Preserved

Not quite Plymouth based, but a bus from just up the road has entered preservation:

“Well after many weeks of awaiting confirmation, I am pleased to say that about a week ago it was confirmed that Stagecoach South West Volvo B6LE 31701 P701BTA will soon be passing into my ownership for preservation.
Some of you may or may not be aware that I remember these when delivered new, seeing them parked in the depot in Exeter complete with the wrapping on the floors, no ticket machine, brightech test destinations displayed etc etc, I also drove them for a few years when new on the 12 route in Torbay.
I believe these were the first low floor vehicles delivered to Stagecoach Devon, the next one was the Dart R751BDV, so the first of the batch really did need to be saved for preservation, and I am very pleased that she has come to me, the plan will be for her to receive Stagecoach stripes livery as she carried when new, also the Stagecoach EasyRider branding, as some of you will know my restorations are usually quite detailed, so I wont be happy until she is exactly as I remember her, i.e. ticket machine, cash tray equipment, internal lettering, external lettering etc will all be as accurate as possible.
Overall, as she has only been with Stagecoach locally, she is in very original condition, she has a full set of virtually new grey and orange striped seats, she has been refloored and new stagecoach style lino applied, this will be returned to the original orangey/red with a slight shiney fleck in it, a little bit of panel work and tidying up as well as a damn good clean and she will be ready for paint.
Anyway, all being well the paperwork will be completed this week and she will return to her new home in Torbay, this winter will see the return to the stripey livery.
I will let you all know that she makes it home safely and I would like to put on record my thanks to Stagecoach South West for the help they have given with regard to 701.
She will be known by her original number of 701 within the fleet of The Devon & Dorset Group, in the meantime I would be grateful if anyone could supply as many photos as possible of this batch of vehicles, from whatever era they have, either stripey, swoops, new, old, Torbay, Exeter etc as it will all be very useful for the restoration in particular the lettering that she carried on the panels above the windows, it read, pushchairs, wheelchairs.... welcome etc if anyone has anything of those then please do post away! “
James Pratt
As she is now:
Creative Commons licensed flickr photo shared by Terry Partridge

James is well known on the preservation circuit as is his attention to detail so we have to look forward to seeing her back in the stripey livery. For a perfect example of what James can do you only have to look at Bristol VRT 1215 looking incredible for a thirty year old!

Related Links

• James' Photostream Flickr
• Devon & Dorset Group Home Page

Elsewhere on the net

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remember when

The 46/47 routes are no longer with us. It seems strange as they have been an important set of routes for many years, although the route itself has changed on many occasions. Although it was withdrawn as it was loosing money its worth remembering that this was the last route in Plymouth which rostered to run with double deckers in normal day time service. The last few years it has been mostly step entrance Darts. It will be interesting to see how many of these appear in service now that this long route has now gone. So lets celebrate the route with this nostalgia fest of double deckers mainly thanks to Jos Van Hemert...
August 2002 ©Jos Van Hemert September 1994 ©Jos Van Hemert July 1987 ©Jos Van Hemert July 1987 ©Jos Van Hemert July 1981

Related Links

• Citybus 46/47 Plymothian Transit Extra

Elsewhere on the net

One of the great joys about the oversized roller-coaster that is the Docklands Light Railway has long been the ability to sit right at the front of the train and “pretend” to be the train driver, or more maturely to get a view of a train line from an aspect rarely seen by ordinary folk. Ian Visits

The established pattern of Sunday services on Bank Holidays can cause capacity problems. Generally loadings tend to be higher, though previous experiments with Saturday services did not prove viable given the need to compensate staff for working Bank Holidays and the past ability of the tramway to occupy surplus staff. Fylde Bus Blog

Arriva Shires & Essex has resurrected the Superbus brand name. In 2007, we felt that Superbus was one of the industry’s top seven liveries. But if you expect to see the yellow & blue of old, please think again. Omnibuses

In 1861 two ferry companies operating jointly between Southampton and the Isle of Wight merged to fight off competition from an upstart third operator. Public Transport Experience

Taking a break from bus matters, The Great Western Society at Didcot staged a steam weekend over Easter so we travelled over to Oxfordshire on Good Friday to see the star of the show, the 'Blue King', GWR 6023 'King Edward II' which was commissioned early this year after a twenty year restoration programme. Transport Illustrated

Plymouth DJY965

Thanks to Cliff I can bring you another gem:

Ex Plymouth Corporatiom Crossley bodied Crossley DJY965. Wesley, Stoke Goldington, Summer 1967.
This bus has been saved and is seen here in 2002 looking a lot better!

