside from September 1993 in retaliation to MTL's expansion in Greater Manchester with Lancashire Travel and MTL Manchester. However, by late 1993 MTL began to exert more influence over the Fareway operation. The ex-Greater Manchester Fleetlines had started to become time expired and were replaced with newer Metro Cammell Weymann bodied Leyland Fleetlines from Busways Travel Services Some Eastern Coach Works and Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians and Leyland Nationals from the main Merseybus fleet were also drafted into Fareway along with three brand new Plaxton Pointer bodied Volvo B6s for use on Merseytravel contracts in Merseytravel livery. In the summer of 1995, MTL's corporate livery of cream and crimson relief replaced Fareway's yellow and blue livery. This was initially introduced to a batch