This was one of a few Midland Red Plaxton bodied Ford R192 buses that was chopped down to become a midibus. I imagine it was not a great success as more would have been so treated. Former 6359 was seen in Exeter after passing to Devon General which always needed small buses. This one was No.5 whilst it's sister YHA 362J was No.6.
Midland Red dreamed these up at the same time as they were introducing the Viable Network Project (MAP, as it became), both to try to stem the haemorrhaging losses MROC was suffering.
ReplyDeleteThe midibuses were a brave idea but, much like BR's introduction of railbuses to dying branch lines in the 1960s, the routes concerned were already too far gone to stand a realistic chance of being saved by a large operator. As far as I know, none of the routes in the Vale of Evesham for which these buses were introduced survive in a recognisable form today, where there's any service at all in the area.
I suspect that, much like the Parry People Mover, they were a solution looking for a suitable problem rather than a viable solution to a problem.
Thanks Ross, a good argument well put. Or to put it another way they were unable to get enough people on the buses so they chopped the bus down so it might look better.
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