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Elsewhere on the net

I loved visiting Plymouth Zoo when I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s. I think it was a shilling to get in at the time Plymouth Local History Blog

M'colleague and I both attended the Easter Sunday running day, based at the Road Transport Museum in the Lincoln suburb of Whisby. A Transport of Delight

All you Need to Know (do you care?) about The History of Sheffield bus stops. Public Transport Experience

Stagecoach have just released details of a new and improved Megabus network across the UK, included in the new network is a new twice a day service to and from Norwich, the University Of East Anglia and Thetford! Andys Bus Blog

The Great Britain

A real treat today with this wonderful shot of The Great Britain IV Excursion arriving at Plymouth on the 23rd April. ©Laura:0)
Thanks to Laura for permission to use her photo. Click the link below to see more of her photos including a few from the Plym Valley Railway.

If you are interested the Royal Duchy excursion is passing through Plymouth station on 30th April at 14:42pm click here for more information.

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Related Links

• Laura:0) Photostream Flickr

Elsewhere on the net

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• It may be too soon to attribute First Cymru’s planned June expansion to the recently announced First UK Bus consultation that aims to give local managers more business responsibility. Decentralisation or not, First has varied one service and newly registered another, taking First well outside its comfort zone. Omnibuses
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• I've made the most of the good weather and some time off of my usual commitments to go and explore parts of the country for the last two weeks - Worcester news to come soon but first up here are some shots from Winchester from yesterday. Southern England Bus Scene
• Today saw the restart of summer service 20. This year is runs from Town Centre to Marton Mere via Stanley Park and Blackpool Zoo with Olympians 372, 373 and 378 on duty. It seems opportune to trace its history. Fylde Bus Blog
• Brand is everything, we are told - but does it really help the image of rail travel if the brands are transitory, changing every few years? Public Transport Experience
• Impressive temperatures. Chaotic traffic. Crowded beaches. Bournemouth sizzles. Redolent of Easters past, pre-1970s, pre-Benidorm and pre-Costa Brava. And conditions look set fair for today. Better get my towel on the beach early, then. Erm... Omnibuses
• Some saddo who spends his life photographing buses? Where do these crazy people get their ideas from? Well, this guy tells us something of what set him off on a life of omnibology Public Transport Experience

the sun sets on the 46

The last 46 through Keswick Crescent.

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Citybus Updates

When Go-Ahead took control at Citybus many people wondered what would happen with the Citycoach side of the business. It had been under threat way before Go Ahead times but had been slimmed down and seemed to be doing ok. At the time of the takeover GAH said they were undecided about Citycoach but if the business was viable then it should be ok. Of all the big groups that could have bought Citybus GAH were always the most likely to keep the Citycoach side on. They operate quite a substantial coach operation within the South Coast Group and continue to invest in coaches across the group.
Well it seems that Citycoach is safe as they are looking to invest in new coaches again. With this in mind a demonstrator has been borrowed for a week or so in April and was operated in plain white with Citycoach fleetnames. Thanks to Brian for the pic taken from his Blackberry:
We will have to wait and see what gets purchased for the fleet, and what livery they carry. The Stenning designed coach livery for the South Coast fleets is stunning so I am sure he can produce something equally eye catching for Plymouth.
Other news is that the first of the London PVLs have arrived at Milehouse and are being prepared for service. The buses that have arrived are as follows:
420 W509WGH
421 W511WGH
422 X556EGK
423 X557EGK
424 X558EGK
425 Y828TGH
Looking forward to seeing these in the new livery.

