This week's Sunday Lost Scenes comes from Poole's relatively recent past...
Wilts & Dorset 170 - HF55JZW - Poole (Kingland Road) - 17th June 2010
Two years ago there were two more More routes in Poole and Bournemouth. Two years ago, a sizeable fleet of More branded Mercedes-Benz Citaros operated the m5 and m6. Today, the bus has moved on, the livery is obsolete, and the routes have changed.
HF55JZW is now numbered 2420 from the recent Go South Coast re-fleet numbering movement. The bus is also now touring the streets of Southampton, operating with sister company BlueStar. The Citaros were moved on in 2011 as More was rebranded. The m5 and m6 lost their More status and are now operated by any odd bus at W&D Poole (they tend to be the preserve of Bomo Uni Scanias when they are not in use on uni routes). More itself has also been rebranded, now solely operated by Volvo B7RLEs in a lighter shade of blue. Poole itself is now down to the last few Citaros as Southampton's route 18 is being upgraded.
It is strange how such a familiar scene is now consigned to the history books.
Canford had lost its More branded buses once before—in August 2005, when W&D sacrificed The Heath for expansion on the Poole - Bournemouths to Somerford. There was a bit of a furore at the time from The Heath but More-specified buses soon came back. Now, though, they're gone for good. Canfords never really contributed to the growth of the More brand anyway.
ReplyDeleteSeems instead that the 8/9 are now More routes. Seeing how they were ran with darts, solos and excels, it's a fair upgrade to get the eclipses!
ReplyDeleteWhere as over here, they are running quite a variety on our route. Yesterday there was two excels, and three spectras. And I've seen eclipses and the e400's on the route as well before.