K & H Doyle Coaches. The end.

W 975 ETW

Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart

 

 

 

I remember 'Doyle’s starting up in the mid 1980’s with one vehicle running a contracted taxi bus service between Street Lane and Pentrich via Ripley.

 

Since them, I have seen them grow and seemingly prosper to the point where they had become a fixture in the area.

 

At one time they had an operating base in Ripley but then moved to a unit on Lydford Road on the Meadow Lane industrial estate in Alfreton which then became their base.

 

I remember an evening visit to ‘Doyles’ with ‘Transpire’ the Chesterfield Bus Society when Kevin Doyle personally conducted us around his premises.

 

A likeable man who was pleased with what he had achieved.

 

I knew something was amiss when I saw a ‘yourbus’ Wright Streetlite running on a ‘Doyle’ service earlier this week.

 

There were a number of rumours about but it seemed that ‘Doyles’ had gone out of business on Monday 13th. of January and that both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire County Councils transport units were trying to fill the gaps that had appeared in their timetables.

 

A visit to the Lydford Road premises found them empty apart from Optare Solo W296 EYG

in the workshop.

Today, I set out to find out what routes were being run, by whom and with what vehicles.

 

I was able to glean a lot of information regarding what and whom from Matthew Barker’s excellent ‘Derby Bus Depot’ web site.

The with what, was down to me.

 

As I write, the following appears to be the situation.

 

Route 4  Mansfield -Mansfield Woodhouse currently has no service.

 

Route 17 Oak Tree-Mansfield- Sutton-in- Ashfield is being run by ‘Stagecoach’ to a normal timetable.

 

YN53 ZRY 

A Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart

Route 18 Mansfield-Crown Farm is being run by ‘Stagecoach’ to a normal timetable.

 

V515 XTL

Another Dennis Dart, this time bodied by East Lancs.

Route 19 Mansfield-Berry Hill- Mansfield currently has no service.

 

Route 143 Ripley-Ambergate-Belper is being run by ‘yourbus’ to a normal timetable.

 

MX62 GXZ

A Wright Streetlite D/F.

 

 

Route 144 Ripley-Ambergate-Crich is being run by ‘yourbus’ to a normal timetable.

 

MX62 GXZ

Again, which interworks the two routes.

 

 

Route 145 Blidworth-Sutton-Kirkby is being run by ‘Stagecoach’ to a normal timetable.

 

YN53 ZSG

A Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart.

 

 

Route 148 Codnor-Ripley- Alfreton is being run by ‘yourbus’ to a normal timetable.

 

MX62 GXE

A Wright Streetlite D/F.

 

Route 151 Alfreton-Outseats and Peasehill Estates is being run by ‘yourbus’ to a normal timetable.

 

MX62 GXK

A Wright Streetlite D/F.

 

Route 152 and 153 Alfreton-Sleetmoor Lane-Somercotes-Lower Birchwood is being run by ‘yourbus’ to a normal timetable.

 

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A Wright Streetlite D/F which inter works the two routes.

 

 

 

 

Route 228 Hucknall-Bestwood Village-Bulwell is being run by ‘yourbus’ to a normal timetable.

 

No Image

 

Route 331 Selston-Moorgreen-Phoenix Park is only running between Selston Church and Phoenix Park. Operated by A & S Coaches.

 

No Image

 

Route 332 Eastwood-Moorgreen-Pinxton- Alfreton currently has no service.

 

It is always sad when an enterprise that started out with ambition and high hopes comes to grief.

 

The passengers have mostly already been found alternative transport.

 

The buses will move on and very soon the bright green buses of ‘K & H Doyle Coaches’ will be but a memory.

 

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire County Councils have done well to keep the services running.

 

The management teams at ‘Stagecoach’ and ‘yourbus’ have done extremely well to juggle their resources to provide the services that they have.

 

Transport to me is all about people. People providing a service to enable other people to move around.

 

The loss of ‘Doyles’ will mean that some of those people will lose their jobs. Some will find other jobs. Possibly with 'Stagecoach' and 'yourbus' To all of Doyle's former employees I extend my very best wishes for the future.

‘Scene’ in Blackpool

Blackpool means different things to different people. To some it’s the beach To some it’s the illuminations. To some it’s the sea or maybe the Tower but to me it has always meant transport and lots of it.

 

There are old and new trams, the railway, there is the airport, there are enumerable holiday coaches and of course there are the buses. 

 

I have written about both the trams and coaches in recent times so now it is the buses turn to take their bow.