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Related Links

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• As promised, a slightly off topic post now regarding Swanage steam railway last week Southern England Bus Scene
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• First Devon and Cornwall will start their new service this Friday (co-incidental on my birthday), running from Barnstaple to Croyde. PTOTPA
• On a recent visit to Southampton, fbb commented that he had obtained an excellent timetable book of all First's services serving the City Public Transport Experience
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• Now, there’s talk of more sort-of civil disobedience, this time of a bus boycott in the village of Cambourne, 10 miles west of Cambridge. Omnibuses

St Budeaux abridged

Further to the post a few days ago with the wonderful photos of the old railway bridge at St Budeaux I was asked to pinpoint exactly where this was. The image below comes from Google Earth (a view taken in 2007. The yellow pin on the left shows roughly where the bridge show was. I have also added a thin white line with the rough line of the railway as it was. The yellow pin to the right shows the railway bridge that still exists carrying the road across the old railway cutting. Click the image for a larger view on my Flickr page or click here to go straight to Google Maps to explore yourself or start with the street view below:

View Larger Map

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Related Links

• Happy Birthday to me Plymothian Transit April 2011
• Plymouth Railways Plymouth Data

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Seven

Woops - I managed to miss out the VOSA registration for the new route 7 from First Devon & Cornwall this morning so here it is:

PH0004983/434 - FIRST DEVON & CORNWALL LTD, THE RIDE, CHELSON MEADOW, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7JT

Registration Accepted Starting Point: Plymouth, Royal Parade Finish Point: Elburton Village Via: Plymstock Broadway
Service Number: 7 Service Type: Normal Stopping Effective Date: 12-JUN-2011
Other Details: Monday to Saturday, except public holidays, every 20 minutes. Sundays/ public holidays - hourly.

Timetable for change

Bus services changes seem to come thick and fast these days. We have already seen quite a few changes this month with Devon County Council cuts affecting routes for First Devon & Cornwall earlier this month.

This coming weekend sees quite a few changes to Plymouth Citybus services:

Service 42 service is to be withdrawn from Leatfield drive. The service will instead service Southway and Looseleigh Lane (Current Sunday Service route)
Service 40D & 41D services are to be replaced with services 40 and 41
Service 46 & 47 service is to be withdrawn (Sunday Services are to be changed to Service 27)
New Service 27 operating between Deer Park and the Plymouth side of the Torpoint Ferry via the City Centre
There is also a new timetable for the 50 but I have not seen anything to explain what the change is and cant actually see any difference so it must be a fairly minor change!

I will be coming back to the ending of the 46 and 47 later in the week.

There is plenty more to come:
PH0006742/48 - ROBERT JOHN RISK, 4 ARCADIA, ELBURTON, PLYMOUTH, PL9 8EF
Registration Accepted by SN Starting Point: Plymouth, Royal Parade Finish Point: Merafield Via: Cattedown, Prince Rock, Marsh Mills
Service Number: 19 Service Type: Normal Stopping Effective Date: 26-APR-2011 Other Details: Monday to Friday.

This is a new route which seems to replace the Cattedown route 45 and the section of Citybus 20 which was pulled earlier this month.

The 29th May will see a few changes for First

PH0004983/38 - FIRST DEVON & CORNWALL LTD, THE RIDE, CHELSON MEADOW, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7JT
Variation Accepted: Operating between Kingsbridge Quay and Dartmouth Pontoon given service number 93 effective from 29-May-2011. To amend Timetable.

PH0004983/389 - FIRST DEVON & CORNWALL LTD, THE RIDE, CHELSON MEADOW, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7JT
Variation Accepted: Operating between Kingsbridge Quay and Bretonside Bus Station given service number 93 effective from 29-May-2011. To amend Timetable.

We have just had another batch of changes announced on VOSA for the 12th June 2011 which are very interesting indeed

PH0004983/330 - FIRST DEVON & CORNWALL LTD, THE RIDE, CHELSON MEADOW, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7JT
Variation Accepted: Operating between Plymouth Royal Parade and Goosewell, Holmwood Avenue given service number 6 effective from 12-Jun-2011. To amend Route and Timetable

PH0004983/336 - FIRST DEVON & CORNWALL LTD, THE RIDE, CHELSON MEADOW, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7JT
Variation Accepted: Operating between Plymouth Royal Parade and Barne Barton given service number 3 effective from 12-Jun-2011. To amend Timetable.

