Last High Floor Buses In Daily Public Service/ First Withdrawn Low Floor Buses

[tbtc]

After low floor buses were introduced in the mid-90s, and slowly became common by the millennium, we are now at the stage where very few high floor buses are used by bigger operators (excluding school services etc), and in fact the earliest low floor buses are approaching the "life expired" stage.

Ignoring true "independents", where are the biggest fleets of high floor buses?

Which operators have started scrapping low floor buses (ignoring those written off in accidents)?

Who will be the first "big" operator to go 100% low floor?

 

[90019]

Ignoring true "independents", where are the biggest fleets of high floor buses?

I think First still have quite a few running in and around Edinburgh.

Who will be the first "big" operator to go 100% low floor?

Lothian is 100% low floor, and has been for a while (I'm not counting 433, as it's not really part of the main fleet, and is the only one).
The tour buses are all low floor now as well.

 

[tbtc]

The tour buses are all low floor now as well.

That's the kind of thing that makes me feel old! Weren't there E reg Olympians just a few years ago?

 

[Jordy]

NCT went fully low floor in 2009!

 

[90019]

That's the kind of thing that makes me feel old! Weren't there E reg Olympians just a few years ago?

They were replaced by Tridents on the Majestic Tour in October last year, and I think they were replaced on the Edinburgh tour at about the same time in 2009.

 

[Blindtraveler]

That's the kind of thing that makes me feel old! Weren't there E reg Olympians just a few years ago?

last oli's came off last Autumn. Indeed first East Scotland have quite a number of step single and dubble deck sheds on the road and with the time there taking to replace these its gunna be a while til early low floor examples which are showing there age too are replaced. I suspect east and West Scotland will benifit greatly from firsts 900 plus vehicle order which wil most likely make the majoritty of there opperations low floor.

Back to Lothian, a 75 vehicle order is to be delivered between now and next year to replace the majoritty if not all the early low floor trident deckers which first entered service in 1999. My turn to feel old, I was in my teens when these babys came along.

On there way are 60 rite eclips geminis and 15 inviro e400s for use on service 10. I suspect we'll see a lot of cascading amongst the fleat this year which incidentally has as mentioned before since September 2009 been fully low floor and will soon be one of the youngest in service.

 

[Nym]

First Manchester have a fair few, but they only run school services nowerdays, and matchday specials.

 

[90019]

On there way are 60 rite eclips geminis and 15 inviro e400s for use on service 10. I suspect we'll see a lot of cascading amongst the fleat this year which incidentally has as mentioned before since September 2009 been fully low floor and will soon be one of the youngest in service.

Lothian had one of the newest fleets in the UK for some time, I think the average age is somewhere around 6 years old.

Tbh, I'm not sure there's going to be too much cascading, it's usually just the older buses that get directly replaced by the new ones.

 

[313103]

I think First still have quite a few running in and around Edinburgh.



Lothian is 100% low floor, and has been for a while (I'm not counting 433, as it's not really part of the main fleet, and is the only one).
The tour buses are all low floor now as well.

So what have Lothian done to its Routemasters? have they been sold already? I was planning a trip to Edingburgh just for them, but if they are not opearting there is no point.

 

[90019]

So what have Lothian done to its Routemasters? have they been sold already? I was planning a trip to Edingburgh just for them, but if they are not opearting there is no point.

Forgot about the Routemasters. They're still running, no plans to replace them.

 

[starrymarkb]

Stagecoach Devon have just withdrawn their Volvo B6LE fleet. One is being preserved and am not sure where the others are going. The B6s were troublesome though. There are a couple of high floor deckers still in service in the area.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Lothian had one of the newest fleets in the UK for some time, I think the average age is somewhere around 6 years old.

Tbh, I'm not sure there's going to be too much cascading, it's usually just the older buses that get directly replaced by the new ones.

Hmmm not sure on that, cant see them putting brand new busses on some of the currently trident opperated runs but I may be wrong though.

 

[tbtc]

Stagecoach Devon have just withdrawn their Volvo B6LE fleet. One is being preserved and am not sure where the others are going. The B6s were troublesome though. There are a couple of high floor deckers still in service in the area.

We have problems with ours in Yorkshire too - good riddance!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

last oli's came off last Autumn. Indeed first East Scotland have quite a number of step single and dubble deck sheds on the road and with the time there taking to replace these its gunna be a while til early low floor examples which are showing there age too are replaced. I suspect east and West Scotland will benifit greatly from firsts 900 plus vehicle order which wil most likely make the majoritty of there opperations low floor

The fact that First In Edinburgh (First East Scotland/ SMT etc) are still running old Volvo B10Ms from South Yorkshire means they must be a long way from 100% low floor operations.

