Bus with Shortest working lives

[Fokx]

The Merseybus Neoplans had a short service life

The UKs first low floor bus the N4014 lived a very limited service life with Merseytravel/Merseybus. So much so that there’s very little evidence or documents of it in service! I’m lead to believe with the arrival of the N4016’s which would have been around a year later, the bus was sold to an operator in Ireland and it later became a classroom.

The shorter N4009’s lived a very limited service life and spent a large portion of their lifetime off the road. They were very rare batch of 3 that made sourcing parts quite difficult, and were of an awkward small size for such a heavyweight fuel consuming bus which made them impractical for most routes, and the ones they were purchased for were withdrawn or contracts that were tendered to new operators

Comparatively the N4016’s faired fairly well!

 

[DunsBus]

Lothian had a 52-plate Dart (75) destroyed by fire in June 2003 when just six months old. It was replaced by a 53-plate Dart, an extra bus that was added on to the next order and which took the vacant 75 fleetnumber.

The Trent Atlanteans which TGW mentions must surely take the prize for the briefest careers, at 0 days in service. I can't better that but I can give some honourable mentions: the J-reg Strathclyde Olympian which lasted for nine months before being consumed in the Larkfield depot fire, the C-reg Ribble Neoplan that was burnt out on its second day, and the A-reg Quest VM80 that lasted for six weeks before burning itself out on the M27.

 

[cnjb8]

The Plaxton president bodied Volvo B7's lasted nearly 20 years with Go Ahead London. The Plaxton bodied Tridents went quicker but were essentially non-standard as the fleet was fairly standardised on the Volvo B7 at the time.

Some left the fleet 2010/2011/2012/2013 to various GoAhead companies, so second hand, and EYMS, which later became part of GoAhead.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Two First West of England StreetDecks were pinched by First Eastern Counties after three years. While First Manchester disposed of some StreetLites to Leicester after a year of use

There are a lot of similar examples of early life cascading in Stagecoach and First but they did go on to have long lives in other OpCos.

Think we’re looking more at the utter failures or accident victims that had short working lives.

 

[daodao]

The Metro-Scanias and the Metropolitans were both very impressive from a passenger point of view. Less so for the operators! ....

Newport Transport is particularly fond of Scania buses, buying a large batch in 1971 and still operating Scania buses today; the last batch have "11" series registration plates.

The d/d Metro-Scanias that I recall they used on route 30, run jointly with Cardiff City Transport, were significantly faster and more comfortable than the buses that Cardiff used on that route, and managed a fair turn of speed on the interurban section between St Mellons and Dyffryn. They also coped much better with the hill up to Rumney travelling eastbound on Newport Road. Cardiff subsequently bought some similar Scania buses particularly for use on this route.

 

[jammy36]

Think we’re looking more at the utter failures or accident victims that had short working lives.

The OP does mention vehicles that were sold to other operators after a short lives (although maybe transfers to other parts of the same group don't really qualify).

There seems to be three broad, but all equally interesting, categories thrown up in this thread - a) vehicles that were unpopular with their original purchaser, and quickly shifted on, but went on to have successful careers elsewhere; b) vehicles that were accident/fire losses; c) vehicles that were scrapped at a young age (generally because of engineering or purchasing policy issues).

I think all are interesting and probably fit the spirit of this thread.

 

[CN04NRJ]

Lothian electrics? Are they coming back ? The plaxton coaches?

Those electrics have got to be right up there - I wonder how many full days service any of them achieved. I think all but one now have been parked for almost a year making them less than 2 years in service?

While I'm at it I think Cardiff Bus' batch of Optare Excels only lasted 4 years before being sold on to Reading with some subsequently ending up in New Zealand.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The OP does mention vehicles that were sold to other operators after a short lives (although maybe transfers to other parts of the same group don't really qualify).

There seems to be three broad, but all equally interesting, categories thrown up in this thread - a) vehicles that were unpopular with their original purchaser, and quickly shifted on, but went on to have successful careers elsewhere; b) vehicles that were accident/fire losses; c) vehicles that were scrapped at a young age (generally because of engineering or purchasing policy issues).

I think all are interesting and probably fit the spirit of this thread.

Yeah - that’s my take on it. Cascades of vehicles from one OpCo to another in the same group for accounting reasons probably less so.

 

[AndyW33]

While the AEC Merlins of London Transport have been mentioned, the contemporary rear-engined chassis from Daimler, the Roadliner, has not. They sold in small numbers to a variety of operators, and seem to have set unreliability records wherever they went. Ironically as soon as Daimler sold a single deck version of the Fleetline instead, their share of the single deck market (never huge as the underfloor engined Freeline was unsuccessful too) began to increase. Why they didn't produce single deck Fleetlines to begin with is a mystery.