Then the big one:
PH0004983/397 - FIRST DEVON & CORNWALL LTD, THE RIDE, CHELSON MEADOW, PLYMOUTH, PL9 7JT
Cancellation Accepted: Operating between City Centre and City Centre given service number 12 effective from 12-Jun-2011.

It will be interesting to see how the company explain these changes. With the new route 7 presumably taking the buses from the 12 it should not have too much of an impact on the local fleet or drivers so that much is good news at least. It does seem that First are going back to concentrate on their traditional areas. Will we be seeing Citybus doing the same and pulling their 5/5A?

Finally Target Travel are introducing their 54 Bovisand service from 23 July:
PH0006742/49 - ROBERT JOHN RISK, 4 ARCADIA, ELBURTON, PLYMOUTH, PL9 8EF
Registration Accepted Starting Point: Plymouth, Royal Parade Finish Point: Bovisand Via: Plymstock, Hooe, Jennycliff
Service Number: 54 Service Type: Normal Stopping Effective Date: 23-JUL-2011 Other Details: Daily service.

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Related Links

• First Service 6 Plymothian Transit Extra
• First Service 3 Plymothian Transit Extra
• First Service 12 Plymothian Transit Extra
• Target Travel 19 Plymothian Transit Extra
• Target Travel 54 Plymothian Transit Extra
• Citybus 40/41 Plymothian Transit Extra
• Citybus 46/47 Plymothian Transit Extra
• Citybus 27 Plymothian Transit Extra
• Citybus 42 Plymothian Transit Extra

Elsewhere on the net

• Plymouth Citycoach have currently got this Volvo B9 on loan for a trial purposes. PTOTPA
• On 16th April 2003, I first launched my fotopic site - then Southern Hampshire Buses. Today it has gone - through no fault of my own having been a reliable premium subscriber for 5+ years, but I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to announce my new website Southern England Bus Scene
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• So many fantastic photos from today's rally in Penzance. Absolutely brilliant day, well done to everyone at the Cornwall Bus Preservation Group, that really was one of the best rallies I've been to in a long time! PTOTPA
• Possibly to the relief of many people throughout Bournemouth & Bath, RATP Dev UK has publicly stated it has no plans to make the mistakes of Veolia and act in a domineering fashion towards its two provincial operators. No standard liveries that obliterate local identities and no high diktat from Pari Omnibuses
• This blog is contributed by long-time friend Alan from Northampton. Like fbb, Alan is retired and also like fbb, he enjoys travelling. But the system seems designed to make life as difficult as possible. Public Transport Experience
• The Mexborough and Swinton Traction company was famous for two things. Until 1961 it ran a network of centre entrance single deck trolleybi between Rotherham, Mexborough and Conisbrough. Public Transport Experience
• Lymington is a lovely little town on the south coast in Hampshire. The primary bus operators are Wilts & Dorset and BlueStar, and there is a half-hourly train connection to Brockenhurst and the main line Southern England Bus Scene

Go topless on Sunday

©Ally Beverley Photography.com (Via PCTAtlanteanHunter)
Another rare opportunity for an open top ride in Plymouth this weekend:
Easter Sunday Sunday 24th April 2011
Adults £2.50, Children £1.00
Free Easter Egg for all fare paying children, whilst stocks last.
Trains will depart from 1300 until 1600 for the return train ride from Marsh Mills Station to Lee Moor Crossing,a trip of nearly a mile and a half.
The Railway Centre, Station Buffet and Shop will also be open from 1100. (Amenities and Trains subject to availability)
458 has had a bit of a makeover this past week and it is hoped that it will have its name reapplied in time for Sunday. A full repaint into yellow will be taking place over the winter months.

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Sorry for the lack of posting over the last week. Family commitments and a bit of admin to catch up on took all my time!

