AD ENVIRO 400 MMC DEMO IN SERVICE AND FIRST GROUP'S FIRST NEW LOOK STREETDECK

First up an apology to my loyal followers for getting the identity of the AD Enviro 400 MMC wrong in actual fact it was the other one YY64 GWX still with Go North East logos and legal lettering, unfortunately it came into service too late for me to get a ride, however by a stroke of luck i was able to get some shots in, before it rushed off nearly 10 mins late on the 10 to Castle Hill and Whitton, included below is a side and rear on view. Below you can see the additional  posters that Ipswich Buses are using in their fares promotion.

FIRST'S NEW LOOK STREETDECKS

Photo Copyright Nathan Bentham.

Look what Norwich missed out there's something wrong with bus in my opinion, is it because i'm ugly! This is the first new look Wrightbus Streetdeck delivered to First Group and is heading to Bristol seen here on delivery.

IPSWICH BUSES RESPOND TO FIRST IPSWICH PROMOTION

First Ipswich's ticket sale promotion has already started a reaction by Ipswich Buses who have lowered there prices on the X1 to Greenwich and the X3 to John Lewis to £2 return, as can be seen above First Ipswich's promotion is slightly different with a £1 single saving 50p and a child single 70p save 30p,as Ipswich Buses promotion has been done in rather quick time you can just about see below the X1/X3 card put up on the front of  IB Dart/ALX 200 140 Y272 FJN advertising the cheaper fares until 16th August. Finally below is a picture copyright Leon Wells of the last two ex Lothian SPD Darts 134/35 SN53 AVG/K to return from refurbishment, my opinion from experiencing 136 a couple of weeks back on the 6 was that they are excellent buses, comfortable and rather smooth obviously they have obviously been looked after and certainly don't look there age.

EASTERN COUNTIES ROSEMARY TAKEOVER 1993/FIRST IPSWICH PROMOTION

James Long has brought something to my attention that i had completely forgotten about in 1993 that i missed on yesterday's blog, so i thought i would feature it today as a follow up, on May 31St 1993 Rosemary Coaches ceased trading with the fleet, contracts, services, private hire and goodwill passing to Eastern Counties including the fleet below, including the above VR 502 YHN 654M.

VR 501 GAG 49N  Bristol VR/ECW H43/31F Ex East Yorkshire 1989
VR 502 YHN 654M  Bristol VR/ECW H43/31F  Ex United 1990
DD 503 D/L CKC 302L Daimler Fleetline /MCW H43/32F Ex Crosville 1987
DD 504 THX 573S Leyland Fleetline/ Park Royal H44/27F Ex London Buses 1994
DD 505 OJD 195R Daimler Fleetline/ MCW  H45/32F Ex Derby 1990
DD 506 THX 531S Leyland Fleetline/ Park Royal H44/27F Ex London Buses 1992
DD 507 WWH 26L Daimler Fleetline/Park Royal H43/32F Ex Greater Manchester 1987
DD 508 CKC 312L Daimler Fleetline /MCW H43/32F Ex Crosville 1987

S521 6149 KP AEC Reliance/Plaxton Elite C53F Ex Shrub & Howard 1987
S522 VPH 31S AEC Reliance/Plaxton Supreme C53F  Ex London Country 1984
S523 6920 MX Leyland Leopard/Plaxton Elite C51F Ex Graham,Paisley 1990
S524 RYL 720R Bedford/Duple Dominant II C53F Ex Burton,Haverhill 1987
S525 EHE 234V Bedford/Duple Dominant II C53F Ex Maranair,Cliftonville
S526 JTY 926P Bedford/Plaxton Supreme C53F Ex Moore, Sleaford

Seen here alongside GRF 267V a Bedford/Duple Dominant is another taken over Rosemary coach a Leyland Leopard with Plaxton Elite body 6920 MX with the changed number of LP 523 within 3 years of take over the whole fleet had disappeared apart from 2 coaches remaining as trainers.

FIRST IPSWICH PROMOTION

 First Ipswich AD Enviro 44518 YX09 ACZ.

First Ipswich start a new promotion tomorrow with fares reduced on routes in Ipswich on the 53 to Pinewood and the 60/61A Gainsbborough/Greenwich routes £1 Adult and 70p Child for single fares.

FLASHBACK EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATION SHEET 1993

Seen here during the early part of the 1990's is Bristol VR 270 RAH 270W which is seen it was in the second deregulated livery of Cream with red and orange stripes.

