‘Scene’ on Friar Lane, Nottingham today 30th. of September 2013

Nottingham has a variety of bus picking up points. The Victoria Centre and The Broadmarsh Centre are probably the most obvious.

 

Friar Lane is not so obvious but it does have a surprising range of services that terminate or simply call there.

 

Then there are the services that pass on their way to their own termini on Beastmarket Hill.

 

First up must be the service that is the newest which only officially started yesterday.

 

That is ‘trentbarton’s (tb) ‘sawley xprss’. The name says it all really.

 

I was a little disappointed that ‘tb’ have chosen to use fleet liveried vehicles on the service.

 

I rather thought that with (tb)’s flair for publicity that they might have been a bit more adventurous and had some form of route branding.

 

FE02 KFK 

An Optare Solo.

 

 

 

 

 

So what else was on view?

 

FJ58 KKR

A Volvo B7RLE/Wright on the ‘Indigo’.

 

 

L125 LRA

A Volvo B10B/ Northern Counties driver trainer.

 

 

FJ10 EHK

An Optare Solo on the ‘Radcliffe line’

 

 

Y12 GWL

An Optare Tempo 2 on the i4.

 

 

FD54 JYC

An Optare Tempo 1 working the ‘bingham xprss’

 

 

FN54 AEZ

A Scania L94UB/Wright linking Nottingham to the East Midlands Airport.

 

 

FH54 VRY

Another Scania L94UB/Wright deputising for a route branded Solo.

 

 

FJ03 VVU

A further Scania/Wright on route 18 from Stapleford.

 

 

two more (tb) vehicles were,

 

YJ07 VSO

another Optare Tempo1 linking Nottingham with Ilkeston.

 

 

and

FJ03 VWR

Another Scania L94UB/Wright on its way to Cotgrave.

 

 

Nottingham City Transport are represented by,

 

YN53 CFY

A Scania N94UD with East Lancs Coachbuilders body. 

 

This is operating the ‘navy line’ route No.1 to Loughborough.

 

 

YN04 AMX

Another Scania, this time a 94UB with Scania’s own bodywork.

 

 

YT09 YHW

A Scania 270UD with Optare bodywork designed to look like similar East Lancs bodies in the fleet.

 

 

YJ51 XST

An now elderly Optare Solo making a positioning journey.

 

 

YT09 YHS

Another Scania/Optare combination. this one working in from Clifton.

 

 

YJ61 CGU

An Optare Solo SR working in on a different route from Clifton.

 

 

YN04 AMV

Another of the short all Scania N94UB’s in a variation of the Network Maroon livery that I have not seen before.

 

 

 

YX62 ECT

An Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 operated by ‘Marshalls of Sutton on Trent’.

 

This route was at one time run by Nottingham City Transport and links not only to Newark but to Newark Northgate station. So giving Nottingham’s citizens a direct link with the East Coast main railway line.

'Woosh' into Worcester

It isn’t often that an operator provides an idea for the title of the article but the branding on these Mercedes Benz 0530 Citaros in the service of Worcestershire County Council gave me the inspiration. 

 

Woosh is a park and ride operation that was previously operated by First Midland Red (FMR).

BK08 NAO and BV08 ZMF are both seen in Worcester’s Crowngate bus station. The Woosh fleet list shows a total of 8 buses of this type.

 

Crowngate is unusual in that you can quite easily get a birds eye view of operations.

 

BK 08 NAO having seen previous service with ‘Last Bus’ in Brannockstown in the Irish Republic.

 

 

 

 

FMR are the major operator in the City although Astons, LMS travel and the 'Rotala' group also appear.

 

I have always preferred the look of the ‘old’ Alexander Dennis Enviro 300 to the new ‘over bulbous’ look however I have only seen them in the past in penny numbers. 

 

FMR had a batch of 30 or so and a number of them are pictured here. Whichever way you look at them, they are handsome buses.

 

VX54 MSO, VX05 LVS, VX54 MTU and VX05 LVU.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further full sized buses in the fleet are represented by, 

VX54 MUV

 

 

The long lived but now getting to the veteran stage Plaxton’s Pointer bodied Dennis Dart SLF.

 

 

 

A bit unusual for a ‘First’ fleet is another Plaxton product. 

 

CN57 EFF

A Volvo B7RLE with the Centro body.

 

 

 

According to MidlandRed.net this is one of a batch of nine that were built for Veolia/Bebb of Llantwit Fardre in 2007. 

 

They passed to Ensign (Purfleet) the dealers in 2011 and then they all passed to FMR in late 2011. This one looked very smart.

 

 

 

Most unusual in any ‘First’ fleet is the ‘Caetano Nimbus’ body built on Dennis Dart chassis.

 

Six of these buses were purchased for use in Worcester. The were built for Connex for service in Jersey and are built to Jersey’s specification i.e. narrower. (I believe 7 feet 6 inches wide.)

 

EG52 FFV and EG52 FFJ seen in the ‘bowels’ of the bus station.

 

 

If the Enviro 300’s are handsome, these then must be the prettiest.

 

 

 

VU03 YJW

 

An Optare Solo. Quite ordinary really but no less welcome.

 

 

 

YJ55 YHA 

 

An Optare Solo owned by LMS Travel. Founded in 1992, LMS Travel is a privately owned travel management corporation working in leisure travel planning.

 

 

KP51 SXY

 

A Dennis Dart MPD with Plaxton Pointer bodywork had a spell with Blackburn Transport Ltd. (BTL) before coming to LMS.