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Related Links

• PCT AtlanteanHunters photostream for more great shots Flickr
• Welcome to the Plym Valley Railway

Elsewhere on the net

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• John Marsh has kindly been in touch with some fantastic photos he took at the UK Coach Rally in Peterborough last weekend, a selection are below... Andys Bus Blog
• When the "upstart" Midland Railway arrived at its own terminus in London, its directors intended that the world would know that something special had happened. Public Transport Experience
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• You really know that the world has changed when you hear that First is prepared to do a rare thing and sell part of its business to a local competitor. In this case, announced yesterday was the divestment of local services in and around King’s Lynn. The beneficiary is the award winning Norfolk Green. Omnibuses
• This year's London Bus Preservation Trust's Spring Gathering shifted a good way south to Dunsfold Aerodrome, the other side of Guildford from its usual Cobham/Weybridge/Woking haunts. Transport Illustrated

Happy Birthday to me

I like to post something special on my birthday but thought I would end up missing this year but then noted a message from Ian Regan highlighting some excellent photos which I just couldn't wait to feature:

A vintage colour view of the bridge that once carried the LSWR railway line over Wolseley Road, approximately 200 yards north of the entrance to Rodney Street.
The structure and the embankment serving it were both demolished in the early 1970s. However, the cutting on the right side of the photograph is still extant.
The GWR line is clearly visible in the foreground from this vantage point on the hillside near Poole Park Road.
Both ©Ian Regan
Thanks to Ian for the photos. I cant actually recall the bridge myself although I was in Plymouth living at St Budeaux when it was demolished so I would certainly have passed under it. Being born in Portsmouth just 47 years ago today I was one year old when these photos were taken.

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Related Links

• Ian Regains photostream for more great shots Flickr

Transforming the Internet (well a little bit of it anyway)

My usual lunch time at work finds me checking a selection of web pages to try and catch up with the news etc. One of the sites I visit each day is the First Devon & Cornwall home page and was pleasantly surprised to see that it has been redesigned. I knew that First were rolling out a new design but this is the first time I have seen it properly. I have to say I am impressed:
The Home Page

So how good are the timetables?



Its the first time I have seen the personalise timetable link actually working:


What about Tickets then?



Finally lets end with service updates:

All in all its a very clear design which is both easy on the eye and very easy to find your way around. I like the current Plymouth Citybus web site a lot but I have to say I find this new First design even better. Its certainly light years ahead of the older First design which is still in use by a lot of the local areas including Hampshire.

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Elsewhere on the net

• Well these little 709s looked like they'd survive forever in the hands of Stagecoach, certainly surpassing many people's expectations for time in service. PTOTPA
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• You have to think very carefully when you mess around with child fares. Following the significant changes to TfGM’s child concessionary tickets, First Manchester probably thought it had no option. But the publicity and ill feeling it generates aren’t always worth it. Omnibuses
• For the first time in about three years, I did a long visit to Portsmouth yesterday, hopping around the city to get lots of photos Southern England Bus Scene

The outlook is brighter

With the imminent replacement of the step entrance fleet we are about to see the end of the worst Citybus livery (in my opinion anyway). I believe that these two are the last in service to carry this unbelievably dull livery: There is also just the one Mercedes still in the grey skirt livery although its not as bad as the Darts. The only other buses in the fleet with the grey skirt are the two Volvos H177/8GTT Again, its not a brilliant livery by any stretch of the imagination but its a lot better than the Darts. I shall be sad to see the step entrance Darts go, but the livery has outlived its welcome by many years.

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Elsewhere on the net

• In the summer of 2003, I stayed in Pulruan, Cornwall on a family holiday. Pulruan is opposite Fowey in the mouth of the River Fowey, and about 6 miles from St Austell. Southern England Bus Scene
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• We all know that bus-rail connections are an important market though patently this depends upon frequency, fares, the proximity of bus to rail and other factors. Omnibuses
• As comments build up, they can feed off each other. This is exactly what happened yesterday, with 30 comments on whether buses & rail should connect. Omnibuses
• Selwyn's of Runcorn, who operate the National Express service 303 from Birkenhead to Southsea, recently took delivery of a batch of four Volvo B9R with (my new favourite) Plaxton Elite bodywork. Forbesy's Transport Ramblings

