Beach Five

Five coaches were present at Great Yarmouth's Beach Coach Station when I passed by late yesterday afternoon.



Four of them were Mercedes-Benz Tourismos, with the exception being a Scania K410CB6/Irizar i6 PR24 DOR from Prospect Coaches of Lye in the West Midlands, which was new in May.



The other operators present were Caledonian Coaches, Alfa Travel and Greenline. The first supplied NH15 MDH and LE60 HOL, both former National Holidays vehicles, the latter previously known as NH69 DHH.



The remaining two companies provided regular visitors - Alfa Travel's BV22 WTO and Greenline's GC22 GLC.

Roy

Open Topper Leaves

The last of the two redundant partial open toppers was towed away from First Great Yarmouth's Caister Road depot earlier today.



Cameron Robinson took a photo of Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TL 32336 LK53 LYW ready for departure. Similar 37000 LX53AYY had already gone to Ensign at Purfleet.

My thanks to Cameron for the photo.

Roy

Service Alterations Registered ~ 7th August 2024

Today’s East of England Traffic Commissioner’s Notices and Proceedings Report contains some items of local interest.

PF Travel of Woodbridge has received approval for a new operating centre at Unit A8 on Base Business Park at Rendlesham for five vehicles. The business no longer uses its previous operating centre on Grove Road in Woodbridge.

Sanders Coaches is to amend the timetable plus start and finish points of its 203 service between Saxlingham Church and Wells High School from 1st September 2024.  

The Public Inquiry relating to Great Yarmouth based Ambassador Travel on 22nd July 2024 was adjourned and is to reconvene in Cambridge on 12th August 2024.

The full Notices and Proceedings Report will be available to view here soon.

Roy

BorderBus Update

Some observers of BorderBus, plus followers/enthusiasts, may have noticed some unusual activity on the bustimes website.

Andrew Watts has observed some recent non use of the four former Yellow Bus Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9s. I have contacted Andrew Pursey at BorderBus who tells me that all four of them have been sold to Brylaine of Boston in Lincolnshire. Nos 218 BX62 FOJ and 220 BX62 FUU left on Monday with the remainder leaving by the end of the week.

Volvo B9 218 BX62 FOJ on a schools service in Carlton Colville in February this year

Their replacements are already being sourced with Scania Omnicity decker LX08 ECD already collected from NIBS Buses yesterday with another arriving this afternoon - details to follow. A third should arrive by the end of August.



Three Scania Omnicity single deckers have been purchased from Newport Transport with one currently in repaint. The trio are as YT11 LUF, YT11LUH and YT11 LUP. The last one was snapped by Andrew Watts on the 10.26 Bungay to Yarmouth 580 service yesterday morning

My thanks to Andrew Watts for the photo and especially to Andrew Pursey at BorderBus for the update.

Roy

Tuesday Observations

Today, my time to observe activities in Great Yarmouth was limited to the seafront and Beach Coach Station areas.



A large number of coaches were on display at the latter location, but time constraints prevented me from logging them. Notably, adjacent to the coach station, there was a Simonds double-decker ready to transport workers for a factory contract. This vehicle was Scania N94UD WVE 284, which had been acquired from Blue Triangle in London back in August 2016.
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Near the Britannia Pier on North Drive, I observed two buses, one of which was First Eastern Counties driver trainer Volvo B7RLE/ Wright Eclipse Urban 69033 SF55 UBT.



The other was an Our Bus Optare Solo YJ59 GHX, which was substituting the usual YJ62 FZV on the 100 Wherry service running between Vauxhall Holiday Park and Great Yarmouth's seafront.

Roy

Norwich Earlier

Today our regular Norwich correspondent Dan High reports on some activity in Norwich's Castle Meadow.



Firstly, Simonds, which is now a part of Central Connect, employed an ADL Enviro200MMC with the registration YY24 HBJ for its Diss to Norwich service showing the latest livery.



The second image features Completely Coach Travel's Alexander Dennis Enviro400 LK57 AXJ, previously owned by Midland Classic of Burton upon Trent. It still sports the former owner's livery and retains the double-door configuration. This bus was originally introduced to Metroline as TE831 in October 2007.



Lastly, we have First's City Clipper, operated by partially open-topped Wright Eclipse Gemini-bodied Volvo B7TL 32348 LK53 LZL on the 100 service. Capturing the destination screen display in a photo often proves challenging but Dan appears to have achieved it.

Thanks to Dan for the photos.

Roy

Sunday In Southwold

Regular contributor Jon visited Southwold earlier today and observed seven coaches parked, four of which were from an Essex operator



The quartet belonged to Golden Boy Coaches based in Hoddesdon, identified as Master Rory GB24 BOY. Master John GB23 BOY, Master River GB73 BOY and Master Liam GB18 BOY. The first three are Irizar I6s, while the last is a Van Hool TX16 Astron



Additionally, three coaches from Richmonds' were present, visiting from Saffron Walden

My thanks to Jon for the report and photos

Roy