‘Scene’ in Somerset (or should it be Zummerzet). Part 1 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. Street has no bus station as such but there are several bus stands near the library in the town centre.

 

Our transport was this immaculately kept DAF SB3000 with Van Hool’s Alize bodywork belonging to long established operator Albert Wilde Coaches who are based in Heage, Derbyshire. Registration K120 SLR.

For most of the time we shared the hotel with a holiday group from Denmark who were ferried around in this Plaxton bodied Volvo registration ODF 561 operated by 'Pulhams Travel' of Bourton in the Water. This a ‘cherished’ registration and has appeared on previous Pulham owned vehicles in the past.

 

The major operator in town is ‘First Somerset and Avon’ who’s main service starts at Taunton and runs on to Bristol via Glastonbury and Wells. Running the full length of the route is WX59 BYM a Wright bodied Volvo B7RLE.

 

P262 PAE a Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart SLF on its way to Wells on a short working. This now elderly bus started its career with Badgerline who were amongst the early operators in the ‘First’ group.

 

Another Dennis Dart this time with East Lancs ‘Spryte’ body V834 DYD.

‘First’ are not the only operator on this route with ‘Webberbus’ who operate widely in the Bridgewater, Taunton and Minehead areas providing serious competition. 

 

Indeed, conversations with passengers on and off the buses showed that ‘Webberbus’ was the operator most people favoured.

 

YJ58 CEK and YJ62 FBC were two of a number of Optare Versa’s in use.

 

 Another service from Street to Wincanton is provided by ‘nippybus’. Based in the Yeovil area, ‘nippybus’ provide a range of demand responsive services as well as normal scheduled routes in the area.

 Y868 PWT an Optare Solo at one time worked on Park and Ride services in Coventry.

 A further Optare Solo MX09 HHT provides a similar link to Shepton Mallet whilst working for ‘Frome Minibuses.’

 

'trentbarton's 'Frio' to go

‘Frio’ to go.

 

I notice from ‘trentbarton’s (tb) website that no more ‘Frio’ promotional tickets will be sold from August 17th. 2013.

 

‘Frio’ saw the customer buying ten tickets between particular points at face value and getting a further three for the same journey free.

 

The reason being is that the sale ‘Frio’ tickets have been in decline as the rise of ‘Mango’ sales has increased.

V199 ERA 

An Optare Excel in ‘Frio’ promotional livery pictured in the ‘old” Derby bus station.

'Scene' today, August 3rd 2013 in Ripley and Derby

For those who may not know. Ripley is where I live and it sits astride the B 6179, (the old A 61) about 10 miles North of Derby.

It has been rumoured that 'trentbarton' (tb) are to refresh the Wright Solar Urban bodied Scania L94UB's working on 'the sixes' services. This is to include more comfortable seats, wifi, a general refurbishment inside and out and also a fresh coat of paint. 

This particular one  FJ55 BZT (seen in Ripley) has been in service for a couple of days this week and seems to give a foretaste of what is to come. The most obvious difference is the brighter and richer of shade of yellow being used. (See below for comparison).

I understand that there another 9 buses to be so treated.

I look forward then to seeing the finished article, fully vinyled in service sometime in the near future.  

 

Also 'Scene' in Derby today is Optare Solo YJ11 EKU working on the 'Harlequin' service via Littleover to Heatherton.This must be one of (tb)'s least known routes because its city terminus is tucked away on Gower Street just off Babbington Lane

 

 

Further buses 'Scene' in Derby today may be seen here Flickr 

 

'Scene' in Nottingham July 29th. 2013

‘Scene’ in Nottingham 29th. July 2013

 

It is not often that Nottingham City Transport buys second hand buses but here we see two such on Rail Replacement work while Nottingham railway station is closed for five weeks of major track re-modeling and building work.

 

Six Transbus Trident’s with Plaxton President have been acquired from Go-Ahead London. They were new to First London.

 

Two of them LT52 WXJ, NCT’s No. 767 and LN51 GOK, NCT’s No. 766 are seen  in plain silver/grey livery with white fleet name. 

Further images of 'Rail replacement' in Nottingham see  Flickr

'Scene' in Derby July 26th. 2013

Whilst many enthusiasts and passengers do not like ‘Contravision’ decorated buses. There must be some money in it somewhere because their numbers are on the increase!

Further images can be found on Flickr 

FK 58 KXP   Volvo B9TL Wright EclipseGemini

 YJ61 CFM   Optare Versa V1100

YT09 ZBU   Scania N230UB Omnilink

Further images can be found on Flickr 

Y5, Y not ?

Sunday the 14th. of July saw ‘yourbus’ of Heanor launch its latest route, the Y5. Running from Derby via Spondon, Borrowash, Draycott and Long Eaton to Beeston. 

 

The Mercedes-Benz Citaro’s that I saw were branded for the route and it runs every 20 minutes during the busier part of the day.

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 7

YAZ 8645 

A Dennis Dart SLF with Wright’s Crusader bodywork has an interesting background. New in 1999, it had a spell in Northern Ireland where it worked on a Park and Ride service in Belfast followed by a spell in South Wales with Edwards coaches of Pontypridd. It now works for West Midlands Special Needs Transport.

 

 

 SN04 EFP 

A Transbus Enviro 300 SLF, although lettered for ‘County Links’ works for ‘Central Buses’ of Birmingham.

It was new to Warwickshire County Council before having spells with ‘Pete’s Travel’, ‘Guide Friday’, ‘Stagecoach Midland Red’, and ‘Johnsons’  of Henley in Arden.

