LABOUR RUN IPSWICH BOROUGH COUNCIL PLEDGES PARK AND RIDES FUTURE?

Ipswich Buses had Enviro 200 81 YX63 LGE out on Park and Ride duties yesterday subbing for the usual Optare Versa's.

An interesting piece arrived on my doorstep this morning from the Labour led Ipswich Borough Council they pledge the following, keep Martlesham and Copdock Park and Ride open, make sure the are fast reliable bus services from both sites, re open the Bury Road site and get Buses from the Park and Ride to stop to pick up Ipswich residents, currently Suffolk County Council is run by the Conservatives who are going to cut the subsidy to nothing within two years, interesting to also note is that Suffolk County Council have £220 million in their reserves.

Ipswich Buses Trident 17 LG02 FEM which had been out of action at the tail end of last year reappeared in December and yesterday was the first chance to snap when she appeared on the 15A
Other observations from yesterday included Dart 84/87/93/139 on 8/13, Dart 142 and Enviro 200 104 on the 4, Scania Omnidekka 60 on X1 with Dart SPD 137 and Dart 135/41 on the X3 and Enviro 200 82 on the 16, while First Ipswich had Baby E200 45119 out on the 60/61.

Thank You Toby for this picture of Galloway's on loan Optare Solo SR YJ16 DDA ready for action for work on the 119 to Framlingham.

DDA COMES INTO EFFECT

Eastern Counties All Leyland Olympian OL 31 J621 BVG seen in the early 1990's at Norwich Bus Station.

Well it finally came to pass on January 1st when the DDA requirements for Double Deckers to be fully accessible to all many types will have bitten the dust in the last year, including Leyland/Volvo Olympians many will have passed into preservation as have the first generation of Low Floor Deckers like the Dennis Trident and the Volvo B7TL, we all wondered 20 odd years ago whether this was just a fad, but fully accessible Buses soon became accepted, now those very vehicles are being preserved, while many will still love the classic Buses the march of time will continue, we all have our favourite periods of time for Buses mine was the 1980's, we mustn't forget that today's generation will love the Low Floor Buses like the Dart SLF and too hold there interest we must accept them into the fold, in the hope that they will love our periods of time.

Seen here towards the end of it's time at Ipswich FEC 65589 V589 DVF has now been saved by the ITM, after badgering them and Chris Speed at First we managed to save her for preservation, this was an typical bus type for the First Group during the late 1990's being an early generation of the Scania L94UB with Wright Floline body 

WHO'S BEST AT FLEET PRESENTATION

First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32493 AU53 HKL was refurbished back in 2015 and for a Bus of 13 Years old is in a very good condition.

Fleet presentation is particularly important to companies these days, as it can make all the difference particularly in Towns and Cities where more than one bus operator serves a section of a route or in some cases operates over the same route, the difference between being clean inside and out and not being clean in my opinion can sway a customer, for an example i can only equate to First Ipswich and their deep clean programme implemented by Chris Speed, just over two years old to keep to a regimented standard programme which gave the Ipswich Depot to become runner up in their inter company awards, five years ago standards where absolutely shocking, filthily Buses and drivers who quite honestly were under appreciated. Ipswich Buses have in their last year have let things slip presentation wise, they are still clean, BUT it is the livery which concerns me, a new livery was introduced some months back now while the Single Decker fleet has Buses in the current livery the Double Decker fleet has some still carrying the green and white livery introduced in the early part of the Millennium, both companies have what many would consider an ageing fleet, however if they look right, don't break down does it really matter.

 Ipswich Buses Transbus SPD Dart SLF 134 SN53 AVG, with E Leather seating certainly ticks the boxes for presentation and for a bus 13+ years old.

