Citybus get a little Sparkier

Plymouth Citybus continue to fine tune their bus services to adapt to the changing conditions. From the 18th (Traveline say the 17th) a new timetable is in place for the 21 21A:

From Monday 18th May there will be a change to the 21/21A #PCB21 #PCB21A timetables with an increased frequency of service. The new timetables are available at http://plymouthbus.co.uk under link timetables from Monday 18th May.

so Two for Today are Spark 552 December 2017

And Red Flash 517 June 2015

A little Tease

Plymouth Citybus are starting to release details on their new fleet of buses due to hit the road at the end of the month





I think these new buses will make much more of an impact than when the Red Flash buses first hit the road

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.

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Black Friday Special for one day only: this five photo Feature is 20% off!

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!

Wet Flash

Sunday saw the latest new buses for Plymouth enter service with Plymouth Citybus:

509-516 WF63LYT WF63LYU WF63LYV WF63LYW WF63LYX WF63LYY WF63LYZ WF63LZE

©Jason Beverley - with thanks!

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Norwich Bus Page: Today I left the comfort of my central heated home to brave the wind and rain in Norwich City Centre.

Public Transport Experience: Magnus Volk (1851–1937) was a pioneer British electrical engineer. He is most notable for having built Volk's Electric Railway, the world's oldest extant electric railway

Public Transport Experience: But, in a programme costing millions to make and being sold round the world for even more millions, you would have thought that the producers could get their continuity right!

PTOTPA: With an afternoon spare earlier this week I decided to pop into Plymouth to sample some of the new offerings within the city, taking advantage of the new 'Skipper' ticket.

Public Transport Experience: Despite this picking of nits (or, morelike, picking by a nit!) the book is excellent value and any potential young railway enthusiast (or elderly ditto in need of further education) should have a copy!

Public Transport Experience:  So the variety of road and rail vehicles is well covered. But it is the peripherals that might challenge even an adult enthusiast, let alone a trainee gricer.

Random Streets: Articulated buses are a common sight in Europe.  Bi-articulated buses are far less so - but Utrecht is one of several places I have found them operating

In and Out

With so many new double decker's entering service in Plymouth over the last year or so, its easy to forget just how rare new double deckers have been down here for many years. One batch delivered back in 1992 have always been popular K801-4ORL the very smart and comfortable Volvo Olympians new to Western National for use on the X80. It was a fitting tribute to these fine buses that K803ORL was in use on the last day of that service. Sadly all good things come to an end and today we hear confirmation that the first of the batch 34001 K801ORL went to scrap a couple of weeks ago.
February 2011
But, like I said there are plenty of new double decker's in Plymouth these days. The next batch of Enviros for Plymouth Citybus have started to arrive with 509 WF63LYT 510 WF63LYU delivered yesterday and 511 WF63LYV and 512 WF63LYW due today, the others following 2 each day.

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Plymothian Transit Fleetlists:  Plymouth Citybus

Incoming: Red Flash

All pics ©Richard Smith.

All 4 entered service today 505 WF63LYO 506 WF63LYP 507 WF63LYR 508 WF63LYS

 

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PT RECOMMENDS

• Today, buses provide almost all of San Sebastián's public transport system. The city bus network is branded as d-bus, with vehicles wearing a blue and green livery Random Streets 31 August
• Yesterday, fellow blogger Busing tackled the problem (and the consequences) of a vehicle breakdown (read again) and, inconsequentially, fbb was involved in just such an incident on the very same day. The "locus in quo" was Yeovil whither fbb had journeyed at the suggestion of a blog reader Public Transport Experience 31 August
• Recently, while heading for a meeting with the enterprising people at East Yorkshire Motor Services, a regular reader had the presence of mind to overtake and then pull over to snap this LT-class New Bus for London Omnibuses 1 September
• Firstly, come with fbb on a virtual walk from an evening train from London, out of Northampton station and across the road to the temporary westbound bus stops. Public Transport Experience 1 September
• 1000th fbb Blog: Fellow blogger Busing gets excited about his statistics whereas fbb's can be relieved with a few pills! It never ceases to amaze the chubby one that anybody reads his stuff Public Transport Experience 2 September

Red Flash–a closer look

As a bit of a Bank Holiday treat we have a series of much better shots of the new Red Flash 506 taken by Brian George. There are bigger and higher res so you can see the details better. As usual if you click on an image it goes to the Flickr view where you can view them even larger if you wish!

All ©Brian George – with thanks!

Red Flash–its red, and its flashy

The first of the new Plymouth Citybus ADL Enviro 400 fleet are now ready and will be officially hitting the road on the 1st September.

Thanks to Richard Smith for this excellent shot of 506 on test in town yesterday.

©Richard Smith
Finally a small selection of other photos to illustrate the interiors (Thanks BG):