CHANGES TO PARK AND RIDE THINKING

Optare Versa 152 YK08 EPV, part of the current Park and Ride Fleet for Ipswich Buses.

Courtesy of Steve's Bus And Train Blog /http://busandtrain.blogspot.co.uk and confirmation from my good friend Chris Speed of First Eastern Counties, is that the new thinking is for the current 63/4/5 and not the 66 as originally thought, to serve the Martlesham Park And Ride, with a 30 minute frequency, with an extra fast service between Martlesham and the Town Centre combining to give a 15 minute frequency.This as all subject to Confirmation. Seen below on the current 63 to Melton via Woodbridge is Volvo B7RLE 69428 AU58 FFP.

THURSDAY FLASHBACK: THE NINTIES

By the 1990'S I had become rather disillusioned with the bus scene, thinking it was time to grow up!, so i missed quite a lot during those years, although when my place of work moved sides in Tacket Street, i found myself during those long Winter Days making use of the rather big windows, to look at all the Buses coming past, during that time the 66 was launched by the privatised Eastern Counties,in 1994 , we see DP79 M379 YEX  a Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer with  branding on Ipswich Station forecourt from the James Long collection.  After many years of being in Julian Patterson's hand Eastern Counties sole Leyland National survivor has moved back to Suffolk in the ITM'S hands once again, LN 770 XNG 770S certainly spent it's time moving around, including a time with the Rosemary Coaches unit, which didn't last long before being phased out for Eastern Counties, 1770 by this time finished it's time with First Thamesway, before the ITM purchased her.

FAREWELL JIM

One from Jim's massive collection shows 414 N346 CJA a Volvo B6 Alexander Dash which had a short career with Ipswich before heading Leicester bound.

Many people who have followed the blog over the years will remember the contribution of photos over the years of Jim Long who i can announce passed away yesterday, not only was Jim a contributor to the blog, but just over 9 years he was a personal friend who was always around for me when my own mental health suffered, he too suffered from depression having had a breakdown earlier in his life, his catalogue of knowledge and photos was legendary particularly Eastern Counties and although he suffered from a fear of crowds was still able to get about with his devoted wife Eve, Jim was well known for chasing around for any new repaints, he was especially helpful when choosing a new camera Jim, helped me along considerably and as my photos have gotten better he was equally pleased, and above all he kept faith with me even though i spouted a lot of nonsense, Thanks Jim it was an honour to know you.

Jim also collected a massive collection of slides during his life including this very rare shot of a Bristol K LK 1 FAH 107 with it's original Strachans body from 1944, it was renumbered LK 31 in 1947 and fitted with an new Series 2 ECW L27/28R body in 1953, finally being withdrawn in 1967.

BEESTON SCANIA N280UD/ADL E400 MMC DEMONSTRATOR

Many thanks to Russell Young who contributes photos to the blog for this rather excellent shot of Beestons on loan Scania N280UD/ADL E400 MMC Demostrator YN16 CFU

on it's way to Sudbury from Ipswich on the 91 on Friday, unfortunately due to the bad weather this weekend i have been unable to get a shot myself, previously this has been on loan to Stephensons.

SUNDAY FLASHBACK

A nice chance to look back at the Tillings livery on a Bristol RE RL 508 CNG 508K, which was new in September 1971 before being repainted in 1974, this picture taken at Norwich Bus Station was taken roughly around a year before it was repainted into NBC livery.

CBW INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WICKERS FEC BUSINESS DIRECTOR

First Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 66981 on the 61 to Greenwich in April this year.

Today i feature highlights from the interview with First Eastern Counties Business Director Steve Wickers, from which i have included the pieces concerning the Ipswich Operations, for the full interview you can purchase a copy of the magazine from WH Smith or http://coachandbusweek.net/

First the basics FEC have a turnover of £34 Million, with a fleet of 240 Buses, with just over 700 staff, the last year they recorded an increase of 1.7% growth with revenue up by 2.2%.
Over the last year £5.6 Million has been invested in new Buses, for Norwich. Later this year 22 Volvo B9TL/Wright Double Deckers will be cascaded to the company. Now on to Ipswich, in the past Customer and Stakeholder feedback for presentation of the fleet was poor, however over the last 2 years much time has been spent on changing the travel experience, this has seen investment in the fleet and drivers, now talking to the customers, as a result First Ipswich has seen the biggest improvement in customer satisfaction within the group, which recently lead to First Ipswich being runner up in the best depot within First, congratulations to the team there including Barry Spurling, Joe Thorpe, Chris Speed among others for this excellent achievement. As a ticketing initiative Ipswich now offer a Young persons ticket to Under 20's that discounts their fares by 30%. Below is Volvo B7RLE 69428 AU58 FFP which introduced an new livery to the Ipswich area, for faster journeys on the X7 to Felixstowe, but seen here on the 65 to Aldeburgh
 

IPSWICH PARK AND RIDE PROPOSALS APPROVED DESPITE OBJECTIONS

First Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 69428 AU58 FFP shortly before Ipswich Buses took over the scheme in October 2013.

Yesterday Suffolk County Council approved the changes previously mentioned in last weeks post on Tuesday with IB Service 13 to increased to about every 7 mins, with subject to confirmation First Ipswich to include the Martlesham Park and Ride in their 66 service. However currently the Travel Ipswich scheme is still ongoing and the Town's MP Ben Gummer and Borough Council Leader David Ellsemere are concerned that the launch of these services in January 2017 will not have the infrastructure in place to facilitate good journey times. As i have said before my stance is that we need a Park and Ride service as otherwise people will use there car to travel to Ipswich, it has already been mentioned in the press that the current scheme to transform the Town's traffic infrastructure has failed to alleviate traffic delay, and has been deemed a failure, that's putting it mildly.

RIDING THE 8 AND THE 4 PLUS IPSWICH BUSES FLEET UPDATE

Today i attempted a tricky manoeuvre with the aim to experience 4 different types of bus on 2 different routes and thankfully i managed it with the help of a £3.50 day rover ticket, which is certainly worth it as otherwise it would of been £6.80 in total. The first journey of the day was on the 4 and into town the best bus of all four Optare Spectra 53 X53 LBJ which while now being slightly down at heel gives the best ride of them all, comfortable seats and good acceleration, meanwhile on the 8 back and from Town i experienced Scania Omnicity 72 YN56 NVD above which i would put in 3rd place, comfortable leather seats but unfortunately a noisy rattle at the back spoilt it for me, returning i had East Lancs Dart 88 which i would put in last place, while seats are e leather they are bone hard and have very little leg room, pleasing that it didn't have any rattles, runner up for me was Trident 13 on the way back home, fairly comfortable  the old girl now 14 years old made easy work of Bishops Hill.

Goddard Road is home to the Suffolk Norse Fleet so it was nice to spot an Volvo Olympian R397 LHK heading out on a school run.
Now up is my fully updated Ipswich Buses Fleet list including the Carters Fleet.
http://ipswichbusblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/ipswich-buses-fleet.html