On 14 September 2026 Merseytravel and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority announced that Wirral's publicly controlled bus network starts on Sunday 25 October, as reported the same day by Birkenhead News and Wirral Today.
The start-date market resolves YES if a specific launch day for the Wirral network appears on the combined authority or Merseytravel websites by 23:59 on 25 September 2026. A month without a day does not count, and if those sites are silent the same date carried by BBC News and the Liverpool Echo settles it.
We looked at every stage of bus franchising that an English mayoral authority has launched since 2023. For each we asked whether it started in the month the authority had named in public. There are four: three in Greater Manchester and now St Helens. Authorities that have decided to franchise but not yet launched are left out. All four started in the month named. The newest are shown first.