 

 

EU06 WGM

A Dennis Dart SLF with Plaxton’s Pointer 2 bodywork.

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 6

‘Blue Diamond (BD) who are part of the Rotala group operate extensively in the West Midlands.

Y274 FJN

A Dennis Dart SLF with Alexander ALX 300 body at one time appeared in a mainly red livery when it worked for ‘Central Connect’ who are part of the Rotala group. Blue Diamond was forged from an amalgamation of ‘Zak’s, ‘North Birmingham Busways’ and ‘Birmingham Motor Traction’.

 

YJ56 AUH an Optare Solo.

 

 

(The final) part 7 to follow shortly

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 5

Arriva’s contribution to the day included,

FJ08 LVR 

A Volvo B9TL with Wright Gemini bodywork that was new to Tamworth depot. Close inspection below the ‘City Linx’ wording shows that it is discreetly branded for the Tamworth-Birmingham service.

 

T48 WUT

A Plaxton Mini Pointer bodied Dennis Dart at one time was local to me when it operated in an older livery for Arriva in Derby.

Part 6 to follow shortly.

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 4

NXWM operate a number of high frequency routes (usually six buses per hour) for which the allocated buses are route branded. Each route gets a different colour superimposed over the fleet livery. The West Bromwich route 5 being in yellow.

W114 DOP 

Another Volvo B7TL  with Plaxton President  body again allocated to WB illustrates the point.

 

Single deck members of the NXWM on ‘parade’ on the day started with.

 

 

BX12 DDO

A Volvo B7RLE with Wright Eclipse Urban 2 bodywork. An AG garaged vehicle seen working route 71 which comes in from Solihull to terminate at SC railway station.

 

S669 VOA 

A much older Volvo B6LA with Wrights Crusader bodywork. A WA bus working in from its home town. When delivered this bus was part of a batch of 60 or so buses, many of which have now been withdrawn.

Part 5 to follow shortly

 

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 3

BU51 RXG 

A Volvo B7TL-57 with Alexander ALX 400 bodywork seating 74 works out of NXWM’s PB depot and is seen on layover in SC.

 

BV57 XLA 

Another PB bus. This time a 76 seat Scania Omnicity 230UD working the 914 from SC to Birmingham which is a fast journey via Kingsbury Road, Good Hope Hospital and the Aston Expressway.

 

BJ03 EXL

Wright’s Eclipse Gemini body with 73 seats on a  Volvo B7TL-57 chassis again from PB depot which once more goes to Birmingham via the Aston Expressway. This time being routed via Erdington, Gravelly Hill and again Good Hope Hospital. 

 

Part 4 to follow shortly

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 2

A modern electronic departures board keeps intending passengers up to date. 

The identification of the operator requires a bit of explaining. ARR is obviously Arriva, CEB is Central Buses whilst the two letter codes refer to the NXWM garage that operates this particular route. The list of all NXWM garage codes are,  AG Acocks Green, BC Birmingham Central, BY Bordesley Green, CV Coventry, PB Perry Barr, PE Pensnett, WA Walsall, WB West Bromwich, WN Wolverhampton, YW Yardley Wood and XS which is for buses that are stored.

 

I always tend to think of the big fleets (such as NXWM) as being highly standardised but within a very short space of time, I was presented with 5 different double decker types to photograph. As will also be seen, they come in a wide variety of colour schemes which are variations on the red, white and blue theme.

 

W113 DOP A WB based Volvo B7TL with a 74 seat Plaxton President body looking immaculate for a fourteen year old bus, about to depart for its home town.

BU07 LGX a PB based bus is an Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) Trident 2 fitted with ADL’s Enviro 400 bodywork seating 77.

 

Part 3 follows shortly…

 

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 1

When I was researching an article I wrote about a visit to Midland Classic (MC) for this website a few weeks ago. I discovered from MC’s website that they were about to start services to Sutton Coldfield (SC) by extending their X12 service from Burton On Trent to Lichfield. So, say no more and here I am !!

 

The town lies about 8 miles to  the Northeast of Birmingham. It looks to be an attractive, well to do town with particularly good transport connections into Birmingham.

 

There is no bus station as such and all the bus stands are closely grouped together in the centre of town on the main street.

 

National Express West Midlands (NXWM) are the major operator but Arriva and others put in an appearance.

S24 SLT is a Scania 94UB with Wright bodywork and is one of four that joined MC from South Lancs travel of Atherton. As can be seen, this vehicle (and S25 SLT which took me back to Burton) are suitably route branded. 

 

In the centre of SC, the road we see turns sharp left just beyond the NXWM decker whilst the pedestrianised shopping centre carries straight on. 

 

Right FJ08 LVO a Wright Gemini bodied DAF SB250 stands in the leafy town centre waiting to depart for Tamworth on service 110 which links Tamworth to Birmingham. This bus put in an appearance at Showbus at Duxford in 2010.

 

Part 2 follows shortly…

Simply Solos part 1

Optare Solos are in use with a huge number of bus companies in the UK and have been since the 1990s, As a result of this longevity they've carried many different liveries. 'Simply Solos' hopes to illustrate this as and when they cross my path…

YJ57 EHB Optare Solo of TM Travel Wellglade groups fleet No. 1193 bought new in 2007 carries the white/blue Travel South Yorkshire livery at Crystal Peaks on July 1 2013 with a Sheffield City Centre service.

Crystal Peaks 01/07/2013

YJ55 BKZ Optare Solo. Stagecoach fleet number 47297 seen at Crystal Peaks shopping centre working the Sheffield Super Tram link service to Killamarsh