66850 IN SERVICE AND 23312 ARRIVAL

66850 MX05 CHD was soon in service after it's arrival yesterday afternoon from Rotherham seen here in Belmont Road this morning on the 53. Photo copyright James Long

As seen above 66850 MXO5 CHD a Volvo B7RLE/Wrightbus Eclipse arrived back yesterday afternoon from Rotherham and was straight back into service this morning on the 53's as seen above, below is a picture of 23312 YN54 NYT taken with the kind permission of the Ipswich depot staff, again by James Long.

Also as an addition to the news mentioned in the last blog is that all the new Sunday services provided by First Ipswich the 65B and the 116 will be provided free of charge for the first two weeks.

MORE RAIL REPLACEMENTS AND MORE COMINGS AND GOING!

69009 has returned from refurbishment and is seen here today on the 77 to Felixstowe route

As can be seen above 69009 AU05 DMX has returned from refurbishment and was put back into service today after arriving from Rotherham yesterday also now departed is Enviro 200 44517 YXO9 ACY leaving just 44516 still to arrive, also arriving on Monday was Volvo B7RLE 69011 AU05 DMZ which entered service yesterday on the 55 to Bixley before emigrating onto the 60/61Greenwich/Gainsborough routes today and will depart to Rotherham tomorrow with Volvo B7RLE 66850 MX05 CHD returning tomorrow.

Volvo B7RLE 69011 AU05 DMZ seen here today on the 60 to Gainsborough.

23312 YN54 NYT a Scania K114 EB/Irizar PB coach seen here with First Cymru.

Two further coaches have or will arrived at Ipswich for work on the current Ipswich Rail replacement contract they are 23312/14 YN54 NYT/V Scania K114 coaches from First Hampshire at Southampton and in future will be used for both Rail Replacement work and private hire.

FIRST IPSWICH RAIL REPLACEMENT & SUNDAY ROUTES GAINED

37562 FJ08 FJN a Volvo B9TL/Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini seen here at Ipswich Railway Station today.

A matter of days have gone by and yet we have more news on First Ipswich, firstly Ipswich has gained a four week contract covering both mainline and branch line services from Ipswich for Greater Anglia Trains run by Abelio, Currently Ipswich has 20515 WV02 EUR a Volvo B12M/Plaxton Paragon coach and 37562 FJ08 FJN a Volvo B9TL

/Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini from Norwich although the Double Decker will be replaced by 20514 WV02 EUP during the week. Freshly repainted 66981 KXO5 MHK entered service on Saturday on the 53's as predicted although sister 69008 had moved on to the 64 today. Other work gained are Sunday services 116 to Debenham and 65B to Woodbridge from Ipswich both are timetabled to run 3 journeys a day, interestingly Hadleigh Community Transport have picked up the 202 to Shotley service again with three journeys all services are under contract to Suffolk County Council. A late arrival into the depot this Afternoon was Volvo B7RLE 69011 AU05 DMZ from Norwich while Scania L94 65632 V832 FSC was dumped out the back presumed withdrawn.

Seen today on the 53 is 66981 KX05 MHK a freshly repainted Volvo B7RLE/Wrightbus Eclipse

66981 AT IPSWICH DEPOT

Another quick blog this evening with pictures of 66981 KX05 MHK on the forecourt of the depot in Foundation Street and once again my thanks to James Long for supplying the photos of which they are his copyright.

69008 IN SERVICE

Just another quick blog today with a picture of 69008 AU05 DMV on the 53 to Pinewood, from seeing it up close today, i'm unsure about it, i don't know whether i like it or not. Enviro 200 44518 departed this morning, with Volvo B7RLE 66981 due back this afternoon, Volvo B7TL 32479 in the heritage livery is due back next Thursday. Many thanks to Paulo at First Ipswich and Mark Doggett who introduced himself to me this morning and supplied today's news.

69008 ARRIVES HOME

Just a quick blog tonight with a picture courtesy of James Long, of the arrival home of 69008 yesterday evening, vinyls are still to be applied. 

BLOG STATEMENT AND LAST DAY OF CURRENT 4 ROUTE

Last day of the current routing of the 4 included this IB East Lancs Dennis Dart 94 X94 LBJ seen here at Broke Hall Shops under menacing clouds.

First up a statement over the last week there has been some discussion and difference of opinion on Twitter and privately on the way i use this blog, i won't go into too much detail  suffice to say not all of it's been nice, i apologize to anyone who has been offended by the manner that i go by my source material and the way i share that information out. Now i'm celebrating two years of doing this blog, my prime objective is to gather news as newspapers do and be the first one to give out that information, however that is not always the case and i respect the ways that others do it. So a thank you to the many people who have helped me particularly Chris Speed and Paulo at First Ipswich who have been nothing but courteous to my many questions! Just to say whether possible i do not go in for the politics of preferring one company over the other or for that matter or looking at facets of the bus industry other blogs do that and do it better than i can ever do.

One of the EL IB Darts 85 PJ53 OLE to be used on the new route 4 complete with WI-FI