 

[APT618S]

Go North East 4939 (NK51 OLA) was destroyed by fire before entering service. Another one for zero days !

 

[A0wen]

London Country were withdrawing Leyland Nationals at 7 years old. With MAP schemes and single deckers going out of style, many NBC firms withdrew Leyland Nationals, Bristol LHs and REs, and assorted Ford single decks prematurely as well. Seem to recall that NBC bought quite a number of Duple bodied Ford R1014 buses and many went in five years!

Some context is needed on the LCBS Nationals comment - they withdrew a relatively small number at 7 years, essentially the early 11.3m ones they'd taken on in 1972/3 when there was nothing else available. Of those, a small number got scrapped, the majority went onto other operators such as British Airways or Provincial. London Country and its successors got well over 10 years and a bit more with the majority of the huge number of short Nationals they'd taken on.

If you want short life with LCBS then the BT class Bristol VRs they had at Grays did about 3 years before being sold onto Bristol Omnibus. The RS and RB class Reliances were taken in on 5 year leases so left the fleet at 5 years to be replaced with new Tigers, though some of those - the Duple bodied TDs - only did 5 years. The Plaxton (TP) and ECW (TL) ones lasted a bit longer.

Another 'short lifer' with LCBS - and this one surprised me - were the Olympian coaches (LRCs) - some were gone in 3 years, only 2 out of 15 made it to 5 years and those were gone soon after.

Not sure what the definition of 'premature' withdrawl is to be fair. 7 years I think would have been the expiry of the CoF ?

On the subject of Fords that's true - and in the case of United Counties they also received some Willowbrook bodied Bedfords in the 70s which had a similarly short shelf-life, though most of those fell into the hands of independents when sold from UC.

 

[Beemax]

The early London AEC Merlin/Swifts of the mid Sixties didn't last long with their original operator but some of them had extensive second lives, notably with Hants and Sussex of Emsworth, who were running them until well into the 90's.

 

[carlberry]

Not sure what the definition of 'premature' withdrawl is to be fair. 7 years I think would have been the expiry of the CoF ?

On the subject of Fords that's true - and in the case of United Counties they also received some Willowbrook bodied Bedfords in the 70s which had a similarly short shelf-life, though most of those fell into the hands of independents when sold from UC.

NBC planned on a 7 year life (first CoF as you say) for the Fords and Bedfords. The Bristol LH was more open as they were originally two CoFs I believe (it happened every 3 years following the first one) for some companies however others were planning on 7.

 

[padbus]

The Designline Olymbuses that Stagecoach used on Tyneside had a fairly short life and were scrapped without seeing further service.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

NBC planned on a 7 year life (first CoF as you say) for the Fords and Bedfords. The Bristol LH was more open as they were originally two CoFs I believe (it happened every 3 years following the first one) for some companies however others were planning on 7.

United Auto had a lot of LHs and withdrew and scrapped a number in 1980/1 (after swingeing cuts to rural services) including some that were from 1974 yet some of the same batch lasted in service until 1993!

NBC were masters at moving vehicles around with very short initial careers. National Travel West received DD Rapide Metroliners A111-118KBA. 111 entered service for a week or two but with the others that didn’t see service, they were sent to United to compete against Armstrong Galley’s Non Stop Clipper service to London. 111 was notably written off when a year old when it overturned on the A1M with two fatalities.

There were numerous instances of vehicles being diverted on delivery and hurriedly being repainted into/from red or green, such were the problems in the late 70s/early 80s.

 

[DunsBus]

Go North East 4939 (NK51 OLA) was destroyed by fire before entering service. Another one for zero days !

Also Stagecoach London Trident TA74 (T674KPU), destroyed by fire before delivery.

 

[DunsBus]

Should have remembered this one as the bus concerned ran for my local operator. Borders Buses lost a 17-plate Optare MetroCity (11704, YJ17FWU) to an electrical fault in November 2017. It was one of the buses bought new by them in March that year for the takeover of First's Borders operations.

 

[martinsh]

The early London AEC Merlin/Swifts of the mid Sixties didn't last long with their original operator but some of them had extensive second lives, notably with Hants and Sussex of Emsworth, who were running them until well into the 90's.

Not to mention Malta ...

 

[Tetchytyke]

The Designline Olymbuses that Stagecoach used on Tyneside had a fairly short life and were scrapped without seeing further service.

I was thinking of those too. Stagecoach lost the tender for the Quaylink to GNE and briefly tried to use them on the 18 Wallsend-Forest Hall, but it never really worked.

