SCANIA WITHDRAWALS AND ROUTE CHANGES 

Scania/Wright Axcess Ultralow 65546 on the 70 to Sainsbury's Warren Heath on Monday whose time is nearly up.

News that i clearly omitted on the last blog i have added today, is the withdrawal of 3 Scanias  65531 R151 GSF whose time at Ipswich has been often frequented by time in the depot was withdrawn along with 65541 P541 RNG and sister 65544 P544 RNG as the early Scanias begin to be withdrawn, its worth noting that all Scanias including the L94UB V reg 65588-90 will have to be withdrawn prior to the 2015 DDA requirements, this includes most other companies buses prior to the year 2000.

ROUTE CHANGES

The end of May will see First add a 64A to their routes which will cover part of Anglians 164 between Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, whilst Sundays on the Felixstowe route will start it's Summer timetable with journeys to Landguard Fort.

APRIL CATCH UP

APRIL CATCH UP

New Arrival in from Basildon is 65670  SN51 UYC a Scania L94UB/Wright Eclipse Solar which are not been welcomed by passengers and drivers alike.

Due to ongoing problems at home, since my mother has been diagnosed with Dementia, i have had little time to prepare for an update to the blog, as my own health has been knocked about with, so without further ado here we go.

FIRST FLEET UPDATE FOR UPCOMING MONTHS 

While i have been decommissioned so to speak a lot has happened in the last month. The order for the new X1 Enviro 400's has been delayed until September, what will happen in September are as follows though with First Group this could change.

Ipswich

Ipswich will receive from Lowestoft 32651/2/4-6 Volvo B7TL/ALX 400's AU05 MUO/P//W/Y/MVA for the 66  although where that leaves are current ones is unknown.

Lowestoft

Lowestoft will receive Volvo B9TL/Wright Eclipse Geminis currently used on the X1's which will replace i would imagine replace remaining Volvo Olympians.

Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth will get around 6 ex Dennis Tridents for the X2's although i am guessing the number here and it could be more or less.

From Basildon with love

New Arrival from Basildon  Scania L94UB/ Wright Axcess Floline 65632 V832 FSC seen on the 60 today.

VEHICLES IN TO IPSWICH FROM BASILDON

65670/6 SN51 UYC/K Scania L94UB/Wrightbus Solar

65630-32 V830-2 FSC Scania L94UB/Wright Axcess Floline

65691/92 YS03 ZKL/M  Scania L94UB/Wrightbus Solar 

 

New arrival 65692 YS03 ZKM a Scania Wrightbus Solar on usually a double deck route 66 today.

SLOW NEWS MONTH

IB Dennis Dart/East Lancs Spryte 98 X98 LBJ on the 8 to Whitehouse Asda last week

Seems to be a very slow month at the moment, the bus war continues into its 8 month and still no one seems to give in, while this in the short term guarantees passengers with a healthy selection of buses to choose from, no doubt in the future months to come it may or may not be a different story,only one other noteworthy piece of news courtesy of the Ipswich Bus Page is the withdrawal of IB Lance 160 J160 LPV which  has knocked up nearly 22 years with IB it has subsequently passed to the Suffolk Bus Preservation Group.

Anglian Scania Omnicity 425 YT11 NVF a regular on the 164 from Saxmundham to Ipswich seen unusually unloading in the bus station.

IPSWICH IN THE NINTIES

One of the original route 66 buses DP75 latterly 46375 M375 YEX outside of what was originally the infamous Blue Coat Boy pub now used as a Fish and Chip Bar, the stop has long disappeared and used to host in the main Bickers country services.

