26 Reg Electroliners

With thanks to Mark Bailey:

Four of the new Plymouth Citybus 26-reg Wright StreetDeck Electroliners have been out in service today - 7051, 7053, 7054 and 7057.  I have attached shots of 7051 (BF26 ZTU) on service 21 at St Budeaux, and 7054 (BF26 ZTX) on service 16 at King's Tamerton.

© Mark Bailey

First Official sighting

Plymouth City Council have given us our first glimpse of the new buses on their way to Plymouth this year

Fifty zero-emission electric double-decker buses will be coming to Plymouth this year as part of a major £31.87 million joint investment in the city’s public transport.

Plymouth Citybus, part of the Go-Ahead Group, will soon be replacing almost half its fleet with brand new electric double-decker buses, in a collaboration with Plymouth City Council, Cornwall Council, and the Department for Transport.

The investment marks a significant step towards cleaner, greener public transport in Plymouth and reinforces the city’s commitment to innovation and sustainability. It will also create additional capacity and improve passenger experience across the network.

The new electric buses will operate on the 21/A, 42 and 50/51 routes in Plymouth, with six buses serving Cornwall’s Rame Peninsula on route 70.

The majority of the funding (£19.6 million) is being provided by Plymouth Citybus, supported by a £10.34 million grant from the Government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) 2 Fund and contributions from Plymouth City Council and Cornwall Council totalling £1.94 million.

The buses will start arriving in Plymouth in late spring, with the first 25 entering service in the summer and all 50 being out on the road by the end of the year. Plymouth Citybus is transforming its Milehouse depot into a state-of the art hub equipped to charge and maintain the new zero-emission fleet.

Richard Stevens, Managing Director of Plymouth Citybus and Go Cornwall Bus said: “We are proud to lead the way in delivering cleaner, greener, and more sustainable public transport for Plymouth.

“The introduction of 50 zero-emission electric buses represents a huge step forward in our commitment to reducing emissions, improving air quality, and providing a modern, reliable service for our passengers.

“This investment not only reflects our dedication to the local community but also to a more sustainable future for our city.”

Councillor Mark Coker, Plymouth City Council’s Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Transport, said: “We’ve committed to making Plymouth a greener city, where everyone does their bit and this is exactly what our ZEBRA project delivers.

“It will help meet the vision of our Bus Service Improvement Plan, which is to create a thriving bus network where everyone can be connected to important people and places, by services that are frequent, reliable, fast, affordable, safe and clean, as well as help Plymouth to achieve its net zero goals by 2030.

“We are really excited to be working alongside our project partners to introduce these new buses to the city’s fleet.”

Cornwall’s contribution will bring six electric buses and the necessary infrastructure to support route 70 on the Rame Peninsula, which forms part of the council’s supported bus network. Cornwall Council successfully bid for further ZEBRA 2 funding to provide electric buses for the Falmouth town service and Truro park and ride.

Connor Donnithorne, Cornwall Council’s cabinet portfolio holder for transport, said: “As we continue our work to support residents to make greener and healthier choices about how they travel, it’s important that our public transport network reflects our commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

“Route 70 plays an important role in connecting communities in south east Cornwall and on to Plymouth and this funding will enable zero-emission buses to run now and into the future.”

The buses will be more accessible than the diesel buses they are replacing, with a second flexible space that can be used for a second wheelchair user or at least two unfolded pushchairs or prams in addition to the mandatory wheelchair space. They will also have audio-visual route/next stop/bus stopping information.

They will also help to advance all of the project partners’ efforts on tackling climate change and air quality, with the buses expected to reduce carbon emissions by 79,914 tonnes over their lifetime.  Estimates show they will also reduce NOx (nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide) emissions by 28 tonnes and PM (particulate matter) 2.5 emissions by a tonne.

Also, as part of the ZEBRA project, Wrightbus (the bus manufacturer) has made the commitment that for every vehicle manufactured, 10 trees will be planted in the communities where the buses are deployed.

I for one will be looking forward to these appearing on the 50/51s and wont miss the London E400s one bit!

