The annual pilgrimage to the NEC seems to come round quicker every year.
This years offerings were a bit disappointing because out of the major UK bus manufacturers neither Optare nor the Wright group attended.
However there was still plenty of interest.
My older readers may well remember the ‘Bread van’ era of bus operation of 30 years or so ago.
Many operators put fleets of mini-buses on the streets a lot of which were based on Ford Transit van conversions hence the ‘Bread van’ tag.
The plan was to use amall capacity vehicles operating on high frequency services.
In some respects it was too succesful in that the small buses could not cope with the loadings generated and bigger buses were required.
Both ‘Stagecoach’ group and ‘Arriva’ are going down the mini buses route again and it will be interesting to see how it works out this time.
I would hasten to add that the current mini buses are by no means ‘Bread van’s. Indeed the ones I have seen are sophisticated pieces of machinery.
‘Coach & Bus UK17’ ‘Arriva Southern Counties’ No. 1004 Mercedes-Benz City Sprinter 45 /1
on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’
‘Coach & Bus UK17’’Arriva Southern Counties’ No. 1004 Mercedes-Benz City Sprinter 45 /2
on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’
‘Coach & Bus UK17’’Arriva Southern Counties’ No. 1004 Mercedes-Benz City Sprinter 45 /3
on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’
‘Coach & Bus UK17’’Arriva Southern Counties’ No. 1004 Mercedes-Benz City Sprinter 45 /4
on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’
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