Dont blame me missus

ANGRY Plympton residents prevented a bus from leaving its stop in protest at the withdrawal of their local service. From this week Citybus has ended its number 20 service to Underwood and Merafield Road in Plympton. Local Conservative councillors John Lock and Terri Beer joined residents in their protest last Thursday, days before the service finally ended on April 3. “We have been negotiating with all concerned to arrive at a solution to this desperate situation,” Mrs Beer said.
Mr Lock said the protesters “marched into the road and held up the bus for a few minutes. The bus driver thought it was hilarious. He leaned out of his window and said, ‘Don’t blame me, missus’.”
Mr Lock said the council’s transport department was holding a meeting tomorrow at which the number 20 service would be discussed and a decision made on any possible subsidy for Citybus. Peter Oliver, the Citybus operations manager, defended the ending of the service. He said there had been very low passenger numbers, although these had picked up slightly since last June. And there had been high numbers of accidents because of the way people park in Merafield. “Many times our drivers couldn’t get into the road because of parked vehicles,” he said.
Recent concessionary fares cuts and high fuel prices had also affected the viability of the route.
Meanwhile, Labour councillors will present a special motion to next Monday’s meeting of the full city council, calling on the council to work with bus operators to restore services which have been withdrawn across the city.
A spokesman for Plymouth City Council, said: “Citybus have withdrawn these loss-making services because they do not have enough passengers to run commercially. We have been in contact with operators to discuss potential options for maintaining a service in the Merafield and Coxside areas but no decisions have been made. Our bus subsidy budget for the next financial year is already fully committed so we would need to identify alternative funding if we were to support any replacement services.”
This is Plymouth 7th April
As always I suggest you click on the link to ead the full story - and have a look at some of the comments if you want to be entertained...
I do wonder how long everything will be blamed on the council selling Citybus? I guess most people either dont realise, or more likely dont care that cuts to bus services are happening all across the country at the moment.

On a more positive note the first of the ex London double deckers have now arrived at Milehouse. More details to follow!

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A lot better than nothing

Recently First announced with some fanfare that it had placed the largest order for new buses this country had ever seen. As a group they had all but stopped buying new buses for at least a year, if not longer, as the new order was a welcome sign that things were beginning to change. As is so often the case though once the small print came out things were not looking quite so good. The large order was over two years and for this year the group is looking at 460 new buses:

First orders, 2011-12

Double-deck Volvo B9TL/Wrightbus - 144
ADL Enviro400 - 106
Volvo B5TL/Wrightbus hybrid - 30
ADL Enviro400H hybrid -10
Total - 290

Single-deck
Volvo B7RLE/Wrightbus - 50
Wrightbus StreetLite - 46
ADL Enviro200 - 43
Total - 99
Coach
Volvo/Plaxton - 2
TOTAL - 431 with the other 29 still to be confirmed
Still, 460 new buses is a lot better than none at all, and its noticeable how much of the order is for double decker buses which is also very welcome indeed.
As is so often the case the majority of the order will go to London. There are 293 going to London and 167 buses for everybody else.
So how does that split down?
East England (24)
Manchester (25)
Berkshire (5)
Leeds (16)
Glasgow (33)
Scotland East (29)
Bristol (14)
Devon & Cornwall (7)
Hampshire (14)
Considering that many areas of First will not see any new buses Marc Reddy must be really pleased to get 21 new buses between his fleets. It remains to be seen where the 7 for Devon & Cornwall will end up. As is always the case with the large groups plans can change.  It has been suggested that the Plymouth Park and Ride will see the new buses but as expected Marc is keeping things close to his chest. He has confirmed that the current Enviros are now owned outright by FDC as they have purchased them from Plymouth City Council (7 of them, with 2 being owned by FDC from the start).
I am sure we will also see more buses trickling in from London over the coming year too, along with the odd Volvo Olympian to replace older Olympians in the fleet.
One recent transfer to Plymouth (from Cornwall) is seen below, captured on camera by Ian Kirby:

Creative Commons licensed flickr photo shared by Ian Kirby Nice to see one of these in Plymouth, one of the better looking double deck designs in my opinion!

