IPSWICH BUSES RECALLING THE 1970'S

 I have recently purchased an healthy load of local bus slides from the ETCS, including Ipswich Borough Transport and Eastern Counties photos, so from my first dip into the collection a chance today to see two photos from the 1970's, firstly at Tower Ramparts note the car park to the right!, we see AEC Regent V 67 DPV 67D before it became an open topper, on the 2A to the Airport via St Johns Road, nowadays St Johns Road is packed with cars down both sides of the road, so it was no surprise when they stopped going down there. Below we see Leyland Atlantean/Roe 2 HDX 905N when new, heading along Woodbridge Road? on the 3 to Rushmere Heath, yet another route that's vanished, the predominately cream and green whilst nice to look out soon deteriorated with just the four batches of  Leyland Atlanteans receiving them 1-5 HDX 904-908N, 6-10 MRT 6-10P, 11-20 RDX 11-20R and 21-35 SDX 21-35R.

IB SERVICE CHANGES AND BUS WITHDRAWALS

IB Trident 19 V162 MEV with Leon Wells at the helm is due to be withdrawn next month.

Ipswich Buses announced their timetable changes for April 11th today in brief.

X1/2/3 Tower Ramparts-Greenwich/John Lewis One less journey will operate, with changes to the timetable Monday to Friday from 0800-0930 and 1630-1800.
4 First journey in morning to Martlesham Tesco will now start from Ipswich Station, with peak hour journeys re timed, Saturday afternoon journeys to Martlesham will no longer operate, with afternoon journeys going to Tesco at Martlesham.
X5 changes to timetables at Peak times, with one less journey to make buses more punctual.
6/A Minor timetable adjustments
8 Minor adjustments to timetable on Saturday before 0900
9/10 Evening buses will run will  three mins later after 2030
12 Daytime changes on Sundays, to run a few mins later
13 Timetable changes on Saturday mornings before 0900 service into town now via Dogs Head Street/Upper Brook Street. Service will revert to every 10 mins in September.
15 timetable changes only.

With thanks to Ipswich Buses MD, Jeremy Cooper i can reveal that the buses withdrawn in April will be Dennis Tridents 18/19, Olympians 40/41 and Optare Spectra 51. The remaining 2 Darts 89/96 will also be withdrawn in April.

A statement regarding the recent Ipswich Park and Ride rumour mill has been made see below.

Ipswich Park and Ride Service

Dear Park and Ride Customer,

You may have seen some recent press coverage about the future of the Ipswich Park and Ride service.

We have every intention to keep the Park and Ride operating. We recognise that the Park and Ride services are an important facility for you and fellow passengers who do not wish to drive into Ipswich. The Park and Ride currently costs the tax payer £712,000 per year to run on top of the cost of your ticket. That equates to a subsidy of £3.27 per passenger per journey.

Savings need to be made across the Council to balance the books. As part of that work we are looking at ways for the Park and Ride service to continue to operate, but at a lower cost to the tax payer.

I am pleased to say that our partners, local bus operators, Ipswich Borough Council, and business representatives are all working with us and are rising to the challenge of helping us design a new service that uses overall resources more efficiently. There is a collective confidence that between us we can keep it operating, so please keep using the service and tell your friends!

From
Cllr James Finch
Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport
Suffolk County Council

IB Olympian 41 seen here last year at Claydon recreating the days of the 18/A Service

Optare Spectra 52 in the pouring rain yesterday on the 4 will remain in service for the time being and a bus in very fine fettle yesterday a credit to IB.

EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATIONS FEBRUARY 1976

Eastern Counties Bristol MW LM 605 AAH 912B was an Cambridge allocation at this time in 1976 seen here on the 155 to ST Ives and is seen in Cambridge, Drummer Street.

February 1976, well i'm too young to remember it for a start, well i was only 4 and what was happening was the beginning of the gradual reduction of the Lodekka fleet, with LFS 12/13/15/16 going into storage in March, and the 900 series Bristol MW class slowly going down in numbers and of course the large amounts of Bristol VR's coming in, with it the change to one man operation. 

Bristol Lodekka LFS 86 was allocated to Great Yarmouth in 1976 but is seen here when allocated to Norwich circa 1980, as a Leyland National 2 is seen lurking behind.

