5 October 2013
15 April 2014 - with thankfully short-lived WiFi lettering
16 November 2015 in plain red
And finally into full swoops 5 December 2015
Last two photos thanks to Richard Smith
Showing posts with label Blue Flash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blue Flash. Show all posts
07 December 2015
27 November 2015
Multi Colour Swap Shop
Plymouth Citybus has been swapping liveries across its Enviro 400 fleet.
For example 503 was Blue Flash
and is now Red Flash
© Richard Smith
But then just when things were starting to make sense…
511 which was Red Flash...
comes out to play in swoops!
© Richard Smith
I do like the small red fleet number on the front.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Black Friday Special for one day only: this five photo Feature is 20% off!
26 September 2015
Enviro News
The Plymouth Citybus Enviro 400 fleet have been seeing a few changes recently:
We start off with a last chance to see the three Flash colours together in a posed photo shoot laid on by Plymouth Citybus before 504 enters the paintshop this week:
501 and 502 are still out in plain red (I believe) with 503 the first to get the full RED FLASH treatment.You will note the slight difference with the others as the "Up to every 10 minutes" lettering is missing from the rear wedge. The reason these have been repainted red is due to the increase in frequency for much of the route.
502 in plain red
Meanwhile you may just notice a subtle change for these two...
They have actually swapped identities so in effect have now swapped fleet numbers as can be seen from these older photos:
Thanks to Lauren for the top photo and Richard Smith for most of the others!
29 July 2015
Citybus gets a little flashier
News from The Herald yesterday:
Plymouth is to get 31 brand new buses in a £5million investment by Citybus as a number of bus services are withdrawn and others are increased. The new buses being introduced in September will be operating on route 50. The buses will be yellow under the brand of YellowFlash and will include the same features as the current Flash fleet. From September 20 bus passengers on the Redflash Service 21/21A will see the frequency on the route, which includes Plympton and St Budeaux increase to up to every 7 minutes, from the current 10. The route will have an increased number of buses all running under the RedFlash brand. From this date there will also be in increase in direct bus services between the city centre and Derriford Hospital, increasing from up to every 15 minutes to up to every 10 minutes, with a service up to every 30 minutes continuing to provide a service to Woolwell. All direct buses from the city centre to Derriford Hospital will operate under the BlueFlash brand. To enable the above changes reflecting passenger need services 4/4A and 45 will be withdrawn from service, along with service 42 finishing at Derriford Hospital and not continuing onto Tavistock.
The new buses on order are as follows
11 New ADL Enviro 400s in September for Yellow Flash
7 New ADL E400 due later in the year, will probably be in a ‘Flash’ livery although the colour is yet to be confirmed.
13 New ADL E200 due later in the year. Its likely that these will be in standard swoop livery but that may could change.
All of these will be the older design Enviros rather than the new MMC which although they look a lot smarter, do cost quite a bit more, so while the older models are available it makes sense to keep buying them!
Meanwhile, the BlueFlash Enviros 501-504 are currently being repainted into Red Flash livery for the increased service as detailed above. The revised 42 which will now serve Derriford, Tamerton Foliot and Woolwell will be all single decked using the Volvo B7RLEs with a few of the red ones being repainted blue.
Although these changes reduce the wasteful competition between Citybus and Stagecoach, there will still be competition between the two especially on the City Centre Derriford corridor with the increased 42, the new Stagecoach 1 and at peak times the new Park & Ride services come into Derriford too.
21 November 2014
New Timetables Blue Flash 42
This coming weekend sees quite a few timetable changes for both Plymouth Citybus and First. I have covered some of these, but over the next few days I will bring all details and timetables together with links to my Plymothian Bus Services pages where you can view the recent histories of these routes...
Plymouth Citybus 42 42A 42B
Time and Frequency changes: Plymouth Citybus changed this service from the 31st August and despite conducting extensive time trials we have found the section of route between Derriford Hospital and Tavistock very difficult to keep to time. The changes to the timetable in the main add an additional 5 minutes in each journey allocated to the section of route between Tavistock and Derriford Hospital. This additional time has been put into the Service Monday to Saturday.
Service 42A/B Some journeys have needed to move by a few minutes as a consequence of the changes to the Service 42.
Timetable 42 42A 42B
22 October 2014
Solo Swap Shop Etc
First have been swapping Solos: 53110 and 53111 have transferred to Yeovil - in their place Plymouth has received 50279 and 53005 from First Cymru.
©Richard Smith
Some interesting news about a temporary route that Plymouth Citybus are running:
The 11 between Oke & tavi can't run via it's normal routing via Brentor at the moment due to one of the cattle grids having collapsed big time. It is going to be some weeks before it it repaired, and in the meantime traffic is diverted through the side gate used by horses. This is too small for the Scanias on the 11, so they are doing a doubleback at Lydford and running direct down the A386 to Mary Tavy. Meanwhile DCC is funding a shuttle to run between Lydford and Mary Tavy via Brentor using Citycoach's minibus. Sadly I couldn't get a photo yesterday as the minibus was away on a private hire so a Holman's minibus was in use (though it failed to arrive at either Mary Tavy or Lydford on my trip back north in the afternoon ...) Thanks to Richard Stedall for the update. He adds... If might be worth mentioning this shuttle on you blog to see if anyone can get any photos ... after all it's not every day Citycoach gets to run a rural bus service like this !
Tom Michaels updates us on Blue Flash 42: All the Blue Flash single and double deckers are having their branding changed to read City – Derriford – Tamerton/Tavistock. This is because in the new timetables the Tamerton runs will interwork with the Tavistock runs. 103 is in the paintshop being resprayed into Blue Flash livery. Sounds strange, though as detailed in my comment is far more efficient than the current workings with an extra bus which sit in Bretonside for 30 minutes a trip. Note also the every 30 minutes branding at the rear has been removed too for the Tamerton runs.
