IPSWICH BUSES FALCONS REWIND

 From the first batch of East Lancs bodies, we see 104 YDX 104Y in the after Deregulation livery with Green skirt.

Some might say that there ugly, well i won't say that, but Ipswich Buses certainly knew how to buy the odd, indeed of the Northern Counties bodies there was actually one other buyer that being Hartlepool, most were sold on though for further work, ironically sold to First Group for use with First Leicester, Leicester as a council owned company had been very keen on Falcons, it was the last type of East Lancs bodies which were the most popular seeing use into the mid 2000's.

 The later built Falcon's from 1987 onward had a lot better appeal to the eye, from the last batch is East Lancs bodied 122 G122 VDX at Tower Ramparts.

Resting outside the canteen is Northern Counties bodied 108 C108 SDX which was later purchased by First Group.

REVISITING FEC IN 2006

Well 2006 wasn't a good time for me, as i suffered a nervous breakdown which took me out for around 2 years, however it's a good time to look back at how things were back in those days, this first picture illustrates how poor the First Ipswich fleet had become by 2006, with 25 year old Leyland Olympian's seen above ex Eastern National/Thamesway 34536 XHK 236X, how times change, meanwhile at Norwich then as brand new but now Ipswich allocated was Volvo B7TL 32656 AU05 MVA seen below, whilst at the bottom we have another Ipswich connection, well a vague one as i can't remember them running in Ipswich, bought from up North in Scotland, from First Glasgow, a batch of 3 came to Ipswich but i believe were completely rotten, seen below is Dennis Dart/Alexander 46017 J517 FPS.

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COMFORT AND RATTLES

Now this is an interesting debate, are today's modern Buses as good as we are led to believe, for a long time manufacturers haven't put the passenger at the forefront of there thinking, however that is beginning to change, the step up from the ADL Enviro 200 is the new MMC, version which should iron out a lot of the problems that the current model, don't get me wrong i'm not blaming the bus companies for this, in this climate where passenger levels are going down and the concessionary fares are biting at the operators, they have to buy the most economical bus there is, hence Ipswich Buses buying 4 more ADL E200's, now when i went on one it rattled considerably and this was one of the new ones as seen above by 103 SN16 OGJ, don't get me wrong any investment in new Buses is thoroughly welcomed and most of IB's fleet is pretty good in that terms as is First Ipswich's fleet, and road conditions also play a fair part in how a bus performs, the roads around the Town Centre are pretty bad. Buses of yesteryear while many view that time with affection, many did vibrate or rattle particularly the RE or the VR, BUT they were comfortable have operators and manufactures forgotten to pad the seats we ride on.

Seen here in the late 1980's is a particularly scruffy Eastern Counties Bristol VR 258 RAH 258W, in those days the Felixstowe bus terminated at the Railway Station.

EASTERN COUNTIES BRISTOL LS TWO LIVERIES

 What a difference an livery change, makes towards the end of their lives with Eastern Counties,when downgraded towards Bus work many of the Bristol LS's/MW'S received National Bus Company Dual Purpose livery even though their retained Coach seats, illustrating the Tillings Coach livery is LS 771 VVF 771 at Ipswich OCM, and below is LS 769 VVF 769 which i must admits suits it's body style, seen at Norwich Bus Station.

FIRST GROUP HAS SLOW START TO THE YEAR

First Group who operate throughout Suffolk and Norfolk, have announced that group revenue as dropped by 1.4% in the last three months,passenger volumes have also dropped by the same amount this has been due to lower high street footfall and traffic congestion, for those who don't follow First Group there has already been confirmed in the Lothian region that two depots will close these have been bought by Lothian Buses, with further efficiency measures to come which should improve margins for the whole year. For the Eastern region it has largely been a good year, with new and cascaded Buses from Leeds going to Great Yarmouth and Norwich, Ipswich will see an expansion to the fleet when they take over the Park and Ride from Ipswich to the Martlesham site with newer Buses expected, above is Volvo B7RLE 69428 and Volvo B7TL 32479 from the Ipswich fleet.

EARLY 1980'S OPEN TOPPERS RECALLED

As the sunshine is out, lets rewind to the summers of the early 1980's for me there was always unaccustomed joy at seeing Eastern Counties Bristol Lodekka OT 2 ex Western National VDV 753 plodding up and down the cliffs of Felixstowe Seafront complete with the ferries  in the background and like the Lodekka there a thing of the past, not forgetting the top picture we see IBT AEC Regent V 67, DPV 67D ,Ipswich were late comers to the open top indeed 67 wasn't destined for a long career as an open top being sold mid 1980's when Atlantean 9 MRT 9P was set alight destroying the upper deck and becoming the new open top, thankfully both survive in preservation.