The nineties was probably a good time to follow what began as a Independent Eastern Counties to latter on become a massive group owned First Group company, for some reason by this time i wasn't as interested in Buses as i should have been, as my career took precedence, during the first part of the nineties in came all All Leyland Olympians, National Greenways, Dennis Javelins, plenty of Mercedes Benz mini buses and Dennis Darts while the end was nigh for the Leyland Nationals and the Bristol VR's . From the time First  Group took over Low Floor Buses began to appear the first a batch of ten Scania 541-550 P541-50 RNG for another Super route the 88 while all manner of curio's came in and out Iveco Minibuses from Leicester, Olympians from Glasgow and London, Darts from Leeds and even 2 Leyland Lynx's which didn't last five mins, if anyone out has any memories from this time and would like to add there own please contact me.

One of the ex West Yorkshire by then Yorkshire Rider VR's WWY 122S which saw little action in Ipswich, to be fair they were over 20 years old by this point!

EASTERN COUNTIES BUS COMPENDIUM

The new livery carried by AY56 BJU a  coach which i couldn't identify the make of  in the new Suffolk Norse livery

Not a lot to report this week so i will do a bit of self publicising with a item i have on sale on e bay which is a data cd containing all the buses First have bought in the eastern counties since August 1996, as well as a current fleet list and all current preserved Eastern Counties buses with their current owners, cd with case is available for only £1.50 plus postage all you need is to look under Eastern Counties bus compendium in the search facility and you will find it. In other news seemingly First have problems with their Volvo B7TLS as all manner of buses have been used from Volvo B7RLES to scraping the bottom of the barrel a Scania L113CRL 65544 P544 RNG  on 66s yesterday, hardly surprising considering the mileage they have covered in nearly 10 years now, perhaps time for some new ones.

IB Scania Omnidekka 60 PJ54 YZV on the 17 to Broke Hall  and Bixley last week.

TRAVEL IPSWICH RE ROUTING

TRAVEL IPSWICH WORKS TAKE EFFECT

First repaint for one of Ipswich Buses Scania Omnicities 70 YN56 NVB  into the new livery the third livery it's carried in only six years.

From the 4th February Travel Ipswich's works will now start within the town centre when Falcon Street closes for around Eight Weeks, this means of cause many diversions of routes for Ipswich Buses, First and most other country routes  as follows First's country routes will divert at Princess Street to Franciscan Way to Star Lane and Turret Lane this mostly only effects inbound Routes only, town routes 55/56/60/61/70  IB service 1 and 38 will also use use this method on outbound journeys only, while all other country routes while follow this diversion. IB routes 3,X3,4,6,6A will not serve the town loop and from Tower Ramparts will go direct via St Margaret's Green then Woodbridge Road, Argyle Street, Grimwade Street then back onto normal route at Star Lane, service 2,17  will also not serve town loop and use the previous routing mentioned. While service 7/8/8B,12,14,16  will divert at Princess Street to Civic Drive and Crown Street to Tower Ramparts. IBs Shotley routes 98 and 202 will terminate at Queen's Street.

IB SERVICE 17 EXTENDS TO BROKE HALL

IB service 17 started today the 28/01 with unusually 2 single deckers, route started out originally with 2 Deckers but it recent weeks has been downgraded to two single deckers today's offering note the French and instead of the English and on 85 PJ53 OLE  IB's East Lancs Myllenium Dart. 

Today saw the arrival of yet another service for the Broke Hall and Bixley area in the form of of an extension to service 17 from the original terminus at Ipswich Hospital to now terminating at Bixley Farm shops, this now gives the residents 6 buses an hour during the day, but nothing at night time apart from an bi hourly service 56 from First via Foxhall Road which during the day virtually carries very few passengers, being 40p more expensive than IB's service 4, we are now in the seventh month of the supposed bus war yet nobody seems to be caving in. Admirable during the recent bad weather was the service levels which fortunately created very few problems for the bus operators with most services continuing to run, although most country area routes ran via main road routes only. In other news last Tuesday saw two Volvo B7RLES being used on Firsts 66 route, see picture below as 4 Volvo B7TLS were off the road.

Volvo B7RLE 69430 on route 66 during the recent bad weather deputising for a Volvo B7tl.