CARTERS RECALL

Copyright John Law

Today's flashback shows three different Carters Buses, the first one we see is ex Eastern Counties Leyland Leopard/ ECW LL 877 XPW 877X heading into Colchester Bus Station in 1991, followed by another of Viv's passion for the Bristol/ECW combination is another ex Eastern Counties Bristol RE 896 SVF 896G, still in it's Eastern Counties pre NBC Coach livery, followed lastly by Ex National Welsh Bristol LH MD 8023 GTX 758W on the 777 at Hadleigh with thanks for the last two photos from Peter Horrex.

SOAMES CALL IT A DAY/THURSDAY OBSERVATIONS

Firstly further sad news has reached me today, with the news that Soames(Forget Me Not Travel) will cease trading at the end of July, seen here back in 2014 is Volvo B12M/Plaxton Paragon.

Today's observations compared with Monday's are not as wide ranging, however they are certainly worth mentioning firstly Scania/Optare Olympus 68 was on the 6, Dart 144 was on the 16 with i would think the last Non DDA East Lancs Dart 96, 139 was on the 15A, 61 was on the X3, whilst Trident 12 was on the X1 with Dart 142, whilst the 4 went back to Double Deckers with Trident 20 and 23, whilst 4 branded Dart 84 was on the 8/13. First Ipswich also had another Double Decker on the 60/61 today this time Volvo B7TL 32486.The first new ADL Enviro 200 for Ipswich Buses out of the 4 due has been seen up at ADL in Falkirk it's registered SN16 OGH.

And she lives the final Non DDA East Lancs Dart is defying it's withdrawal seen today is 96 X96 LBJ.

First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32486 AU53 HKD today on the 60/61.

MONDAY OBSERVATIONS

Yesterday saw many different allocations to what we are used to on both Ipswich Buses and First Ipswich town services, as seen above Ipswich Buses Enviro 200 81 YX63 LGE appeared on the Park and Ride, in place of the one of the usual Optare Versa's, continuing this theme, IB had Trident 23 on the 9 in place of one of the usual Mercedes Benz Citario's, other observations included ALX 200 Dart 139 on the X1, sister 138 on the 8/13, 141 on the X3 and 144 on the 4, it's noticeable that most of the branded Dart's now appear on routes other than what they should, as was 84 on the 12, and 86 on the 8/13 both branded for the 4, Deckers 20 and 59 were also on the X3,First Ipswich had ADL Enviro 200 44928 out on the 53 instead of the 39/59, while 44517/19 were on the 60/61, with 44518 the solitary one on the 53, numbers made up with 2 Volvo B7RLE's, double deckers are also common these days on the 60/61 with heritage liveried 32479 whilst today 32655 appeared.
In regards to the Carter's takeover by Ipswich Buses, i believe that the Leyland/Volvo Olympians are for sale with just the 4 Trident's and the MCV Evolution passing to IB, Viv Carter will still carry on with their excellent heritage fleet and have already registered a school service. The reaction to my comment on the news was taken to be negative in regards to the comments i made, unfortunately i was rather negative on the whole which has upset people, especially the owners and peoples jobs rely on this takeover, my comment regarding the burden on the tax payer wasn't factually correct, apologises for that i do hope IB will make a go of the Colchester services, although they have operated rural services in the past, Suffolkbus was the identity of the buses/ coaches taken over by them from Bickers/Squirrells in the late 1980's.

First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32479 on the 60 yesterday

 The Mini E200's brought in for the 59/70 occasionally escape on to towns illustrated yesterday by 44928 on the 53.

Ipswich Buses Lowlander 59 on the X3.

SUNDAY RECALL

This is quite an rare picture in that it could of only been on loan to Ipswich at that time from Eastern Counties Bury St Edmunds depot as by this point Ipswich was Bristol RE free, RL 872 XAH 872H had pretty much been an Norwich allocation until late in it's career, it's seen here at East Bergholt outstation in April 1985.

Copyright Michael Dryhurst

Now this is a real beauty with out any doubt and it has an family connection as being one of the Trolleybuses built by Ransomes in which my late uncle helped to build 81 PV 4789 is situated outside Ipswich Corporation Transport's Constantine Road  depot, note the typical advertisements of the time for Player's cigarettes and Gordon's gin, which wouldn't be allowed now.