Two for Today: First YJ51PZZ

I am working my way through a load of photo CDs to sort out my archives so will be running a new series of photo posts from the archives as I come across them!  We start with a couple of photos of YJ51PZZ

First Devon & Cornwall 4624 April 2003 in as new Barbie livery

Two years later in September 2005 it now carries fleet number 40570 and the red Over ground branding that First tried for a while.The whole effect rather spoilt by the advert. 

Passing Through?

The four Scania/ Wrights purchased earlier this year are not expected to last much longer and therefore it seems wont be appearing in Citybus livery. Two of them appear to be regulars on the 23/24 routes at the moment.

375 NK55OLM 376 NK54NVZ

More from Transit Way

Literally More…

1011 HF54HFR

1010 HF54HFY

Streetdeck Demo in service

Thanks to Richard Smith I can bring you a few pictures of the latest demo for Plymouth Citybus SN64CTU which is currently in service. Mostly appears to have been used on the 21 and 50 services so far.

The end of a Wright old saga

Its funny. I have always hated these buses. With a few exceptions they hate hills, are noisy and most of them have really uncomfortable seats. I like the look of them, the Wright body is a bit of a classic design, but the whole product is poor and not a good example of what can be done. I have so many photos of these buses as they have been mainstay of the Plymouth fleet since they were new back in a time when First were still buying regular batches of new buses for us down here.

However, for the first time ever I was kind of hoping to get a few shots of these today. When you take a photo of one of your local buses you never know if it will be the last photo you get of that bus. Well today may well be the last time for these buses, and a few others I caught on camera today. I cant imagine may other First Group companies will want them.

I thought I would be glad to see the back of these buses.

 

Now its about to actually happen I have to admit I might actually miss them. Just a tiny little bit.

 

© Nick Rice (cc) December 2013

First stepping up repaints

First seem to have stepped up a gear recently when it comes to repaints. Richard Smith has caught a couple of the latest into the standard Olympia livery, although neither carries any proper fleetnames just yet.

53154 Optare Solo looks very smart indeed on the 6.

while a recent addition to the Plymouth fleet, having come up from Cornwall is ex Manchester Volvo B10BLE 60379

 

Both © Richard Smith

Demonstrating

With the recent good weather last week and the start of this week I have managed to get out into town and take hundreds of photos (giving me a backlog of about 800 photos to process!). On Monday I met up with Graham Smith from London who was down to try and catch the step entrance Darts on camera while they are still out in force. I myself had two main targets to catch - one of them being the current Go Ahead demonstrator BG59FYB Volvo B7RLE with Wright bodywork. This one has been doing the rounds within the Go Ahead Group.

It does seem that Go Ahead are favouring the Volvo/ Wright combination for most of their orders at the moment with even Brighton and Hove switching from Scania this year which was a bit of a shock. When (if) Citybus get the Go Ahead to purchase any new buses I guess there's a good chance it will be some of these. The driver I spoke to when I took these photos was not impressed with the bus though!

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Elsewhere on the net

• I can remember cash registers with glass domes where the value would pop up like a flag as a bell rang. I can remember air tubes that would carry cash to a back office Omnibuses
• A look at Travel South Yorkshire's New Interactive Map Public Transport Experience

Catch it while you can

 

Just a quick note to say if you want to gets photos of the Volvo Wright demonstrator working for Citybus then you have a chance - but only a quickie!

The bus should be out on the 43 tomorrow but only stays until Saturday so you have three days to catch it. Citybus have managed to rig up some temporary destination blinds for the bus so you will know where its going!

The Wright Stuff?

The latest demonstrator to arrive at Plymouth Citybus is this Volvo B7RLE with Wright bodywork FJ57CYX.

 

At the moment they are waiting to see if they can sort the destination display out, if they can then hopefully it will be used in service shortly.