As Mr Bessey is travelling back to 1993 on his 1990's show this Thursday i thought i would travel back in my Tardis to the time when tracksuits seemed popular and yuppies were the thing you aspired to be queue the filofaxes and brilliantly parodied by David Jason in Only Fools and Horses in the wine bar fall!  By this time Leyland Nationals the first ones at least were on there way out some became re bodied as National Greenways and the Mercedes Benz Minibuses were gaining in numbers. The fleet allocation is the only one i could find of this year, so enjoy.

Seen in Norwich again the cream based livery is OC 5 F105 AVG an Northern Counties Bodied Leyland Olympian on the 794 to Peterborough now of course the X1.

Thought i would include this photo as it also squeezes in one of Chris Speed's favourite bus the AEC Swift, but the main focus is Yarmouth's allocated Leyland National 2 UVF 625X on the 604 to Lowestoft.

IPSWICH BUSES TAKE AN ENVIRO 400 MMC DEMONSTRATOR ON LOAN/ MORE ON FIRST IPSWICH CHANGES

https://www.flickr.com/photos/78232101@N08/16447945964/in/photolist Copyright Yorkshire Bus and Coach Photos

Yet another exclusive for you today and many thanks to Jeremy Cooper MD at Ipswich Buses for confirming this that the Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMC Demonstrator YX64 VOO that had recently been on loan at First South Yorkshire Rotherham Depot as well as in the past, Cardiff, Mc Gills and Arriva Yorkshire and seen above whilst at East Yorkshire will be on loan from next week, routes on which it will appear on their website next week so you know what route it will be on. Chris Speed has been in touch again with more on the important changes at the end of August so i have repeated what he has added on Wednesday's Blog comments and added here at the end.
Please can you start to share the service changes that start from 30/08/15. 

The Woodbridge/Aldeburgh routes will see almost all of the peak time journeys into and out of Ipswich remain as they are currently. The 64's maintain their current route but 65's are altered to run Aldeburgh, Leiston, Knodishall, Snape then as normal route (this is the same as the old Anglian 165).

Aldeburgh and Leiston therefore have an hourly frequency. From Melton into Ipswich the 64's & 65's combine with the new 63's to give a half hourly frequency. The withdrawn 68's journeys are replaced by some diverted 63's. Other places such as Rendlesham & Saxmundham are reduced to 2 hourly off peak.

All services have had changes made to help improve punctuality. 

FIRST IPSWICH AND A TALK WITH CHRIS SPEED

First Ipswich Volvo B7TL /ALX 400 32656 AU05 MVA seen back in March on layover in Ipswich OCM.

Once again it was my pleasure to meet First Ipswich's General Manager Chris Speed and talk to him about what's happening here at Ipswich, while this report is not as detailed as yesterday i can give some indication to what's happening over the next month in terms of changes. First up is the news that the Felixstowe routes will be increased to six buses an hour and that an non stop X7 will finally get the go ahead know i have known this was on the cards for some time now and kept quiet about, so it's nice to finally report it, on the debit side the 64/65 through to Saxmundham off peak will now be every 2 hourly instead of the present hourly service this is due to a poor passenger level, Woodbridge however will still see an every hour service. Town services will of course be implemented by the newly won 59 Rushmere circular and the 70/A to Woodbridge renumbered from 30 and the 72, Chris is looking at the smaller Enviro 200 from within First Group companies to hopefully take up these services, it's also of note that the 68 service to Kesgrave has also been cancelled, there are also some exciting initiatives taking place which i can't reveal yet. One other piece of good news for First Ipswich is that within First Group Ipswich depot has been nominated in their own awards for best depot as well as a nomination for one of their new apprentices. In other news i can now confirm that the sale of ex First Ipswich Scania 65588 to the Ipswich Transport Museum will now not take place, however this is not the end of the story yet and in the coming months i may be able to reveal more. Once again thanks to Chris and also Steve Fountain and Paulo who i haven't seen for a long time for their time.

First Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 66850 MX05 CHD back in January on the 60.

EXCLUSIVE:MEETING WITH IPSWICH BUSES MD JEREMY COOPER

 Seen here earlier this year in April is Ipswich Buses AD Enviro 200 82 YX63 LGF seen here in Dog's Head Street.

