Bognor Regis in 2004

On 1st May 2004, I visited Bognor Regis in West Sussex for the first time, and despite being young at the time, had a fantastic day photographign buses in the town centre. Most (if not all) have moved on from Stagecoach Southdown (then, Stagecoach Coastline). This blog entry illustrates some of the changes since 2004....

 First up, here is Volvo Citybus 15201 (F301MYJ), acquired new to Southdown. She is seen in the town centre heading for Midhurst on route 60, via Chichester. Having moved to Stagecoach Devon following the introduction of the new Tridents for route 700, she was sold from the fleet in 2007. Velvet still operate 3 of 15201's sisters - 302, 303 and 309 - further West down the South Coast.

The order operating the then half-hourly route 700 were a variety of Volvo Olympians. The youngest examples were S reg buses - some of which have remained somewhere around the Stagecoach South fleet since the introduction of low floor buses on route 700. Illusrated here is 16311 (S311CCD), heading for Brighton, which now operates in Scotland with Stagecoach Western.

Volvo B10Ms with a mixture of Alexander and Northern Counties bodywork operated routes 60 and 700, along with the double deckers. Here is 20628 (L628TDY), pictured heading for Midhurst via Chichester on route 60. This bus remained local following the improvements to route 700 - having just been displaced at Worthing by recent Enviro300 deliveries.

Darts still operate route 66/66A, which connects Bognor Regis with Yapton. However, these Alexander bodied step entry Darts, illustrated here by 32546 (J546GCD), have long gone, and the route is operated by low floor Dart SPDs previously allocated to Portsmouth depot. 32546 was sold to Nu-Venture following its withdrawal from service. This batch of Darts is spread widely over the south - some also operate with Emsworth & District, for example.

One of the biggest changes since 2004 regard the town services. Propper numbered routes 61 and 63 have been replaced by Star A and Star B, with Optare Solos operating them. The order on the town services back in 2004 were these then recently repainted and extremely smartly presented Mercedes-Benz 709Ds. 40903 (N203LPN) is the lead bus, which has long since left the fleet.

Thanks for reading - I hope to re-increase the post numbers this week as I'm less busy than last week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get out and get photos though - there may be more of these more historical pieces!