 

They were loaned to BTL (acquiring BTL fleet numbers) by Plaxton to cover for late delivery of other vehicles.

 

 

 

YG02 DJZ 

 

An Optare Solo of Blue Diamond at onetime was with ‘First’ in York carrying fleet number 50298 before having a spell in Swansea again with ‘First’.

 

‘Blue Diamond’ is a brand owned by ‘Rotala’ plc and a trading name of Central Connect Ltd. Buses operate out of a depot at Long Acre.

 

Prior to late 2011, Central Connect had been the operating name of the company created by the merger of ‘Zaks Bus and Coach services Ltd.’, ‘North Birmingham Busways’ and ‘Birmingham Motor Traction Ltd’.

 

 

 

W573 JVV

 

A Plaxton Pointer Dennis Dart MPD

 

It was new to ‘Petes Travel’ who became part of ‘Zaks (see above) in 2004 and passed subsequently to ‘Rotala’ group. Red Diamond being another ‘Rotala’ brand which operates out of a depot at Redditch.

 

 

 

There would have been an photo of an ‘Astons’ bus at this point but the driver made it quite clear that being photographed was not an option.

 

 I respected the drivers wish.

 

 

 

Worcester is an historic city in many ways. Its greatest asset must be its cathedral which is

 

‘The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester’.

 

Started in the eleventh century, the Cathedral contains the remains of King John.

 

The city is also an excellent shopping centre so it is not surprising that it attracts visitors from far and wide.

 

 

 

Today, some of those visitors have been transported by

 

JN07 NEL

 

A Bova Futura FHD127.386 that was new to Nelson’s Travel of Neath in South Wales in 2007.

More 'Woosh into Worcester' here Flickr 

‘Scene’ in Somerset' (or should it be Zummerzet). Part 3 of 3

 

I recently had a short break in the ‘Cider’ county where as usual, I had a look at the local transport scene.

 

Based in the town of Street which lies just off the A 39 about two miles from Glastonbury of pop concert fame.

 

Our final full day away was spent in Weston super Mare. A place that I have not visited for over 40 years. A lot of effort and money has gone into making the town fit for the twenty first century and from what I saw, it has been money well spent.

 

As before, ‘First Somerset and Avon’ (FSA)  are the dominant operator in the town but as before, they have competition. This time it is in the form of ‘Crosville’. 

 

No, its not the operator we all knew when they were based at Crane Wharf in Chester but a newcomer who seemingly fancied the name and adopted it.

 

While most of the ‘FSA’ fleet are in the old fleet livery, a start has been made on painting some buses into the new one. 

 

WX54 XDL A

Wright bodied Volvo B7RLE

The difference being that the new version sees the buses branded as ‘First West of England’. 

 

 

 

WX05 RWF

Which I think is the Transbus version of the Dennis Dart with Plaxton Pointer bodywork.

 

 

 

 

W686 ULL 

An elderly Dennis Dart with Marshall ‘Capital’ bodywork still doing its stuff. For many years it worked in London’s East End in full London red livery.

 

 

 

TU04 TRU

An Optare Solo that formerly worked for ‘Truronian’ in Cornwall.

 

 

 

As had been the case in Taunton (see part 2) The few ‘deckers' on display were elderly.

 

 

 

S689 AAE

Is a Volvo Olympian with Northern Counties Palatine 2 bodywork waits in the glaring sunshine (yes, it really was) on Westons sea front.

 

 

 

The only First decker with any pretensions to modernity was

WA56 FTP.

This being a Dennis Trident with Alexanders Enviro 400 bodywork.

 

Before coming to Weston for use on the X1 service to Bristol, It had been in use with First Devon & Cornwall in Plymouth on Park and ride duties.

 

 

 

The current Crosville Motor Services are based in Weston and they operate a mixed fleet some of which are seen here. In addition to the service fleet, they also have a heritage fleet which has some vehicles that were owned by the original Crosville.

 

 

 

This particular Crosville although having operated on contracts started its commercial operations in 2012 and now has a number of routes in the area.

 

 

 

W976 TRP

A Dennis Dart SLF with Plaxton Pointer bodywork.

 

 

 

CRZ 9868 an Optare Solo.

 

 

 

 

M246 YWM

Now nearly 20 years old and still going strong is this Dennis Dart with Plaxton Pointer bodywork which previously worked for both Warrington Borough Transport and South Wales Transport.

 

 

 

 

 

The double deck fleet includes

CRZ 9320

 

 A Leyland Olympian with Alexander RH semi open top bodywork running between Weston and Sand Bay.

 

 

 

 

And from the ‘heritage’ fleet on the same route comes,

 

LEU 236P

A Bristol VR with Eastern Coach Works open top bodywork. A close look at the ‘Bristol’ script forward of the rear door shows it to be running in a ‘heritage’ livery also.

 

 

 

A couple of touring coaches were in town.

 

The most interesting being

UKZ 5457

from Ogdens Travel in St Helens which is a DAF 180Z with EOS Coachwork. I think that this is the first of its kind that I have seen. Although not a new coach it was immaculately turned out.

 

 

 

 

HIL 4376 (it was KR04 HCR)

A Scania K11EB4 with Van Hool Alize bodywork owned by 'Hills of Hersham' in Surrey but wearing this ‘Grand UK Holidays’ livery.

 

More 'Scene' in Weston super Mare here Flickr