Today's Sunday Lost Scenes come from Plymouth in summer 2009...
Plymouth Citybus 132 - M132HOD - Plymouth (Brentonside Bus Station) - 10th August 2009
Back in 2009, I made my one and only visit to Plymouth. As I am located in Hampshire, Plymouth is just that bit too far for a day trip, meaning that I haven't been back since. For 2013, Plymouth is high up on my to-do list, especially with the Go Ahead growth and First uncertainty.
We go back to what feels like a quieter year here. Plymouth Citybus were still under the ownership of the council, and First's Ugobus initiative was in its infant stages, run with Darts and Volvo B6BLEs. Citybus still operated a number of Merc 709Ds and step entrance Darts, where First's fleet was actually looking pretty good - with the Olympians tucked away for the summer, the fleet was 95%-ish low floor on the day of my visit.
How times have changed. Plymouth Citybus have since removed all step entrance buses from regular service work, where First have been developing the age profile of Plymouth's fleet by introducing Leyland Olympians. One wonders what is going on behind the scenes at First in Plymouth, as surely the recently redistributed North Devon Tridents would have gone straight to Plymouth instead of Southampton. Furthermore, Darts are now being repainted in white rather than the new livery. Something appears to be imminent - whether it is, or whether the bus users will have to put up with more Leyland Olympians remains to be seen.
There is a third operator in Plymouth now. Target Travel use a lot of old buses and have been expanding their routes.
ReplyDeleterumours have bn around for some time now re firsts withdrawal from plymouth..a local operator was linked to.buy out but it fell through apparently. we have no new livery down here even though cornwall has..and the fleet just seems to get older. not sure who would buy their plymouth ops though?
ReplyDeleteAnd under the control of Marc Reddy who knows how to run a bus company. It'll be interesting to see who get's the Brighton job, he must have exausted a lot of energy hitting a brick wall in First.
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