A brand-new express bus service is set to provide direct public transport access to Liverpool John Lennon Airport in under an hour as the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has announced the introduction of a service from St Helens.
Providing transport for more than 25,000 Liverpool City Region residents; the new X3 express service will link St Helens town centre directly to Liverpool John Lennon Airport once it commences operation on Sunday 6 September – the same day bus services in St Helens return to public control.
Other improvements planned for the bus network in St Helens include additional evening and weekend services, extended routes to serve hospitals and bus frequencies increasing to from every two hours to every hour.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:When I said we were taking back control of our buses, it was never just about changing who runs them. It was about building a public transport network that works for local people.
This new express service is a great example of what that looks like in practice. It will make it quicker and easier for thousands more people to get to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, whether they’re travelling for work, jetting off on holiday or welcoming friends and family to our region.
We’re proving that when decisions are made locally, we can build a network around the needs of our communities instead of leaving them to the market. That’s how we’ll deliver the London-style transport system people here deserve – better connected, more affordable and giving people a genuine alternative to the car.
Passengers boarding the X3 will experience a brand-new, publicly owned UK-built low emission bus clad in the region’s yellow and grey Metro livery. Each vehicle in the fleet will feature air conditioning, USB charging ports, improved seating, level boarding, audio-visual announcements and improved accessibility.
John Iving, LJLA CEO, said:With more flights to more destinations than ever before, improved connectivity for the airport from across the City Region is vitally important and this new express service will now make it much easier and quicker for thousands of St Helens residents to access the airport by public transport.
The introduction of the new X3 service forms part of Mayor Rotheram’s wider plans to improve airport connectivity, alongside the rollout of publicly run buses, which are hoped to enable faster, greener and better-connected transport for the 1.6 million residents of the City Region.
With St Helens moving under public control in September, further ownership will be phased in across the City Region, with Wirral following in October 2026 and Liverpool, Knowsley and Sefton by the end of 2027.