FIRST IN FELIXSTOWE AND OTHER NEWS

Seen at Great Eastern Square Felixstowe is First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32655 AU05 MUV.

For a change i decided on a trip to Felixstowe which holds a lot of affection on my part, for those outside of the area, First Ipswich operate from Ipswich through to Felixstowe incorporating parts of the town such as Old Felixstowe and Felixstowe docks, the only other operator passing through is Suffolk Norse on the 173 through Bucklesham on it's way to Woodbridge.
In other news the Buses that will be leaving the IB fleet in September should be Tridents 18/19 and Optare Spectras 52/53, the next four ADL E 200'S on order for September will be 105-108.

First Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 66987 KX05 MHV heading out to Old Felixstowe. Below First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32487 AU53 HKE.

IPSWICH BUSES SEPTEMBER CHANGES

Ex Stagecoach London Dennis Dart/ALX 200 144  Y295FJN on a usually Double Deck 4 working.

Due to continued problems with my mental health and family related issues, there will be now less blogs for the foreseeable future only vital information, such as today's changes will be reported. I must say i am disappointed to see more ADL E 200's they are one of the worst Buses that i have travelled on, talk about rattling, the move away from Double Deckers in my opinion is a bad move, the only route with a Decker allocation now is the X5 but for how long, moving deckers off the 9/10 was bad enough, surely there are economical Deckers out there such as the E400 MMC from ADL.

Changes to bus times from Sunday 4th September 2016

Ipswich Buses will be making changes to most town timetables from the start of the new autumn term, with some detailed changes to times to reflect changes in passenger numbers – with buses every 10 minutes all day on route 13.
The new timetables will shortly be available on the web, and printed timetables will be available in the week of 22nd August on our buses – there will be separate leaflets for areas of Ipswich and a new leaflet for our new South Suffolk operation covering Carters Coach Services Ltd routes which we recently acquired.
We are continuing to renew our fleet with another four brand new British built 39 seater single-deck buses entering service. These vehicles will, as usual, have e-leather seating and will bring new style to the routes they appear on. We have reviewed our operations and these new buses will replace old double-deckers. The new buses use one third less fuel, have much cleaner engines, and more accessible seats. We hope you will enjoy travelling on them!
X1/X2/X3 – There are adjustments to times in the afternoon peak time on Mondays to Saturdays to reflect passenger demand. There will be a slightly earlier first journey to the station and an extra afternoon X3 from John Lewis.
4 – The 0935 journey from Tower Ramparts on Saturdays will now depart at 0940.
X5 – No changes. Now that the roadworks at Major’s Corner have finished we hope to be able to operate the timetable we tried to introduce in April more punctually.
6/6A – In response to customer requests we are extending the 1500 6A all the way via Ravenswood and Gainsborough to Ipswich Central – offering an earlier journey home for children from St Alban’s.
8 – We have adjusted various most times, including providing an additional morning peak journey.
9/10 –The 1457 service 10 will operate on all days, offering schools a better service back into town, but the 1512 service 10 will terminate at Meredith Road shops on schooldays. Some very early morning journeys to Whitton will start at Westwood Avenue bus stop instead of at Norbridge.
12 – The 0700 journey from Ipswich Central will now depart at 0655 to improve connections to the station and run earlier throughout.
13 – As promised we have made further improvements with more peak time buses. A big thank you to our customers on this route who have stayed loyal to your locally owned company.
14 – We have had to make some economies on this route because of cuts to Suffolk County Council funding for concessionary fares. We have withdrawn a number of peak time journeys in order to reduce the number of buses required in our fleet as a consequence of this. We are also shortening the route so that on the way out of town buses will turn into Hawthorn Drive and then straight into Primrose Hill. The bus will no longer serve Pimpernel Road and customers for Stonelodge Lane West and Sheldrake Drive can alight on the way back to town.
15 – The 1805 & 1825 journeys have been retimed to make them more punctual.
16 – No changes.
17 – No changes.
18A – No changes.
19 –. We have had to make some economies on this route because of cuts to Suffolk County Council funding for concessionary fares. We have withdrawn a number of peak time journeys in order to reduce the number of buses required in our fleet as a consequence of this, however we have taken the opportunity to allow buses more time to complete their journey and we hope that buses will be more punctual as a consequence.
92 – The service will now run hourly during the day Monday to Saturday. The early journey to Manningtree Railway Station will now depart from Old Cattle Market Bus Station at 0710 and run Monday to Friday on all non-Bank Holidays. Journeys will no longer start or finish at East Bergholt.
93/94 – Revised running times to improve punctuality, with fewer journeys serving Great Wenham. The 0817 93C and the 1520 return journey are renumbered to 93A.
98/202 – Revised running times to improve punctuality. Some 98 journeys are renumbered 98A and will now serve Chelmondiston Lings Lane bus stop, providing a bus every hour to Chelmondiston. There are now buses every hour on route 92 to Holbrook at those times.
Routes 464 and 465 – these routes to Stowmarket High School are now provided as local bus routes.
Routes 501 & 502 to Suffolk One will now be restricted to college students only.
Route 914 – is subject to re-tendering by Suffolk County Council and we are yet to discover whether we shall still be required to operate it.
Child Fares.... For many years we have charged a standard fare of £1 at all times for children travelling on our town buses, and we recently extended this to anyone aged under 20 and carrying appropriate ID. We also offer a day ticket for £2, a one week ticket for £10 and a 4 week ticket for £32.
From 1st September 2016 we will be increasing the child fare for journeys starting before 0830 on Mondays to Fridays to £1.20 and the price of the 10 trip ticket to £9.50. This change is necessary because of underlying increases in costs since the last review of fares was undertaken and because of cuts in other fares revenue from Suffolk County Council. The most regular users who travel twice in a day, or commit to buying weekly or 4 weekly tickets will not see any change in fares, but less regular users will face an increase reflecting the fact that we need to provide capacity for them even if they are not using the bus. There is no time limit on using up 10 trip tickets bought at the old price. The child fare will still be £1 from 0830 on Mondays to Fridays and all day at weekends and on Bank Holidays.
For mum or dad taking children to school a new “One PLUS Three” ticket will be available at any time, giving unlimited travel on our town buses all that day for one adult and up to three children for £6.50. This will offer a significant discount compared to other on the day tickets when the first journey is before 1000 on schooldays.

