WINTER ARRIVES

WINTER ARRIVES IN SUFFOLK

Scania L113CRL 61538 R129 GSF at Broke Shops terminus on Thursday

With winter finally arriving with an flourish during the last week, many expected services to be disrupted to some extent however most services were run with an minimum of disruption, so credit to the operators for largely keeping to some sort of a timetable, however it was disappointing to see one operator Anglian not running the 164 and 165 into Ipswich on Friday, while First who operate a parallel service managed to operate their 64 and 65. Meanwhile a further Scania for First in 61533 R124 GSF entered service on Wednesday, the last of the 3 to come here.

65675 SN51 UYJ  parked up at Tower Ramparts on Thursday, wasn't on the town cycle of routes, so presumably with a fitter in attendance had broken down.

ONE DART OUT ANOTHER SCANIA IN

ONE DART WITHDRAWN AND ANOTHER SCANIA IN

61528 R116 GSF  a Scania L113CRL/ Wright Axcess Ultralow  Another golden oldie for the First fleet in Ipswich , originally from First Glasgow, this graduated to First Chester to replace vehicles taken over from Chester City Transport

News has confirmed that Dart 43477 has now been withdrawn from service and been replaced by another Scania 61533 R121 GSF at the end of last week, leaving just 42431 P431 ORL and 43488 R688 DPW both of these are expected to be replaced in the following weeks, Beestons have purchased former on loan to First Group Volvo B9TL/ Wright Eclipse Gemini  from FJ08 FYN this has already appeared in service on the 90 to Hadleigh and  Sudbury and retains First Bus livery and interior

An unusual surprise today on the X14 to Bury St Edmunds service was EG02 NZD a Dennis DartSLF/Plaxton Pointer 2

2 MORE SCANIAS FOR FIRST IN IPSWICH

MORE OLD SCANIAS FOR FIRST IPSWICH

43488 R688 DPW one of the 3 darts which are scheduled for withdrawl with the arrival of 2 ex Chester Scania L113s

2 Scania L113 CRL/Wright Axcess-Ultra Lows have turned up at Ipswich depot in the last week in the form of ex Chester 61528 R116 GSF and 61538 R129 GSF which originated with First Glasgow back in 1997,  both are non DDA compliant with no ramps at the front, there maybe a possibility of more arriving as Stagecoach didn't purchase any of Chester's Scania L113s, a strange move considering Ipswich have shed 4 older Scanias in the last year in 65557/58,65569/70, would of been nice to have seen newer buses coming in to replace the Darts as other companies seem to be moving ahead of First at present.

A YEAR IN VIEW!

A YEAR OF BUS WARS AND COMPETITION

65540 R140 GSF spent some of it's year in limbo with a blown engine, surprisingly considering it's 15 year old age it received a  new engine and spends it's time mainly on town routes.

Could we say that 2012 was a good year for bus travel, it heralded certainly a contrasting year for many of the operators with both Anglian, Ipswich Buses and Stephensons taking on First Group in Ipswich when they announced that they would compete over  Ipswich Buses town routes so who was the winners and losers, well at first the people of Broke Hall and Bixley Farm were the losers when First Group announced they were to axe the 62 route and operate 2 services instead via Foxhall Road, one to Bixley the other to Broke Hall, this was carried out without anyone's knowledge until i contacted my local councillor and then all hell was let loose, eventually it all lead to IB reinstating service 4 along Felixstowe Road, the consequences of this has lead to people using the new service 4 instead of the 55/56 while Nacton Road now has some of all or part of the following routes 1/2/3/X3/6/75-77/60/61/70, since July IB has further upped the ante by routing the X3 into the new John Lewis and charging a flat fare of only a £1. As far as new buses were concerned nothing much changed  until  the bus war  when IB brought in more ex Stagecoach London Tridents and Darts and First a mix of Volvo B7RLES  from Norwich and some untidy Scania Wright Eclipses from Essex, both companies introduced new liveries on to the public, however we have yet to see First paint more than the 3 Volvo B7RLES in the new fleet livery with the remaining fleet seeing just the Ipswich name being added to their sides, more than likely due to early Scanias and Dart SLFs probably due to be replaced in the coming year i doubt we will see any repaints for the time being.

ANOTHER SHOT ACROSS FIRST'S BOW

ANOTHER WARNING SHOT FOR FIRST IN IPSWICH

 

 

 

One of the two latest arrivals of Dennis Tridents 20 Y436 NHK seen awaiting passengers for the soon to be extended service 17 to Ipswich Hospital.

IB Dart 84 on service 11 last Thursday a now common occurance on the 5/7/11/15 routes usually the preserve of the fleets double deckers.

Ipswich Buses are to extend their new service 17 to Broke Hall Shops which currently terminates at Ipswich Hospital, the service will continue to work off peak from 0942 to 1509 from Tower Ramparts at intervals of every hour, this will restoke the current bus war between the two companies, it will now be interesting to see if First respond to this currently they seem to be ignoring these new developments and have yet to do anything on the Stowmarket  and Saxmundham corridors with both Stephensons and Anglian running over two of their main routes.

COMPETITION ON THE BUSES!

COMPETITION ON THE BUSES

65674 SN51 UYH one of the 4 hard seated Scania Wright Solars which can pop up on town and country routes such as the 64 which First are now competing with Anglian on.

Not a great amount to talk about this week as the dreaded Winter cold struck me down anyway the 164 Anglian service from Saxmundham to Ipswich started off this week usual fare seems to be any of the Scania Omnicities from the ex Metrobus 03 plates to the newer 07 plates which are somewhat of an improvement from what First group use on the route anything usually from the worn down P reg Scania batch 65541-44/46-50, even on the odd occasion a Dart SLF although the remaining 3 can now be mainly seen on town routes.

IB'S Enviro 300 dart SK07 DYA deputising for the usual ex Stagecoach London Darts on the 13th December

SATURDAY IN IPSWICH

A SATURDAY IN IPSWICH BRINGS VARIETY

Not taken today but on Tuesday was IB Trident 21 on the 4 which usually uses a dedicated dart, bringing back memories of travelling on the top in those younger days.

Unusually for a Saturday i ventured into Ipswich Town Centre due to the previous day being a wet and windy Friday and i quite glad that i did, as quite a bit was happening, unusually First were using mainly the OLD scanias on towns with only 65690 bring any relief, usually there is at least 4 of the Volvo B7rles on the town services but today there was none are First running down  the Town services? noted today was 65528,65550,65588,65590,43477,43488 and 65690 as mentioned. IB had two tridents out on the 3 to Ravenswood one being the East Lancs Lolyne 10 and one on the X5 to the Hospital, again both routes are usually Dart operated. On Tuesday a unusual visitor to the new 17 service to the Hospital was Trident 19 now equipped with a LED display from ex Olympian 39 it can presumably now operate on towns services, although it is worth mentioned that after the 17 service finishes at around 1500 it then picks up at St Albans school for a 11A school duty. Recent changes on the town network for IB have seen a 10p rise in the basic fare to £1.30 still cheaper than First on certain routes, the 6A now sees a regular duty for an Optare Solo instead of the Enviro 300 which is now to be seen on the 3 to Ravenswood. In fleet news Carters have yet another dart in the form of ex Metrobus Dennis Dart/Marshall LT02 ZDO which Metrobus took over from First in the Orpington area with fleet no 41460  and surprisingly retains Firsts red livery and group interior.