Reliability was always really poor with them, Stagecoach even had to paint a step entrance Dart into Quaylink livery to cope.

 

[Geordie driver]

United Auto had a lot of LHs and withdrew and scrapped a number in 1980/1 (after swingeing cuts to rural services) including some that were from 1974 yet some of the same batch lasted in service until 1993!

NBC were masters at moving vehicles around with very short initial careers. National Travel West received DD Rapide Metroliners A111-118KBA. 111 entered service for a week or two but with the others that didn’t see service, they were sent to United to compete against Armstrong Galley’s Non Stop Clipper service to London. 111 was notably written off when a year old when it overturned on the A1M with two fatalities.

There were numerous instances of vehicles being diverted on delivery and hurriedly being repainted into/from red or green, such were the problems in the late 70s/early 80s.

Shame they didn't scrap the lot, my left knee would have thanked them.

 

[Malcmal]

Plymouth City Transport made a number of purchases that had short lives. These include

Leyland Nationals - a large number (around 60) of dual door Leyland Nationals arrived between 1972 and 1974. Few listed more than six years or so with Plymouth before being disposed and some I believe went straight for scrap.

Good old Leyland Nationals - the only two-wheeled* bus I ever had the misfortune to ride in. Frankly scrapping was too good for them!!

*The ride quality in them was like someone had removed the rear two wheels and just let the chassis drag along the ground hitting every bump like a sledgehammer.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Shame they didn't scrap the lot, my left knee would have thanked them.

Count yourself lucky. You only had a few in Newcastle; other depots had a lot more https://www.flickr.com/photos/clive...Hyv-dGj9Sg-bzQjrq-bkoAui-6jMYJs-ai98YG-8fqQRv

 

[Kuyoyo]

2 of Arriva’s Temsas here in the North East had very short working lives - one was completely destroyed by fire in November 2011, about 19-21 months after first entering service in the region, while a sister was written off in March 2012 from a fire that gutted the engine bay but the vehicle remained intact apart from that - its front end lives on with a third unlucky example which was involved in a major accident on the A66 about the same time.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

2 of Arriva’s Temsas here in the North East had very short working lives - one was completely destroyed by fire in November 2011, about 19-21 months after first entering service in the region, while a sister was written off in March 2012 from a fire that gutted the engine bay but the vehicle remained intact apart from that - its front end lives on with a third unlucky example which was involved in a major accident on the A66 about the same time.

Ah yes..... the Turkish Alights! Didn't they do a retrofit on the exhaust system to avoid a repetition?


We've had mention of an Excelsior Quest 80 coach, but what about the Locomotors Quest 80s that Merseyside got? Arrived in Spring 1985, all gone at deregulation 18 months later and shots of them in service are as rare as hen's teeth.

 

[OmniCity999]

Lothian electrics? Are they coming back ? The plaxton coaches?

The coaches have multiple use cases - what they were bought for if the EX2 restarts, ECB X7 would take them happily, Motorcoaches fleet, Citylink work should they be able/willing to take it again.

Harder to be positive about the milk floats though! Candidates for worst purchase ever competition?

At least one of the Leopard Interurbans was being prepped for transfer to Motorcoaches for Citylink work before Lockdown.

 

[DunsBus]

Lothian's original Olympian 770 (B770GSC) is worthy of a mention here. It ran in service with them for around a month, before being bought back by Leyland for use as a demonstrator for a potential order from Bangkok. It never made it to there but it did eventually reach Hong Kong in 1990, where it ran for Citybus as their fleet number 19 and has only just recently been scrapped.

(Leyland supplied a replacement 770 to Lothian, C770SFS, with the next batch of Olympians.)

 

[AJW12]

Another shout out for the Lothian electrics here - especially because of how bloody expensive they were... I caught one on the 1 once - hardly any seats and operationally probably very difficult, having to keep switching buses. But kinda bonkers some of the most expensive single deck buses around (including the fact a chunk of that cost came from some sort of local/national government grant (I think?)) have spent more time since introduction to service sat in the bus garage than out carrying passengers.

 

[upasalmon]

Among the last new buses purchased by Merseyside PTE in 1985 were six Quest 80 single decks, which were of low floor design for disabled passengers. Only one or two entered service but they were stored and sold as Merseybus didn't want them

 

[Stena Galloway]

I imagine a good amount of Bristol RE's with Ulsterbus and Citybus wouldn't have lasted long during "The Troubles". Pretty sure some were delivered new to a depot and then were set alight when the depot was attacked that weekend.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Among the last new buses purchased by Merseyside PTE in 1985 were six Quest 80 single decks, which were of low floor design for disabled passengers. Only one or two entered service but they were stored and sold as Merseybus didn't want them

See my post #54