Sea-view Coaches

Seaview Coaches took three of these Spanish built Beulas bodied MAN coaches in 2008, and one of them is seen as visitors arrive at Plymouth Bretonside in June. I think they are based in Poole.

New Optare Versa buses for Arriva Midlands

Arriva seems to take a wider variety on new buses than the other big groups and so for the enthusiast at least that is a plus in their favour. New buses in Staffordshire are some distinctive looking Optare Versa's branded X38 as their designated route travels along the main A38 trunk road between Burton on Trent and derby. Operator's likes to show off their new buses alongside the veterans at bus rallies and one of these appeared at the POTS Barlaston Bus Rally earlier this summer.

Rapidly Inflating Numbers: Mayne

This looks like a familiar scene of a Mayne bus loading up for places like Clayton and Dukinfield east of Manchester as they have been doing since since 1925 when it first ran proper buses along the Ashton New Road. However since this operator finally gave in and sold the bus side of it's coach business to Stagecoach even the one's not yet repainted have flowered huge seemingly meaningless fleet numbers. I can see old drivers reminiscing over a brew or a pint about that great old Scania bus with the number 14 that rattled like hell but simply left everything else standing. But I ask you how many will remember 15381 or was it 13851? No I don't know if this bus was a belter or not but it was certainly still wearing the right colours for a change and still looked worth a photo despite the rain.

Arriva: Cannock delta Way

During the Easter Holidays I had to go through Cannock so I decided to take a quick peep to see what was in the yard at the local Arriva Depot. The K-Reg Dennis Falcons bought new in 1992 are still in service in Shropshire but 1989 examples that came from London and Country and North Western were parked up and presumably withdrawn. Also in this view is with a similar East Lancs body a former Grey Green Volvo and a little Dart new to Midland Red North that was waiting for a new engine. Oh and I almost forget there's a former London Routemaster RML that the company keeps for publicity purposes.

Arriva washes whiter?

Despite the dull damp weather in Manchester last Saturday this remarkably clean looking Optare Solo still managed to look quite cheerful which is more than could be said for the somewhat more grubby Stagecoach Plaxton bodied Volvo coach heading out of the city on it's way to Preston and Sunny Blackpool. Of course as I'm sure as Stagecoach would point out this is just one view, but it does illustrate how impressive a clean bus can be at times.

Who needs Dragons anyway?

When one is out for the day photographing new buses in a strange town any girls who might get in the shot can be seen as a bonus. But when it comes to the familiarity of our home territory it's too easy to take everything for granted and as with Stafford those rather mundane Arriva Mercedes Minibuses won't be around for ever. Here like cracking little more than an egg with a bit of imagination I've made a worthwhile shot capturing the bus an a slightly bemused girl enjoying a quiet moment. I took this view last year but apart from a fresh cover of leaves not much has changed so I've tagged this one as recent.

This 08 Bova is pure Magiq

Whilst I was having my day out in Cheshire as part of my job on Saturday I saw this very new Bova Magiq coach belonging to the Excutive coach operator Ellisons parked outside the Warrington Rugby Union Club and it was well deserving of a photo..

Yesterday: A Reunion with Warrington

I am quite fond of Warrington as I went to school not too far away at Great Budworth. In those days in 1966 of course heading out of town on the Wilderspool Road towards Northwich would have been very fine North Western Park Royal bodied AEC Renowns as that Cheshire outpost was their principal home. Still it's good to see the town of Warrington still has it's own buses and they are still a lovely red. I imagine this one of many of these attractiveWright bodied single-deckers and must be a Dennis Dart although the wheel-trims remind me more of the Scania. It's at least ten years since I last paid a visit and buswise much has changed and this being a Saturday no double-deckers were in service although there were still plenty in the garage nearby.

My Job the last day: Anyone want to buy an old Nail?

Actually it was the last day but one, but whose counting. I was about to do my fifty-mile afternoon school run picking up children on the Shropshire side of Wolverhampton and having not known about the firm going bust before Monday it was a traumatic week. Happily another small local coach operator has taken over the school contracts and nearly all the drivers and guides including myself are moving over. From now on we will be driving better buses, have smart company clothing to make us look more like the Proffesionals that we are wear plus more importantly much better wages. Still I will miss working for Top Travel because they always sailed a bit close to the wind, and on airport work every busy day was different and I loved driving those empty back roads late at night over Cannock Chase and through nice villages like Mobberley. We had mobile phones of course but most of the time especially out of hours we had to be able to think for ourselves to make it work.

TOP TRAVEL TUMBLES

It might not have been a star like Yelloway or Gliderways or even really on the map as far as most enthusiasts were concerned but Top Travel Transfers has been a familiar sight for over twenty-years picking up and taking people mostly to Manchester and Birmingham Airports from their homes in a twenty-five miles radius of Stafford taking in much of the County including the Industrial Areas areas of what is now the County of West Midlands. Top Travel started as a travel agent with a number of Travel Shops before it lost them but it had been a pioneer of the free Transfer with our Insurance concept. Even though it had become somewhat ' run-down and cheap and cheerful', right to the final week we still had an unrivalled reputation for reliability and we were still getting bookings from regulars in our area and as well as Stafford itself of course were particular hot spots like Rugeley and Wednesfield. However that side of the business had really suffered a decline over the last couple of years and especially so after the inheritor of Top Travel's Shops itself went bust meaning that our firm lost not only a large amount of money another problem was that Harveys, the new owners no long dealt with us after a disagreement. The bright areas of the business was some private hire work plus regular school contacts from the County Council. Most of the sixteen vehicle fleet were elderly Ford Transits and LDV's but we had a couple of midi-coaches too which worked out to Denstone College not far from Alton Towers on the other side of Uttoxeter. Painted in Top Travel's rather unusual dark red and silver colours was a Mercedes which came from Halls Taxis, whilst the neat looking Toyota came from Crystal Coaches of Penkridge. Shortly after I arrived they stopped using the easy to spot company livery and later arrivals were used in the various white colours in which they arrived as an economy measure.

