Provincial Connections

Direct links to Provincial are rare these days, but today when out photographing I found two in one place. I quickly stopped in Drayton, just east of Cosham on the road to Havant.

Firstly of note, are that all of the eastbound bus stops still have the old Red on Cream Provincial branding. These are long gone generally - I think First started replacing these in 1999. These are very rare - there is an old Provincial sign in Bridgemary and remnants of a sign in Gosport bus station, along with a couple of these old bus stops dotted around the network. This is the highest concentration I have found of these old displays. I reckon this was put up pre-1996, because the old route 65 was advertised on this bus stop in years gone by. Route 65 was a route acquired with the Red / Blue Admiral operations and was unregistered by First around 1996/1997, so therefore the bus stop originates from before this time. Photograph taken today, 15th August 2011, at Drayton (New Inn).

In one of those strange events, the next bus along on the 63 was UVG Urban Star bodied Dart 47307 (N607EBP) - part of the last batch of new buses to People's Provincial and one of the last 4 People's Provincial buses in service anywhere. It has been changed significantly since 1995 - new repaint, repainted interior, new seat cushions, LED display, loss of indicators next to the destination blind, but at least the bus remains! The last 4 Darts aren't expected to be around for much longer, so grab them while you can.