Beach Coach Station ~ 20th November 2012

Two coaches at Great Yarmouth's Beach Coach Station were observed around lunch time today

Spratts' Van Hool bodied Scania K112CRS HIL7477 made an appearance

She was accompanied by National Holidays Volvo B12M/Plaxton NH06EEH and a photo of her can be seen here on my Flickr site

Enviro 400s in Norwich

Almost an hour was spent yesterday observing activity at Norwich Bus Station, which yielded two 2012 registered Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s owned by two different Norfolk companies

Norfolk Green's 21 SN12EHM was being used on the X29 route between the city and Fakenham.

Named Johnny Douglas, it was

adorned with  #tweetmyride branding

The other Enviro 400 sighted was being employed by konectbus on its service 3 to Watton

SN62AVO, numbered 611 in the fleet, is especially branded for the route

Also making an appearance on a service from London was National Express CO60 FJ06URG

More Yorkshire Dart Memories

Our regular correspondent Grahame Bessey contributes the following on the Yorkshire darts:-

'After reading the various blog features regarding the ex Yorkshire Rider Darts of various types working with FEC, it reminded me that deep in my photo archive were images of a couple of Darts that first appeared with FEC from Yorkshire and worked in their Northern liveries here.

June 2003 saw the arrival of two Alexander Dash bodied examples 

from Halifax on loan at Yarmouth to operate the summer 3 service, newly renumbered into First's national fleet 40634 & 40635 M265/266VWW ( ex 3265/3266 in Rider Group). Both photographed at Caister Road.

Another example arrived in Leeds Citylink livery in the shape of M230VWW gaining FEC fleetnumber 354, seen here in Surrey Street Bus Station, Norwich, this went on to be repainted into a version of Barbie 2 livery minus the pink fades. 

No 354 was unfortunately 

one of the victims of the arson attack at Stalham outstation (which I have photos of taken the day it happened). I will try to find the Stalham shots for you in due course!'

Many thanks for the report and photos Grahame.

Konectbus Connects to the Coast

Konectbus commences its new konectexpress2 service linking Norwich with Cromer and Sheringham from this coming Sunday (18th)

The service to the North Norfolk Coast has a journey time of approximately seventy minutes and will operate at hourly intervals between Mondays and Saturdays and every two hours on Sundays.

It will run on a direct route along the A140 and A149 roads and will avoid Aylsham so as to provide faster journeys between the city and the coast

It is anticipated that Optare Tempos from the konectbus fleet will be used on the service

The timetable for the new service can be found here

Yorkshire Rider Darts

The articles on this blog about the Yorkshire Rider Darts and their use by First Eastern Counties has generated some interest amongst readers

Three ex Yorkshire Rider Darts at Caister Road Depot © Ryan

Godfrey Talford, now a resident of Happisburgh in Norfolk, contributes the following:-

May another Yorkshire exile in North East Norfolk be permitted to assist Michael Sayer's memory? The batch of 68 Darts M201-268 VWW were numbered 3201-3268 when new. Only the first 18,had Plaxton bodies; they went new to Huddersfield, at the same time as a much larger batch of Dennis Lance/Plaxton Verdes numbered in the 4xxx series, and a host of Mercedes Benz minibuses in the 2xxx series.

The remaining 50 Darts (3219-68) had Alexander bodies and were new to Leeds. As Michael says, some of the Plaxton batch later migrated to Yarmouth and several of the Alexander batch came to Norwich. The durability of the Yorkshire Rider moquette seat coverings impressed me - it lasted the whole of the long lives of the Norwich Darts, and was far more presentable even at the time they were finally withdrawn from service than some of the 'First' seat coverings on the early low floor Darts, even in mid life

Many thanks for the information and your thoughts on these vehicles Godfrey. I am also grateful to Ryan for the photo

More AnglianBus Repaints

This afternoon Tim Miller looked in at Car & Commercials yard at Beccles and witnessed two buses freshly painted in AnglianBus colours

The only one exiting the paint shops was former Brighton & Hove Trident T815RFG complete with front guard to fend off tree damage

Also present, but still in the paint shops, was

Metrobus exile YN03WRJ wearing its AnglianBus yellow and blue colours

The Scania Omnicity looks very smart and is currently awaiting a few parts prior to its completion

My thanks to Tim Miller for his report and the photos

Tamworth Revisited

Last weekend meant a return trip to Tamworth - our last trip there was in late April this year

On the Saturday, whilst the others were enjoying the market and the shops, I made my way to the bus terminus at Victoria Road

On arrival I was surprised to see many new Mercedes Benz Citaros in service with Arriva Midlands

Apparently Tamworth has received seventeen of the twenty buses following their use at the London Olympics

The buses have fleetnumbers 3003-19 and have corresponding registrations BJ12YPO/P/RT-Z, BD12DHX-Z and BD12DJE/F

The only decker noted in the short period of observations was Wright Eclipse bodied Volvo B9TL 4202 FJ08LVN on the 110 to Birmingham

The Citaros are believed to have displaced the numerous Volvo B6BLEs;  with only one being noted and that was 2616 V216KDA at the Corporation Street Terminus

No other operator's vehicles were seen