EASTERN COUNTIES LOST ROUTES

Copyright Peter Horrex

 Most of the empire of Eastern Counties is of course now lost, with mostly only the core routes still existing in Suffolk with First Ipswich now operating the  Stowmarket, Felixstowe, Aldeburgh, Saxmundham, Woodbridge, Martlesham services, many rural services which operated sometimes just once a week have vanished. The 232 to Waldringfield displayed 'service' is now in the hands of Suffolk Norse route 179 which has only one service from Ipswich during weekdays, Bristol MW LM 644 KAH 644D is seen waiting time at Waldringfield.
In the picture below we see a service introduced in the late 1970's the 218 to Claydon,today after several different companies have tried and failed with services including Ipswich Buses 18/A and Galloway 110, It's now part of the 88 group of services to Stowmarket operated by First Ipswich, below we see an Series 2 Bristol VR VR 398 ENG 398K in the old depot on the OCM now demolished.

Copyright Clive A Brown

 Galloway Plaxton Centro AY09 BYC seen on the 110 to Claydon now absorbed into the 88 group of services by First Ipswich.

Today the service to Waldringfield is operated in the main by Suffolk Norse with 2 Optare Solo's based at Ipswich, above is YJ55 BGV.

FLASHBACK AND A CAUTIONARY TALE

Ipswich Buses Bristol B21/Alexander 144 B114 LDX in the 1990's on the 3 during the time the route was shared with Eastern Counties.

Today's flashback ends this year's posts with the news that the blog is just about to reach 400,000 this in just over 4 years of reporting, after a slow year for the blog in terms of reporting there will be hopefully much more to report on next year with the changeover of the Park And Ride to First Ipswich and a new MD for Ipswich Buses. Lets hope that no more local based companies slip away from the local scene, there will be a rocky road ahead for many when the amount of money from local government for Concession fares reduces again to 20% in April and more cut backs to timetables and route abandonment, lack of provision for areas even in Ipswich with my area in Broke Hall having no provision in the evening or Sunday's, numbers of people using Buses is down in most parts of England, suffice to say traffic delays is a major cause and don't we know it in Ipswich.

Copyright ETCS. One of my favourite Bristol VR's at Ipswich was VR 405 KPW 405L, starting out in Peterborough after 8 years it came west to Ipswich, and boy did she fly down the A12 coming home on the 92/93 from Colchester.

MORE ON SATURDAY SERVICES ON A FRIDAY!

Ipswich Buses once again had some strange selections for the Saturday service on a Friday, including the above Scania Omnicity 72 YN56 NVD on the 16 with Dart 144 and if you look closely behind on the X3 was Scania Omnidekka 60 which was on the X3 with Lowlander 56 and Dart 137. The X1 had just the one Decker today with Dennis Trident 12 and Darts 139/41, the 4 had Darts 142 and 88 in the afternoon with Trident 23 as the extra bus in the morning. Unusually the 10 Castle Hill had Trident 25 and Lowlander 100, whilst the 8/13 had the 4 branded Darts 84/85/87.

NOT EXACTLY LOW FLOOR

As the title suggests Galloway weren't exactly doing themselves any favours putting out a Non Low Floor bus, with this Mercedes Benz/Plaxton Cheetah mini coach 4178 PP on the 118 service not only that but Typed out destination display.

SATURDAY SERVICE ON A WEDNESDAY

It's unusual for me too experience a Saturday service at the best of times as i tend to avoid the Town Centre however being a Christmas holiday, Ipswich Buses deployed a Saturday service on a Wednesday, in general the timetables don't differ to the weekday ones to the untrained eye, but today certainly threw up some unusual spotting for the enthusiast. Seen above IB ALX 200 Dart 142 was gainfully employed although with very little custom on the Free Shuttle around the town, the X1 which always seems to do very little trade against First's 60/61, had ALX 200 Dart 141 along with Scania Omnicity 70 see below, and Scania Omnidekka 61, the X3 had 2 Double Deckers Tridents 11 and 25 and a ADL E200 107. On my route the 4 was Trident 23 and Dart 139, X5 had Scania Omnidekka 62 in place of one of the usual Scania/Optare Deckers, the 16 had Dart 143, the 10 had Scania Omnicity 73 and the 13 had Dart 138. IB's Shotley service the 202 had Trident 21, whilst ADL E200 79 continued on Park And Ride duties.

 IB DennisTrident 11 LG02 FCX was one of two deckers on the X3 today.