A FURTHER ENVIRO 200 FOR IPSWICH BUSES

YX14 RWL seen on Friday at the front of Constantine Road Depot photo copyright James Long.

Ipswich Buses have purchased a further AD Enviro 200 No 78 YX14 RWL in part exchange for Dart/East Lancs 137 T137 KPV which finished it's last day of service on the 4 as as substitute bus for one of the regular branded 4 darts, it should be subsequently repainted with branding i believe for the take over of service 111 Hitcham via Bildeston, ironically this was a service taken over from the original Squirrells company back in the late nineteen eighties. A further repaint into the hybrid livery has been as predicted bus 61 Scania/East Lancs PJ54 YZU as seen below after repaint, photo courtesy of James Long and remain his copyright.

FIRST NORWICH 66333 ON LOAN IN IPSWICH

66333 MV02 VBY a Volvo B7L/Wrightbus Eclipse on the 60 to Gainsborough

Currently on loan to Ipswich at the moment is 66333 which previously had been on loan to First Essex has made it's way up to Ipswich to cover for 69005 which is being repaired after accident damage when it collided into a traffic light and a Florist Shop whilst in Stowmarket. First have now also taken over full control of the Ipswich to Claydon and Bramford service after Galloway's 110 finally stopped on Saturday, the First service is numbered 89 and is usually worked by single deckers due to a height restricted bridge en route.

Ipswich Buses Trident 11 LG02 FCX was unusually on the 1 to Warren Heath via Ravenswood today.

IB 62 GETS A REPAINT INTO HYBRID LIVERY

As seen in the above picture Ipswich Buses Scania East Lancs 62 PJ54 YZV has been repainted into the hybrid livery so it can be used both on town routes and on Park and Ride football specials, next up for repaint is it's sister 61.

IB DART 142 GOES WANDERING

IB Dart 142 enjoys itself on a 16 to Belstead and Halifax on Monday.

IB Dart has certainly been enjoying itself lately as it wanders around various parts of the town, over the last couple of weeks, last Monday the 10th it was allocated to Shotley's, this last week it was on the X5's on the Saturday, followed by working the combined 6 Ipswich Hospital and 16 Belstead Road and Halifax routes on the Monday, and even made an appearance yesterday on my route the 4 to Broke Hall & Bixley.

MCV Evolution AY60 BYD the last single decker in the Carters fleet was unusually used on Colchester's on Wednesday.

FEC 69005 CRASHES INTO A FLORIST IN STOWMARKET

69005 seen here back in May last year whilst on the 56 in Broke Hall.

Investigations are under way as to why Volvo/Wrightbus Eclipse 69005 AU05 DME crashed into first a set of traffic lights and then into a Florist shop at the junction of Tavern Street/Station Road West and Market Place Stowmarket at 7.45 am whilst heading back to Ipswich, no passengers or the driver were on board at the time. First said that they were investigating the incident with Suffolk Police and the driver of the bus. An eyewitness said that the windscreen was smashed and a tyre had come off. Pictures of the incident can be found on the Ipswich Star website.

OTHER NEWS

In other news as can see above Ipswich Buses Optare Olympus 68 YJ60 KGX has been freshly repainted as has not previously mentioned Scania Omnicity 73 the last one in the batch to be treated. Also announced this week is that IB are taking over the 111 Hitcham/Bildeston service from Beestons at the end of March.

MINIBUS REVOLUTION

Originally with Bristol, then with Yorkshire Rider a batch of eleven found themselves cascaded to Eastern Counties in 1995 these were the Dormobile bodied Mercedes L608D seen here in Kings Lynn.

You either loved them or loathed them much like First's new livery, Eastern counties had dabbled with Minibuses way back into the early 1970's, but in the first half of the 1980's operators found that they could get shot of Single Decker and Double Deckers and replace them with Mini Buses with higher frequency and lower paid drivers, however after a time it was found that places needed bigger buses and a long came the Dennis Dart.

Two for the price one, 717 C717 BEX a Alexander Bodied Mercedes L608D with 1081 F702 MBC an ex Leicester Iveco/Carlyre seen here at Felixstowe Bus Station, today the Bus Depot is gone and the minibus routes added on the main Ipswich to Felixstowe service.

One of two Mercedes Benz/Reeve Burgess 609D's originally bought for Stowmarket services this one MB 759 D759 LEX both had short lives with counties and had departed by the mid 1990's

C895 BEX was one of many Ford Transits bought in the Mid 1980's for services right around Eastern Counties, the only place avoiding them was Ipswich although seven were allocated for Felixstowe , this one being C895 BEX TH 895 these were an engineers dream!

END OF THE LINE DARTS AND EARLY DART SLF'S

Remember these lovely little things an ex First Centrewest  Dart/Wright Handybus 45413 LDZ 9113 at Lowestoft Bus Station

With most Step Darts now all but vanished within First and many of the early Dart SLF's now withdrawn perhaps now is an ideal opportunity to look back photographically to the many varied and interesting Darts that First operated in the region.

Originally delivered to Ipswich as additional buses to operate route 66, 46725 was a standard Dart/Plaxton Pointer seen here in Norwich, love the destination blinds.

Heres an Marshall bodied Dart in 40288 M944 SRE which certainly came to East Anglia via a few group companies, seen here in Great Yarmouth.


To finish the feature off for now is an early Dart SLF with Plaxton body 43440 P440 NEX  originally delivered to Norwich in 1996 some of the batch drifted down to Ipswich for town services where they weren't the most reliable of buses.