Today's post marks highlights the end of a bus in service with Solent Blue Line since 1999...
Solent Blue Line 774 - T744JPO - Portswood Broadway - 4th January 2010
The days of Dennis Trident operation with Solent Blue Line are over. The last few Dennis Tridents allocated to Eastleigh have moved to Wilts & Dorset's Salisbury depot, in turn removing the last step entry DAF SB250/Optare Spectras from service.
8 Dennis Tridents were introduced to Solent Blue Line in 1999, and were the first low floor double deckers in service in Hampshire, I believe. They entered service in a rather attractive low floor variant of Solent Blue Line's Yellow and Two-Tone Blue livery. During 2004, all were repainted in the blue illustrated above, albeit just wearing Solent Blue Line fleet names. These were replaced by BlueStar with the introduction of the new network, and they've looked this way ever since.
Wilts & Dorset now operate the Spectras on school contracts and to fill in for other low floor double deckers. They've been noted replacing Omnicitys on the X5 to Pewsey or the 8 to Andover, as well as replacing Spectras on the trip to Southampton on the X7. Indeed, Southampton residents still see occasional Tridents in the city, as one tends to be allocated on the X7 every other day at present.
As a photographer, I'll miss them as they provided decent variety. The photo of 774 above was my first photo taken in 2010, so it has sentimental value. In addition, I feel Solent Blue Line may miss them. Later on in the year, sources indicate new double deckers are due for route 1 (Winchester to Southampton) with the existing Omnicities being cascaded onto the 2, with the Volvo B7TLs taking the Tridents' place on school and college routes and filling other routes. Until that time, there may be a slight shortage of double deckers at Eastleigh. At least they've got plenty of Citaros...
I too remember these buses from new - they were always very much associated with Eastleigh and were intended when new to be the mainstay of services 47 and 48 - today's BlueStar 1 and 2.
ReplyDeleteBack in 1999 the 47 interworked with the 48 and both ran on a half hourly frequency, meaning that each bus would return to Eastleigh twice every 4 hours for driver changes - and that 8 buses could provide the bulk of the service.
They were supported mainly by the R-XRV batch of Volvo Olympians (737-9/41) which were the next newest buses in the fleet.
Even when new their East Lancs bodies used to let in rainwater, and there are many stories of them having to be taken off service when it rained as the electrics failed due to rainwater ingress - something which was never fully resolved.
Despite that, they all completed at least 12 years (they were new in July 1999) intensive service in and out of Southampton and will presumably see out a few more years on school and college duties with Wilts & Dorset, so they certainly won't owe GSC anything when they are eventually retired.