If First hadn't bought lots of new (low floor) buses a decade ago when they tried (and failed!) to muscle into Edinburgh they'd probably have an even worse fleet now (especially given that a number of "rural" routes had cutbacks as a result of the losses incurred in Edinburgh, so fewer vehicles are needed nowadays too)

 

[WestCoast]

Forgot about the Routemasters. They're still running, no plans to replace them.

Don't they run under the operating license of "MacTours", which is owned by Lothian? Them and some solos...

 

[Tom B]

Yes, they are treated entirely as the same though - Lothian fleetnumbers, Lothian block numbers, etc. The Solos are no longer under the Mac name.

Lothian have another step entry bus.... 285! It did operate a rush bus service on the 98s at the Highland Show last year, I believe.

 

[mbonwick]

The first of the major groups to go all low floor will be Stagecoach I reckon.

As for remaining operators of step-stock; look at Stagecoach North West - still plenty Leyland and Volvo Olympians, as well as Volvo B10Ms!
SCNW also have disposed of a few Dart SLFs, though these were knackered Marshall Capital examples. A pair of ELC Sprytes are also for sale as they are not technically low floor accessible.

Pretty sure the majority of SCSWs B6BLEs have gone for further use via various dealers, although a few are probably parts donors.

 

[Anon Mouse]

Round here Arriva Northumbria have a real mottley crew of step entrance buses and coaches in regular service

 

[tbtc]

The first of the major groups to go all low floor will be Stagecoach I reckon

That's interesting.

Looking at the areas they operate in, I'd have said that Stagecoach have a lot of rural operations (Lake District, Highlands, Lincolnshire - yet no London work for a few years) which are more "marginal". First on the other hand have more "city" work (Leeds, Glasgow etc), so First would have the kind of profitable routes that would justify more investment in younger fleets.

Instead, what's happened is that Stagecoach have maintained investment across their operating territories whilst First have been a lot more "sporadic" (e.g. in Sheffield they bought lots of new buses around 1998 and 2002, yet we've had little in other years, and no new buses for three years).

Its hard to tell with Arriva, partly because of their big London operations (meaning scope for a lot of cascades), but also because they still seem to operate as "local" companies (different vehicle orders, no consistency over which version of the livery to use...), so difficult to guess. They run some rural companies (Northumbria, as mentioned on this thread, as well as north Wales) and Liverpool is the only big place they are the Number One company...

 

[mbonwick]

You make valid points.

While I agree that Stagecoach have a lot of marginal operations, it's worth noting that their accessible single deck fleet is aging, largely made up of S-Y reg MAN 18.220LF/ALX300s which are more than ready to be cascaded out of the city areas.

Also, if Stagecoach had maintained current order levels, then they'd be on track for their target of no bus older than 15 years in service. However, here in the Lakes we've vehicles approaching 25.....
Just shows that there is a sporadic nature to all group's orders!

 

[HugePilchard]

Round here Arriva Northumbria have a real mottley crew of step entrance buses and coaches in regular service

Yup. Same in Darlington; many of them about 20 years old, so I would have thought that would be somewhere near the limit for a bus in daily service?

 

[Anon Mouse]

If anyone wants to bash some step entrance buses on Arriva Northumbria's patch, the 56 Newcastle - North Shields, The 57/57A Newcastle - Cramlington and 306 Newcastle - Tynemouth tend to be sure bets for decent buses

 

[tbtc]

You make valid points.

While I agree that Stagecoach have a lot of marginal operations, it's worth noting that their accessible single deck fleet is aging, largely made up of S-Y reg MAN 18.220LF/ALX300s which are more than ready to be cascaded out of the city areas.

Also, if Stagecoach had maintained current order levels, then they'd be on track for their target of no bus older than 15 years in service. However, here in the Lakes we've vehicles approaching 25.....
Just shows that there is a sporadic nature to all group's orders!

Is that on regular service (not tourist stuff)? I was impressed with the young fleet I saw last time I was up that way - 55-plate double deckers on the 555, Enviros on the 30/31 in Workington/ Whitehaven etc - given the operating territory. I obviously didn't look hard enough!