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Related Links

• Ian the Rev photostream Flickr

Elsewhere on the net

• This week I am going to be going back through my old photo collection, finding some old gems of interest to post on here that I'd thought I'd lost or forgotten about Southern England Bus Scene
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• The BVBG held the spring version of their excellent running days recently in Bristol, initially in rather gloomy conditions but matters improved as the day went on Transport Illustrated
• Talking of 1st April the traffic commissioner for the Welsh traffic area chose that very day to reveal his decision on Heart of Wales Bus & Coach Ltd t/a St David’s Travel. This, however, was no joke Omnibuses
• It was Elsie Miggins who started it. She said that Florrie at No 24 had told her that Mrs Whats-er-name; you know, the one with the deaf cat next to the pub, had heard that the 50 bus was changing at the beginning of May. Her husband, Jack, was going to look it up on his new computer; because, according to Jack, "you can find anything on line, these days"! Public Transport Experience

Dennis has been on a diet

All the stickers have come straight from 112 which is still in service in plain Citybus livery.

Creative Commons licensed flickr photo shared by Ian Kirby

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Related Links

• You are following Dennis Dart Plymothian Transit April 2010
• Ian the Rev photostream Flickr

Elsewhere on the net

• Today, the author of the Omnibuses blog posted an interesting April Fool's joke which claimed to show the details of the new *potential* local First brands in the south, including new fleetnames, liveries and more Southern England Bus Scene
• As many of you will be aware, a Bus-Rapid-Transit system is being introduced along part of the old railway line between Fareham and Gosport. Southern England Bus Scene
• While the bus industry was eying up the prospect of local branding & liveries at First UK Bus, something no less radical was actually happening at Greater Manchester PTE. A change of name, for example Omnibuses
• The first Ryde Pier was opened in 1814 as a promenade for pedestrians and a dock for shipping. Prior to that, those crossing the Solent had to change to "tow boats" which were dragged on to the beach. Public Transport Experience
• Oh. Veolia. What’s Occurrin’? More sad news from the promise that was once Veolia, I’m afraid. Omnibuses

For your diary

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Elsewhere on the net

• There are still a number of people who don't understand Tube door etiquette. For years London Underground have been trying to tell people that it's a good idea to let people get off the train first before getting on Going Underground
• I nearly forgot the most interesting spots of the holiday in Orlando, so lets take a step back and have a look at these before continuing. PTOTPA
• Driving along Wolseley Road today, it's hard to tell that there's a railway stop at St Budeaux. There are still two platforms but the lines are nowadays very run down and the area is very much of a no-go zone at night times. Plymouth Local History Blog

April Fools

• San Francisco tram operator MUNI announced their intention to buy the original turquoise and green Metrolink trams to work alongside their fleet of 151 Breda light rail vehicles. Manchester Transport
• I'm delighted to say that, at long last, both the paint and the vinyls have arrived for 270 KTA's forthcoming repaint 270KTA
• First is therefore expected to announce significant major changes to its southern & western businesses that will see a departure from the ubiquitous white and Barbie livery. Omnibuses
• Rumours are rife in cyberspace that a little known bus operator in Sicily is about to purchase a "well-known British bus and rail group". Public Transport Experience

A Right Royal Dart

Plymouth Citybus are commemorating the Royal Wedding in April with this special livery on Dart 29. It will be on the road in this scheme until the end of the month. The original plan was to use Volvo B7 Plaxton President double decker 429 (reg tbc) numerically the last of the batch (420-429) due from Go Ahead London as it fitted with the date April 29th. This would have had the added advantage of being in the new Citybus livery so would certainly have stood out more. This plan had to be changed as the Volvos originally due in February have been delayed and have still not arrived in Plymouth.
In the nearside window you can make out the Royal Wedding Logo being used by Go-Ahead across their fleet nationwide. These are expected to be applied to a number of buses across the fleet over the coming weekend. I didn't get chance to photograph the rear of the bus which carries an advert for Plymouth Citycoach "You are all invited..." (Thursday 28th to Saturday 30th April)

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Related Links

• You are all invited... Plymouth Citycoach

Elsewhere on the net

• So Wednesday morning dawns and the survivors of my official farewell party last night at the LT Museum awake to face another day Leon Daniels
• fbb has just coined the word from the latin "subsisto", I stop, halt or rest. "Subsistence" is a state in which you are stuck, stopped, halted or permanently rested. Public Transport Experience
• Yesterday, there came news of a mammoth order of no fewer than 955 new vehicles. What better news to demonstrate a confidence in the UK bus market Omnibuses