Bury's Buses

A visit to Bury St Edmunds yesterday and I noted some changes there since my last time there in early August last year. The front part of the travel office at the bus station hads been divided off and available for lease whilst the waiting area and toilets at the rear were retained for passenger use.

Stephensons continue to operate Bury town services since it 'breezed' into the town in October 2011. However, the Darts employed then appear to have been replaced by ADL Enviro200s with 431-4 (EU10NVP/R/S/T) being noted. These newer saloons had been transferred in from use on 'the Blackwater Link' between Witham and Maldon with two of them still branded as such.

I also observed two of Stephensons single deckers branded for its Suffolk Rider service which runs from Newmarket to Bury via Mildenhall; they were Enviro200s EU60CBF and YX11CTU.

Often one of the operator's deckers is seen and yesterday was no different with ex Transdev/London Sovereign Scania N94UD/East Lancs YN55NKH putting in an appearance.

 On my last visit, Stagecoach East was employing similar vehicles on its service 11 between Cambridge and Bury but this time Enviro400s were employed with 15458/61 (AE09GYF/N) and 19164 (MX07MNF) being observed. The latter was wearing the Cancer Research livery. Volvo B7BLE/Wright Eclipse Urban 2 21227 (AE09GYX) also worked the route.

Mulleys of Ixworth continues to operate local services and can often be relied upon to provide unusual buses in their orange livery. A trio of former Nottingham Scania CN94UBs were viewed including YN54AHA/D/E, but the star of the show was decker MUI7949. This was a former Dublin Bus Alexander ALX400 bodied Volvo B7TL thought to have been new to them in December 2001/January 2002 as their 01 D 10202. The registration, incidentally, was previously used on ex Anglianbus R86EMB when operated by Mulleys.

Chambers was employing ex Metrobus Scania Omnidekkas on the 753 route between Bury and Sudbury with YN55PZD/E/G being recorded - these are from the same batch that saw three moved to Anglianbus. Chambers Enviro200 EY57FZE was laying over at the bus station at lunchtime.

Other operator's vehicles regularly arriving included Coach Services, Galloways and Simonds with the first named utilising deckers Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TL X509EGK and ex Stagecoach London Scania LX59CPK.

National Express also serve the town with Whippets Volvo B9R bodied Caetano Levante BK15AKF seen heading off to Stansted Airport.

The odd day tripper also looks in with Andrews of Foxton Scania/Irizar RUI9414 paying a visit.

Roy