09 November 2017

Life after Plymouth - 69077

First Devon & Cornwall. Remember them?

With the mostly modern fleet that Stagecoach are running in town its easy to forget what a motley selection of buses First ran in Plymouth. However there were times when some quite impressive buses were running for First…

First 69077 SF06GYA

69077 was one of quite a number of these Volvo B7RLEs that were brought in to compete with Plymouth Citybus. Very nice they were too! Sadly they didn't stay that long and soon First were back in decline. These buses were off elsewhere within the First empire. Some at least have ended up back in Glasgow and a few of them are now appearing in the new look SimpliCity branding for the 9 9A Hillington - Cardonald - Ibrox - City Centre route.

SF06GYA

©MOD571P

Thanks to Donald for allowing me to use his excellent photo.

You do wonder, if First had stayed the course in Plymouth what would they be running right now?

4 comments:

  1. i think first were forced to sell Plymouth as they couldn't afford to DDA update Cornwall and Plymouth it would cripple them so they had to pick one and as they have a stronghold in Cornwall and with WGH demise and not to mention GWR if they lost Cornwall they would have a long way to go for Rail replacement

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    Replies
    1. First had been trying to sell Plymouth way before Western Greyhound disappeared... and they certainly didn't have a "stranglehold" on Cornwall back then, in fact much the opposite.

      Delete
  2. It nothing to do with dda law .it couse plymouth was runing at a loss for years first group gave plymouth a few years to make it pay .or there shut down first plymouth .and had up date the fleet big time .i had 2 mates that drove frist plymouth ..and there told me first bus be gone if not make profit .and there new this for years it be sold off and stage coach take over .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's hard to read that with the bad punctuation, and spelling.

      Delete

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