 

The largest operator in the town is ‘Blackpool Transport Services’ which used to be the old ‘Blackpool Corporation Transport’. 

 

For many years they faced competition from ‘Fylde Borough Transport’ which was the old ‘Lytham St Annes Corporation’ operation until it was taken over in 1994.

 

Competition is still evident today. This time it comes from ‘Classic Bus North West’ and it is these two operators who feature. (plus a brief appearance by Stagecoach).

 

Most of Blackpool’s double deck fleet appears at first glance to be fairly uniform. The bodies are a mix of ELC Lolyne, Myllennium Lolyne or Myllennium Lowlander and bear a family resemblance to each other. 

 

The chassis are a mix of Dennis or Transbus Trident 2’s and DAF DB250LF’s. 

 

The Tridents are a further mixture of buses built for Blackpool and others that came from ‘Blackburn Transport’, ‘Blue Triangle’, 'Green Triangle' and the Isle of Man operator ‘Bus Vannin’.

 

Whilst the DAF’s are all from ‘Bus Vannin’.

 

PO51 UMT 

Is an ex ‘Blue Triangle’ Trident.

 

 

 

 

 

PN52 XKJ 

Is an ex ‘Blackburn’ Trident.

 

 

 

 

 

J800 BTS 

Is an ex ‘Bus Vannin’ DAF.

 

 

 

 

E13 BTS

Is an ex 

‘Bus Vannin’ Trident.

 

 

PF06 EZL

Is a bus actually built for Blackpool.

 

 

 

 

 

There is also small number of Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians but I didn’t see any of them.

 

The single deck fleet includes

Optare Solo’s

 

YJ08 PFD

Seen in ‘Resort Pass Hopper Bus’ livery.

 

 

PN03 UGH 

is seen in fleet livery.

 

 

BF60 UVP

A Volvo B7RLE with Plaxton Centro body.

 

 

AU06 BOV 

Another Volvo B7RLE this time with Wright Eclipse bodywork. One of a batch of five purchased from ‘Anglian’.

 

 

 

T218 HCW

A rather snatched image of this Optare Excel being the only one I saw. This was new to Blackpool although there are other Excels that came from ‘Go Northern’ and ‘Reading Buses in service.

 

 

 

I only saw ‘Classic Bus’ vehicles operating along the promenade. All that I saw were elderly and all were indeed ‘Classics’.

 

XAU 701Y

A Leyland Olympian with Eastern Coach Works  body is an old friend from its days with ‘Trent Buses’ (for whom it was built) as they were then. 

 

On the previous occasion that I saw it in Blackpool, it was sat at the back of ‘Blackpool Transport’s Rigby Road depot looking rather forlorn. It had joined the Blackpool fleet in 1997 together with 9 others of the type.

 

Now with its front painted in traditional ‘National Bus Company’ red and white, while the rest of it wears this rather garish advert for ‘Hot Ice’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BNK 324A

You cannot get more ‘Classic’ than this 50 year old Park Royal bodied Routemaster.

 

The unlikely registration number hides the fact that it is really RM 1568 and was originally 568 CLT in 'London Transport' service.

 

While many much younger buses sit in museums around the country. It is a credit to its original constructors and to the engineers who keep it in daily service now.

Long may it continue !!

 

 

 

 

 

P269 PSX

A Volvo Olympian 56 with Alexander Royale bodywork that was new to ‘Lothian Buses’ in 1997.

 

F69 FYE

You do not see many 6 wheel Metrobuses. This one was built for The China Motor Bus Company as its ML81. 

 

It was repatriated and worked for the ‘Big Bus Tours’ in London coming to Blackpool this year (2013).

 

 

MX55 KPL

Almost mundane following what has gone before is this Alexander ALX 400 bodied Dennis Trident working for Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire out of Preston depot.

 

 

Finally a bit of humour are these 3 ‘buses’ included in Blackpool’s illuminations. If you go, they are up at the North end of the promenade.

 

I suspect they are based on the ‘Routemaster’.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Scene’ in Somerset (or should it be Zummerzet). Part 2 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.

 

My first (no pun intended) visit was to the county town of Somerset . Taunton is situated on the A38 and to the west of the M5.

 

“First Somerset and Avon’ are the dominant operator but they do not have it all their own way. Competition comes from a number of sources. The main one being ‘Webberbus’ once more (See part 1).

 

‘First’ have their own small bus station off Tower Street whilst the competition works from street stands on Castle Way. 

 

‘First’s’ fleet seems to be much the same mixture as elsewhere. However, there are not many double deckers and what I saw, were elderly.

