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
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