Photo  ©Brian George

Same bus at Manchester ©Ian Roberts (click photo for larger view)

First Western National 4602 W602PAF

I have been looking through my old photos just this week and am currently uploading a collection from 2002 onto my Flickr account. It is quite interesting seeing just how much has changed since then, especially with First.
4602 has now recieved the First national fleet number of 48262 and like the rest of the batch has lost any route branding.

The Wright stuff

When I took the photo above on Saturday afternoon I didn't notice anything different about it. Later that afternoon I found out that First Devon & Cornwall were taking delivery of some more second hand Volvo's from Bristol. It was only when I was going through my photos I realised I had already seen one.
W833PFB is one of at least 3 which are already here and it seems to whole batch of 8 or 9 buses will follow. These are of course sisters to the batch that were new to First Devon and Cornwall. It seems that these are to replace more of the non-low-floor single deck fleet left in the area, although it has been suggested that the awful Volvos which came down from South Yorkshire a few years ago are returning North. Lets hope so!

First Investment

First have recently announced a massive order for new buses from Wrights:

The latest phase of FirstGroup plc's on-going programme of investment and fleet renewal, the order confirmed today comprises of 226 Eclipse Urban Low entry single deck buses and 66 Eclipse Gemini low floor Double Deck Buses. In addition, 28 StreetCars - unveiled last year as the centre piece of First's "ftr" new transport concept - have been included in the order.
The single deck buses will be deployed in First's operations in Manchester (113) and Glasgow (110), with three destined for the Aircoach airport service at Belfast City Airport. Based on Volvo B7RLE chassis, all vehicles feature an eight camera CCTV system for added passenger security, with Glasgow-based vehicles specified a driver's assault door and screen. The Aircoach vehicles have an additional mid door, with a seating layout which incorporates two luggage pens, together with a PA system.
The Eclipse Gemini Double Decks – all based on Volvo B7TL chassis – will be deployed in Leeds (28), Bradford (20), South Yorkshire (10) and in Somerset & Avon (8). Like their single deck counterparts, their specification will include a nine camera CCTV system (11 for the Bradford vehicles) and will also feature the new Wrightbus Telematics platform, which will simplify any future fitment of passenger information systems and "smart" ticketing solutions.

Note how this follows the usual First policy of investing heavily in one or two areas leaving the others to fight it out for the scraps! Buses magazine tells of more L registration Olympians coming south from Glasgow. Lucky us!

Volvo Wright

I had to make a quick trip into town tonight after work so ended up on a Tavistock - Plymouth 83 service provided by W605PAF Volvo B6BLE (Chassis number 010207) with Wright B36F (body number B610) bodywork which was new in May 2000 as First Western National 605. Now numbered 48265. Identical sister W602PAF is seen above a few months ago on the same route. These were quite a surprise when they arrived as it had been a case of Dart City as far as Plymouth was concerned until that point with Citybus and First both buying almost identical buses for their low floor fleet. FDC have since added a large batch of second hand Volvo Wright buses from South Yorkshire which are really awful buses.
These W reg buses are not as bad but they are not as comfortable as the earlier Darts. For all of First Group bragging about transforming travel with their well designed high standard interiors which was certainly the case with earlier low floor darts - these buses introduced the horrible hard seats which really spoil the travelling experience. If you travel any distance on one of these you certainly feel it. The Optare Solos which were added to the fleet at the same time also feature these horrible seats. First penny-pinching? I cant imagine that these seats were chosen by any passenger focus groups.
The only good thing is that standard First interior designed buses do have more leg room - certainly more than Citybus who cram in more seats in their buses. But I'd rather have a slightly cramped journey than end up with plenty of leg room but a sore bum. Maybe thats just me though?
didbygraham

Volvo B6 Wright

For some reason a batch of these Volvo B6 with Wright bodywork were transferred to First Devon & Cornwall from South Yorkshire a few years ago. They are similar in appearance to the newer Volvo / Wrights which FDC had from new - although there have been none since. Many of these went onto the Red Line route from Saltash to Plymouth, although not many of them carry route branding. They are not bad looking buses but they are known as the 'Clatterboxes' as they rattle like mad and are very noisy compared to the Darts.

didbygraham