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LOST COLOURS

Many famous East Anglian Independents have disappeared from the scene over the years including many well known none more so than Grey Green, who operated from the middle of Ipswich in St Margarets Street, seen above is a fine representation of the fleet in the early 1970's than a Leyland Leopard with a Harrington Cavalier body originally in the George Ewer owned Fallowfield & Britten fleet, this was later repainted in the scheme above in Norwich Bus Station. Below we see a rare survivor which is now preserved in it's original operators livery that of  Ribble affectionately known as the White Ladies this fine Leyland PD2 with East Lancs body DCK 219 is now with the Stagecoach Heritage Trust, seen here late in life with Premier seen departing Cambridge's Drummer Street.

IPSWICH BUSES CHANGE CARTERS REGISTRATIONS

At one time believed to been withdrawn! Carters Dennis Trident/Plaxton President 26 LR52 KWH was still active at the end of last month.

Registrations in the last few days by Ipswich Buses has now seen them bring all of Carters registrations under there own name for the start of the new Autumn term from September 4th this includes 92/93/94/A/194, and one morning service on the 91. IB have also cancelled 3 school contracts those being the 914 from Debenham, the 501 from Needham Market and the 502 from Grange Farm Felixstowe. Below Refurbished IB Dennis Dart 98 X98 LBJ has received utility style numbers as per many of the recent influx of AD E 200 Darts.

PETERBOROUGH BUS RALLY COMING....

A first time for everything for me this coming Sunday, as i'm off to the Peterborough Bus Rally with First Ipswich 32479 with over 40 plus Buses it's well worth paying a visit, i have added the poster below for all the relevant information, Leon Wells above will be attending with his Ex IB Volvo Olympian 41 M41 EPV, seen here at the Ipswich Bus Rally.

INDEPENDENTS OF THE 1970'S

Today's flashback takes another look back at the Independents in the East Anglia area, now the first picture is a rather interesting picture, showing a Theobalds Decker circa 1973, this particular bus being a Leyland Titan with Alexander body started out with Smiths of Barrhead in 1959, for which it still retains the original destination box, below we see a Beestons Bedford VAM with Plaxton body FV0 80D on hire to Eastern Counties during there mass shortage of serviceable Buses and coaches of the mid 1970's, as you can tell by the registration and livery this particular coach originated with Bartons.

COMPETING ROUTES IN IPSWICH 2013

Who remembers Anglian's attempt to compete with First on the 64/65, well this was the time when First were competing with Ipswich Buses on town routes, such as the X3 and Ipswich Buses reaction was to work over there routes such as the 60/61 which is now the only route where they compete, above we see Anglian's Scania Omnicity YT11 LVF on the 164 from Aldeburgh. Below we see AU11 EPF an Optare Versa in Great Colman Street heading out to Rendlesham on the other competing route, whilst below we see Scania L94/Wright 65672 SN51 UYE of First Ipswich at Broke Hall Shops on the split up route of the old 62 which became the 55/56 just to confuse people, whilst IB made it a whole lot easier by starting up the 4.