Citybus 504 has receieved the new lettering so far. Photo Here. 501 and 503 have not been changed yet.
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30 August 2014
Its Blue and its Flash
As promised –Plymouth Citybus 102 in Blue Flash ready for the 'new' 42 on Sunday.
Thanks to Brian for the photos!
31 July 2014
Plymouth Citybus Changes for August
After yesterday's look at First Devons timetable changes for 7th September we can now have a closer look at Plymouth Citybus' planned changes as from the 31st August:
Service 5/5A
Changes to Monday to Friday evenings only – Service 5A between Royal Parade and Saltash will not run after 19:00. Service 5 will continue to serve Saltash from Royal Parade, last bus departing from Royal Parade at 23:08. Service 5 / 5A will continue to operate a combined 30 minute evening service between Royal Parade and Plymstock.
TIMETABLE PDF
Service 11 11A 11B
Service will now operate via Milehouse to Tavistock instead of Mutley Plain. Service will no longer serve Derriford Hospital (see service 42/42A/42B for alternative services). Timetable changes to reflect this change to route, plus additional journeys operating via Brentor to Okehampton.
TIMETABLE PDF
Service 21/21A (RedFlash)
There will be adjustments to some early evening journeys.
TIMETABLE PDF
Service 29/29A
Additional journey from Derriford Hospital to City Centre at 17:08 on school days. Short trips in the evenings between Royal Parade and Transit Way withdrawn. Service 29 to Derriford Hospital in the evenings will still serve Transit Way. Last two trips to Derriford on a Sunday will run 20 minutes earlier. Slight change to departure times on Saturdays.
TIMETABLE PDF
Service 40 41
Last evening service 41 From Royal Parade to Southway on a Sunday withdrawn. (See service 42A for alternative journey option).
TIMETABLE PDF
Service 42 / 42A / 42B (BlueFlash)
Current service 12 (BlueFlash) to Tavistock will be renumbered service 42. Current service 42 to Tamerton Foliot via Looseleigh Lane will be renumbered service 42B. The current 42A to Tamerton Foliot via Southway Drive will stay as service 42A. Service 42 to Tavistock will now operate via Mutley Plain instead of Milehouse, also serving Derriford Hospital. It will continue to be run using the Blueflash Double Deck buses. Tamerton Foliot services, now 42A (Southway) and 42B (Looseleigh) will now be run by newly branded Blueflash Single Deck buses. The above will mean a 15 minute frequency between Royal Parade and Derriford Hospital, operated by Blueflash branded buses with FREE Wi-Fi on board. All 42 services will run from stop A18 on Royal Parade.
TIMETABLE PDF
The Blue Flash livery makes no mention of the route number 12 so they wont need to update the lettering on these buses when the service becomes the 42. Cant wait to see this livery on the Volvo Wright singledeckers!
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22 April 2014
Nothing to see here…
I agree that the free wifi on board the Blue Flash fleet is a great idea and a benefit which should be shouted about but I am not too sure I like this...
©Richard Smith
I have never liked contravision as all to often it just gets in the way and is not a see through as they like to think it is. Having a great big banner right across the front window like this is just asking for trouble. It might be low enough for most adults to look over the top of it, but I know that my young son will have this right in front of him which I just know he will hate.
For him this will be a game changer and we will have to catch First next time we go to Tavistock as he has to have the front seat, which is no good if he cant see out!
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07 October 2013
The battle has begun
The Blue Flash service 12 has now started so the battle for Tavistock has begun... 
I managed a rare trip out into town for the afternoon so after catching a First Devon & Cornwall service 15 which was sadly a very rough slow B6BLE I couldn't wait to get off at Crownhill and wait for the Blue Flash to arrive. It was bang on time too so I was able to get my first full ride on one of these buses. I have to say I was very impressed – these are very comfortable buses. Better than the current Park & Ride fleet (although not quite as good as the previous WA56 batch which were superb!).
Loadings were fair, with approx. 20 on the bus to Plymouth I was on. That might not sound much, but the other First buses I saw on their Tavistock services were about the same. I have to say loadings were pretty much 50/50 on all the runs I saw in what was a very unscientific count! First continued to use a mixture of Tridents and the sad B6BLEs although at least one of the purple buses has now lost its Tavylinx branding. No doubt they will soon be lettered up enticing passengers to Efford / Laira…
I did get to try the wifi and it did work very well indeed with no fussy passwords or setting up screens. It just did what it said it would – and worked. If anything it was faster than the free wifi I get at work!
Passengers certainly seemed impressed with many casual day trippers saying they would use the service again, many making the comparison with the usual buses First use.
It wasn't all plain sailing for Plymouth Citybus though with a couple of breakdowns, as Brian George explained…
“Have to agree two breakdowns in two days with brand new vehicles is not the best start. On Saturday one bus suffered an alternator problem which resulted in flat batteries. On Sunday I understand that the bus would turn over but a fuel issue prevented the bus from firing up. A replacement Eclipse was used on the service. No one likes to see breakdowns but these things happen unfortunately but it's hardly the end of the world”
Hopefully for Citybus these are just teething problems, as often seems to happen with new buses these days and the buses will settle down in service. Citybus and First both know that the real battle will begin on Monday when Citybus have the job of enticing regular commuters to their service. Most of the people I know who use the services come into Derriford Hospital which at the moment means they will stick with First. Once they loose their direct bus it will be interesting to see what they do…
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30 September 2013
Its Flash and its Blue
Blue Flash is ready…
©Brian George
In the battle for Tavistock passengers it will help that Citybus’ Blue Flash certainly stand out.
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