Exeter: Where have all the minibuses gone!

How times change for it doesn't seem that many years ago since Exeter and the Torbay area of the much loved former Devon General was plagued by hundreds of Harry Blundred's Ford Transits and Mercedes 608's. Today now the South Western outpost of the huge Stagecoach Empire where there is a bus for every job what a wonderful sight to see so many double-deckers again, and even like this former 'Stagecoach Fife' Alexander R-Series Leyland Olympian affording enjoyable upstairs rides right out into the countryside as in this instance eastwards to Tiverton. Behind it is a Northern Counties bodied Volvo Citibus one of a batch of these buses purchased when Southdown was privatised dating from 1988 and still going strong nineteen years later.

It's a Blue Bird: Staffordshine County Council

Everyone made a huge fuss when the First Group started using Blue Bird School Buses in the U.K. but even though they did it first nobody seemed to notice when Staffordshire County Council introduced them some time before that to save money as some of the local coach operators were taken to court for running a cartel between themselves to maintain good rates. This R-Reg example was from the first of two batches.

X43: Which buses will still be enthusing us in 2007?

Pictured in Cheadle this October was former Ribble Leyland PD2/3 East Lancs 49 Seat 'White Lady'. In 1960 it was one of seven of this batch based at the small Manchester Garage before being sold to Premier Travel .

X43: Which buses will still be enthusing us in 2057?

Not surprisingly even though they bring back fond memories some of the buses we used to love don't always quite come up to scratch by modern standards because they were perhaps so slow, noisy and cold. Still they all can still charm us on the right day and only the most churlish would also throw in the comment that they were never this well loved being so clean and smart looking in preservation. Well nobody can say that about these two vehicles from very special operators of the Manchester to Burnley X43 Service. Southdown might have been the most prized BET Operator in the genteel South but here in Lancashire Ribble was king and the two not only had rather special coach fleets they also ran full-fronted double-deckers based on the Leyland PD-Chassis. Ribble's first lowbridge White-Lady coaches were in fact the less powerful O600 PD1 and I was surprised how when carrying it's well-appointed East Lancs body it still romped up the Staffordshire Hills with little difficulty on this year's Potteries Bus Running Day. By contrast the Burnley and Pendle Wright bodied Volvo looks more like something out of BBC Television's Torchwood than a mere bus and I'm sure not even Southdown or Ribble would manage to keep these buses looking quite so immaculate.

New Arriva Buses for Chase Linx

Arriva Midlands has upgraded it's two services from Cannock to Stafford with five new Wright-Bodied VDL buses which entered service today including No.3728.

Shearings Grand Tourer

Even though I don't dislike the current Shearings inky-blue livery which is a lot more distinctive than the old cream colours with some lettering, I was certainly sad to see the demise of those unmistakable Wallace Arnold Volvos when the two big coaching names merged. But I had often admired the Shearings/WA Grand Tourer coaches as they trundled down the M6 going in the opposite direction at weekends for they seem to have a definite WA feel about them. Fortunately I was able to catch a photo of one of them resting at the Bristol, Gordano Services when I was heading away to Devon in August.

Warstone's Mercedes: I meet this bus every day

In the afternoon I do a school-run in my minibus which is a fifty-mile round trip and going each way I meet this Green Bus of Great Wyrley Mercedes Minibus in the narrow country lane between Coven and Brewood.

Megabus in Manchester

The mighty Stagecoach Holdings successfully experimented with special budget fare operations firstly here in Manchester to counter University Bus who was creaming off it's cost conscious student passengers with old buses on the Didsbury Road Corridor and Stagecoach's reply the fleet of time-expired all-over blue buses called Magic Bus have become something of an institution I believe. The cheap fares Magic Bus concept was also used when Stagecoach copied the providers of cheap air flights like Easy Jet with bookings taken over the Internet when it started offering almost free travel between Manchester and London. It has certainly given National Express something to think about and not only were the old double-deckers used on the no-frills service a great success Megabus now run brand new dedicated coaches on it's various routes including three axle Volvo's and Neoplan double-deckers like this example preparing to depart from Manchester.

We've found it: It must be Plymouth Bretonside

The entrance to Plymouth's Bretonside Bus Station is rather a mess with all those barriers and confusing signs to drive in to. Apart from some gorgeous weather the only redeeming feature seems to be the First Group's Plaxton-Bodied Dennis double-deckers painted in a special Mayflower Livery which somewhat echoes that used not so long ago by the Privatised Southern National before it was bought out by First and painted into what we call Barbi.

Festival Time means Christmas comes early: Five views from Stafford

Today in Stafford we enjoy a fairly predictable diet of mostly Arriva Dennis Darts of different sizes and bodywork, but it is pretty dull fare compared to the old BMMO Midland Red days or even Chaserider and the others after Deregulation. For one thing although they do occasionally appear from Cannock the double-decker is not that common these days so I was put in the unusual position of having to stand in the middle of the road wondering whether to snap first a WMPTE Alexander-Dennis coming one way or the Leyland Titan coming up behind me. In the end I photographed both as the traffic was moving slowly due to the Rock Festival at Western Park. No doubt the M6 was so jammed up because it was taking people two hours to exit the M6 at Junction 12 to get on the A5. Previously Arriva had done the Western Park contact taking many of the 80.000 revellers this time from both Stafford and Wolverhampton Station, and even though Arriva could put on a good show which included things like training-buses it was nice to see and hear double-decker activity again.