 

‘Webberbus’ had more of their Optare Versa’s on show, the odd Solo and they are yet another fleet that is trialling the Wright Streetlite. 

 

To stand at the junction of North Street, Fore Street and Corporation Street is a bus enthusiast’s delight.

S677 AAE seen in First’s bus station is a Volvo Olympian with Northern Counties Palatine 2 bodywork.

 

 

While P563 EFL is another Volvo Olympian with Northern Counties earlier Palatine 1 bodywork.

 

 

 

SJ03 DPX an Optare Solo setting off on a local service but spent much of its life in Scotland before coming South.

 

 

N990 HVS a Mercedes-Benz 709D with Alexander’s Sprint bodywork works a longer service to Yeovil.

 

 

 

 

‘Webberbus’ had a number of its Optare Versa’s in service. Here we see YJ60 LTA and YJ62 FBL.

 

 

 

 

‘Webberbus’s  Optare Solo’s YJ10 EJU and DK06 OXD off to Bishops Lydeard where presumably it connects with 

The West Somerset Railway.

 

 

 

‘Webberbus’ Wright Streetlite D/F had just worked on the long and very scenic route from Minehead.

 

 

While the only ‘Stagecoach’ group bus I saw in the time I was in Somerset was this Optare Versa WA09 KWH.

More ‘Scene’ in Somerset here Flickr 

'Scene' in a sunny Edinburgh 2013 Part 4 of 4

My son Andrew and his wife Joy recently had a short holiday in Edinburgh. Knowing of my weakness for buses they kindly brought me back a variety of images. Joy quite got into it. Nipping in and out of the traffic whilst Andrew was more laid back settling himself on Princess Street with a couple of cans of I’rn Bru. Their combined efforts are pictured herewith, the words are mine.

Whilst LB are the dominant operator in Edinburgh, there are others.

 

‘First’ group have a strong presence and are represented here by.

 

LT02 ZCE 

A Dennis Trident with Plaxton President bodywork. Cascaded from ‘First London’. Whoever replaced the second door made an excellent job of it.

 

YM52 UVS

A Scania L94UB with Wright’s Solar body had a spell in Lancashire with ‘First Oldham’ before coming to Scotland where it also worked in Larbert.

 

CU05 LGK

A Volvo B7R with Plaxton Profile bodywork at one time worked for ‘First Cymru’ in Swansea in the full ‘First’ barbie coach livery. Now resident in Edinburgh.

 

SN08 BZA An Optare Solo SR owned by LB in a dedicated Standard Life (Insurance) (SL) livery. Route 61 on which it operates, at one time was provided as a free shuttle service around its different Edinburgh locations for SL employees only.

 

The route was opened up to the public who have to pay a fare whereas it still remains free for SL employees. I wonder how the Taxman sorts that one out.

 

SV55 FKL A Volvo B7R with Plaxton Profile Interurban bodywork is based at Stagecoach Western’s Dumfries depot and is seen working the service 100 from Moffatt which lies 60 Miles to the South.

 

LSK 879 A Volvo B13R with Plaxton Panther 2 bodywork shown being operated by  

‘Parks of Hamilton’ in Scottish ‘citylink’ livery. The M 91 route on which it is operating runs from Inverness to Edinburgh via Perth.

 

 

SF62 CPU Another winner from Plaxton with the ‘Elite i’ bodied Volvo B11R chassis which was new in February this year. I had a look around and inside of one of these vehicles at the Euro Bus Expo 2012 at the NEC last year and they really are impressive. It is operating on megabus.com’s route 900 which is the Glasgow-Edinburgh shuttle that it runs jointly with Scottish ‘citylink’.

 

No visit to Edinburgh would be complete without a ride on an open top bus. No matter which of these open toppers you chose to ride on despite the varying liveries and vintages, you would still be riding with LB.

V513 ESC built in 1999 and VLT 143 built in 1959 are separated by 40 years.

 

V513 ESC being a Plaxton President bodied Dennis Trident and of course VLT 143 is an AEC Routemaster and was RM 143 in its London days.

 

 

 

The Trident is one of five former main fleet vehicles painted in the ‘Edinburgh World Heritage Tour’ livery while the RM is one of ten RM’s together with two RCL’s in the fleet.

 

 

 

T503 SSG is another Lothian vehicle under the paint being an Alexander ALX 400 bodied Dennis Trident. The batch of buses that this was part of were amongst the first low floor deckers in service with Lothian.

 

 

VLT 143 once more.