Yesterday evening i had a nice chat of just under an hour with the new Ipswich Buses MD Jeremy Cooper who has moved from Stagecoach East Kent at the end of May to take over from Malcolm Robson, Jeremy sees this as interesting challenge coming to Ipswich, so it was interesting to learn his perspectives on the industry and of course what his future plans are for Ipswich Buses.
One of the first things i learnt contrary to all the speculation going around at present that the three Mercedes-Benz Citario's are still on track for delivery in September, they will not be going on the X5 as previously stated and will be going on an increased 9/10 Whitton/Castle Hill service, there are other key changes to services and since i have spoken to him he has kindly sent me a copy of the changes which i will put at the end of the post, one important change is that the 7 Thorrington Park and the 11 to Heath Road Hospital will now be renumbered 15A and 6A respectively so the whole route uses one number throughout instead of the current situation of for example the 6 showing 11 Central Ipswich when it's obviously on the 6 route. Several routes particularly the Nacton Road corridor will see an increase in frequency on the X1/3 routes, please note that the X1 HAS not been cancelled, the 13 to Pinebrook Tesco will increase back to every 10 mins and the 4 will revert back to it's original terminus at Bixley Broadland Way terminus with certain peak journeys extending to Martlesham Anson Way, Ipswich Railway Station at peak times, with 2 lunchtime 4's also going to Martlesham.
I can also confirm that three Dennis Trident/Plaxton President Double Deckers are due from Lothian and are registered SN51 AXF/O/P, and at the current time no more are due in the future the likelihood will be that next year any new buses will be Midi Buses. Buses to be withdrawn will be the unique Optare Spectra 50 and the solo East Lancs Trident 10. Consideration is also being sought on refurbishing the Double Decker fleet and the Scania Omnicities. The 3 Dart's that have been refurbished 94/96/98 WILL be the only one's done and not the 4 originally stated, what he is hopeful of is that the 2 remaining ex Lothian Dart's will return in the coming week with two of the older X Reg Darts being withdrawn. I would like to thank Jeremy for being so kind in giving up an hour of his time yesterday evening it was much appreciated.

Ipswich Buses

More buses – more often from Thursday 3^rd September

We are pleased to announce our autumn timetable leaflets. We changed several routes in May 2015 and added extra time to some journeys so that they operated punctually despite Ipswich’s growing traffic problems. We’ve had a lot of comments about the new routes and timetables and we’ve tried to provide additional facilities for as many people as possible.

X1 and X3 – Buses every 15 minutes during peak times between the Rail Station and Ransome’s Europark to make it easier to get to work by bus. Buses along Nacton Road into Ipswich Central will run up to every 8 minutes with a better choice of arrivals for work in town. Buses from Ipswich Central to Gainsborough will run via Landseer Road before 0900 and will be numbered X2. We are using an extra bus in the afternoon peak period to help us try and stay on time despite the roadworks.

4 – Additional early morning journey to the rail station from Bixley. We started the extension to Martlesham Heath a year ago and unfortunately very few people are using it. We’ve done some surveys and a number of journeys were completely empty. So we will still run some peak hour and lunch time journeys through to Martlesham, but most journeys will terminate at Bixley, where we will return to Broadland Way Shops as the terminus. Those journeys still serving Martlesham will serve Anson Road and not the stop by Next in Beardmore Park.

X5 – Minor changes to the timetable in the rush hour and on Sundays to improve punctuality. Evening and Sunday buses are re-timed to serve the Hospital at quarter to and quarter past the hour for workers and visitors with appointments on the hour and half hour.

6/6A – We are changing the number of route 11 to 6A – but we aren’t changing the route. The new times on route 6 have not been very successful with regular delays to the buses, and we are sorry this has inconvenienced you. We are therefore going to use an extra bus on these routes so that the buses are able to keep to time. We have also increased the time allowed through the major roadworks at Ransome’s.

If you live in Rushmere it is now possible to catch the X5 and change to the 6 at the Hospital on evenings and Sundays. Please note the Sunday times on the 6A will be 10 minutes earlier on Sunday daytimes.

7 – see route 15A below

8 – Improved to run every 10 minutes during shopping hours on Mondays to Saturdays and every 20 minutes on Sunday daytimes! New earlier journey introduced for commuters with a connection to the station.

9/10 – Improved to run up to every 8 minutes on Mondays to Saturdays and every 20 minutes Sunday daytimes! Evening buses will run 10 minutes later than at present. New earlier journey introduced for commuters with a connection to the station. New buses coming soon too…

11 – see route 6A above.

12 – no changes

13 – Improved to run every 10 minutes during shopping hours on Mondays to Saturdays and every 20 minutes on Sunday daytimes!

14 – no changes

15/15A – We are changing the number of route 7 to 15A – but we aren’t changing the route! We changed the times of these buses in May to ensure that they ran more punctually, but some of you didn’t like the longer gaps between buses. We’ve come up with a new timetable that includes more journeys and fewer gaps.