 

[mbonwick]

Yes and no.
Kendal's Leyland olympians which date from 1988-91 are mainly confined to schools but venture out on 555s in case of Trident failures. They are also booked for summer relief 555s.
Lillyhall's 14234 (and 14258 from reserve) are again, preferentially used on schools, but can and do venture out on any decker working due to poor Volvo Olympian availability. They date from 1992/1 respectively.

 

[BrummyBoy]

NX West Midlands operate an all low floor fleet

 

[tbtc]

NX West Midlands operate an all low floor fleet

I knew they did in Dundee, but that's with a much smaller fleet - doing so in the West Midlands is a bigger feat!

Stagecoach in Sheffield did run a 100% low floor operation (albeit much smaller than First, despite Stagecoach having two depots in Sheffield and First just once). However, short-notice expansion (the need to pick up service 78 cancelled by First) meant grabbing some B10Ms. Despite new double deckers (88/88A) and cascaded buses from elsewhere (MAN 300s from Oxford), one B10M has remained - 20892, an East Lancs bodied version.

There's hope that a batch of ten year old Tridents will allow First's Sheffield operations to go 100% low floor (though there are some services run by Rotherham's Midland Road garage that are mainly in Sheffield).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Yes and no.
Kendal's Leyland olympians which date from 1988-91 are mainly confined to schools but venture out on 555s in case of Trident failures. They are also booked for summer relief 555s.
Lillyhall's 14234 (and 14258 from reserve) are again, preferentially used on schools, but can and do venture out on any decker working due to poor Volvo Olympian availability. They date from 1992/1 respectively.

That's more like my era!

I remember the Stagecoach Olympians looking really new and plush twenty years ago, back in the days of the three stripes

 

[anthony263]

First Cymru, were 100% low floor apart from coaches and the leyland /volvo olympians which were used on neath college services and occasional stage services.

Now becuase of problems with the marshal darts they had from slough/london they have had to return their 22 seater mercedes-benz 709d's (plaxton) back into service. Now they have MOD 571P Bristol VRT which they received from the operations in Weymouth for the new summer open top service.

We have the case thet with Veolia pulling out of wales that they have started scrapping a few of their low floor buses. In fact they have even scrapped some of the buses they only bought about 3-4 years ago, which were perfectly fine if they got replacement parts for them.

Even the oldest low floor vehicles still have a lot of life in them, in fact you can get Optare excel's & solo's for very low prices these days, which is encouraging a lot of the small bus operators to buy them.

 

[sprinterguy]

Round here Arriva Northumbria have a real mottley crew of step entrance buses and coaches in regular service

Arriva North East always seems to have been a haven for a wide range of old bus designs that have long since disappeared from other operators’ fleets. I preferred the operation when it was “United” around County Durham and "Northumbria" in, well, Northumbria.

I’m sure I remember Go North East announced that their fleet would be entirely low floor by 2009, perhaps earlier. Somebody will probably pull me up on this, but the only exception to this rule I can think of is the Northern Counties bodied Volvo Olympians that seem to mostly be painted in “Yellow Bus” livery. A couple of their old Duple bodied Dennis Darts found their way down to Birmingham with one of the slightly questionable looking independent operators not so long ago.

National Express West Midlands only went completely low floor fairly recently (Late 2009 was it?) with the withdrawal of the last remaining Metrobuses.

 

[trentside]

With the exception of their coach services (Red Arrow, Transpeak, Commuter Express) the main TrentBarton fleet is all low-floor, and has been for sometime. Some smaller companies around Nottingham are also moving towards all low-floor operation, I think Yourbus and Doyles are, while Premiere are almost there.

I'm starting to notice that the step-entrance single decker is becoming quite a rare vehicle, both with the main groups and independents. Even the 'cowboy' operators are beginning to acquire early low-floor buses now!

 

[starrymarkb]

Even Western Greyhound who were 100% Vario a mere 3 or 4 years ago now have a substantial low floor fleet (High Spec Solos, Citaros and Deckers)

 

[MCR247]

With the exception of their coach services (Red Arrow, Transpeak, Commuter Express) the main TrentBarton fleet is all low-floor, and has been for sometime. Some smaller companies around Nottingham are also moving towards all low-floor operation, I think Yourbus and Doyles are, while Premiere are almost there.

I'm starting to notice that the step-entrance single decker is becoming quite a rare vehicle, both with the main groups and independents. Even the 'cowboy' operators are beginning to acquire early low-floor buses now!

Dont think Yourbus is. I am pretty sure they have at least one step entry DD