Sorry for the lack of posting here. A combination of being extremely busy at work and not a lot happening. There were no new service change notices last week, so I have used the time to make a start updating my fleetlists – so hopefully a fleet update will follow very shortly.
Some welcome news though today with the arrival of the first of 4 Enviro 400s from the GA Oxford Group
©Alex Street – with thanks.
They are expected to be 540 and 542 in the fleet.
Remind anyone else of 501 to 504 in their Blue Flash DD days ??
ReplyDeleteYepp, practically the sameš¤£
DeleteDo you think they'll get this rumoured new citybus livery or the bog standard cheap one? Citybus brand presentation looks cheap and tacky these days.
ReplyDelete501 and 516 have received variations to their University liveries aswell. If only the paid more attention the the inside of the vehicles as much as they outside. Then on if they are clever they could just put some ad liveries on the Oxford deckers and save repainting all 4. But they wont because like like wasting paint- as seen so many tine before. Whole company should be rebranded Go South West and all buses should be in one livery. Looks smarter and people know the company are. I used to live in Liskeard and you would ring Go Cornwall Bus and they would answer Plymouth Citybus. Can see why customers and drivers alike get confused.
DeleteWould it be funny if they just slap the Plymouth Citybus logo on it and leave them blue...
ReplyDeleteI hope they do as it would be good to see them out in service as soon as possible. They can quite easily slap some promotional lettering on them until they get them in for a full repaint.
Deletecompletely agree, be nice to see some other colours on the streets...
DeleteThese look interesting, I wonder what routes they'll be mainly used on.
ReplyDeleteAlso I love the GNE Solo peeking through in the second image!
Anyone got any idea on how many are still down at Milehouse, and what the plan/status are of them?
DeleteRame services would seem a logical place to put them to release other Transport for Cornwall branded ones to go down into Cornwall which in turn would release the remaining few 06 plate London E400s in Cornwall back up to Plymouth.
DeleteThese probably don't have a ferry lift fitted so wouldn't be able to do rame
DeleteWe don’t want no more old 06
Deleteenviros back in Plymouth, that would be typical PCB if they sent these new ones across for the 70 routes. PCB deserves better
pretty sure these are for Plymouth.
DeleteI believe the Anon 17/1 - 21:15 is referring to Solos - they are all for Dartline. PCB simply refuse to use them, hence the E200s brought in from Cornwall ops.
DeleteIn terms of where 539-542 will go - who knows, but there's still a question of what livery they'll come out with regardless - lots of unknowns about ops at GSW atm especially surrounding Identity considering the new GA ownership approach of "one size fits all"
Not sure how these buses can be deemed any newer than the current 63 plate E400s in the 501-538 series fleet. (501-520 being 63 plates and 521-538 being 65 plates) The 06 plates have always stuggled in Cornwall and I would have thought it would only be natural they came back to Plymouth to join the rest of the fleet and perhaps even displace some of the Scania Ominidekkas that have completely had it and If anything Cornwall has the bulk of the newest buses in the GSW fleet with 70 plates deckers.My local service is the 50/51 and it would be nice to see more 63 plates on this route rather than the London cast offs that sometimes turn up. As for 70 routes they generally have a mixture of both TFC/PCB and ad livery buses anyway looking at Bustimes.org . With no ferry lift the Oxford deckers were probably never destined for Rame services anyway.
DeleteIs it confirmed no ferrylift? as originally they were intended for the isle of wight
DeleteCurrent plan, though subject to change, is for these to go Cornwall to displace older vehicles. It's still up in the air how the cascade of vehicles these will displace is likely to go though
Delete"252" is in the painshop apparently. Can believe they would be for Cornwall. Not quite sure what buses would come back to plym except the 06 Tridents. Lets wait and see.
DeleteI really hope they dont send the 06’s back up, thats just unfair and typical GCB. It would be good to have a bit of uniqueness in the PCB fleet for a change, which has all but disappeared in recent times.
Deletei don't think these buses can be considered unique, seeing one is already in the paint booth, means one thing. Citybus red, so again, a E400 in red, with the lines. Regardless, we will probably see less Scanias on the road
DeleteDebatable, but at least a unique interior! But yeah I agree with the scania comment, well they’re mainly used for the school routes at the moment, which in all fairness they are ideal for. I’d rather they kept the scanias exclusively for school routes so that we have enough deckers for other routes that need them.
DeleteThere’s been a few occasions where routes such as the 34 has run a gas bus or E200 MMC on a peak afternoon run from Derriford back into town and it was packed to the brim so the more double deckers we have the better.
Transport for Cornwall livery not Tramline livery
Delete@Graham, did you get any other photos of what's down at Milehouse, especially whats on the gravelpit? Not been down in a long time as I'm out of area at the mo but would be interested to see if anything interesting apart from these new E400's have appeared, or what's now in bits.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I assume there are no more Darts down there... and the reserve ex London E400's are nowhere to be seen I've heard?
I quite like the colour. OBC uses several colours for route branding, and even manages to get the right colour bus on the right route now and then .....
ReplyDeleteIs there any chance of the Citybus Merc Sprinters getting a livery tidy up? Some of them are starting to look very unloved
ReplyDeleteSorry if mentioned before but 2 london e200 appeared at milehouse reg yx61bxl and yx61dvp
ReplyDeleteThere's another one in bodyshop for door conversions. None going in service here , just come here for door conversion work by the bodyshop then going back . Almost a bit like the bus refurbishment work in 2010 the early days of go ahead !
DeleteThere are in Plymouth but these are not for Plymouth, these are being single door coverted by the Bodyshop for Go East Anglia
ReplyDeleteRegarding the 61 plate E200’s… why send them from London, all the way down here for a door conversion, just to send them right back up again when there’s Hants and Dorset trim? And if PCB do door conversions, why have all of the previous ex London fleet that we have, gone to Hants and Dorset to be converted… doesn’t seem logical.
ReplyDeleteI believe its just a case that H&D are just extremely busy at the moment and seem to be working to full capacity. If Milehouse has the capacity then makes sense to send them here if they can get the sorted quicker than H&D can. Milehouse have converted a fair few dual doored buses over the years.
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