Last High Floor Buses In Daily Public Service/ First Withdrawn Low Floor Buses

[nctx]

Yourbus have 2 Volvo Olympians for services 441 and 736 ( school contracts) ex Arriva Midlands , they were used on the old routes 81/82 as spares.

 

[tbtc]

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

TM Travel are almost there, the withdrawl of service 293 (Sheffield - Dronfield - Chesterfield - which was partly replaced by a Stagecoach service) has freed up a few buses, understand the Dublin Olympians are the buses "freed" (they didn't operate all journeys on the 293, but there's been a wee cascade...).

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!

Thats true. Interesting how they are getting their hands on low floor vehicle buses too, since FirstGroup (etc) obviously don't cascade buses to indepentants (compared to a generation ago when most companies sold vehicles outside that company)

 

[starrymarkb]

First Policy is not to sell buses for further use incase they get used by a competitor.

 

[ChrisCooper]

First in Norwich are entirely low floor, although do still have some Olympians out at Yarmouth and Lowestoft, and the latter do turn up in Norwich on X2s. Anglian are 100% low floor for their bus fleet, as are connect. Simmonds are mostly low floor but occasionally use coaches on their services. Sanders are the only operator with a significant step enterance fleet.

In Leicester, First are 100% low floor (mainly due to fleet shrinkage that has allowed the last step enterance buses to be withdrawn without replacement), as are Thurmaston Bus (except school contracts). Arriva just have a few Olympians left which operate one route. Centrebus have recently had a fair number of second hand low floor buses in to seriously reduce their step enterance fleet, but still have quite a number of double deckers.

 

[bb21]

... Liverpool is the only big place they are the Number One company...

Arriva is top dog in Leicestershire although their position weakened a few years back after giving up some rural contracts and the sale of Hinckley depot to Centrebus Holdings.

First Leicester Citybus is fully low-floor and has been for a good few years, with the fleet comprising entirely of Volvo B7TL-ALX400/Wright D/Ds plus B7L/B7RLE-Wright S/Ds, except the staff shuttle.

Arriva did not invest in Leicester for many years, then it suddenly changed with the network revamp in 2006, when many routes seemed to pair off. Now in Leicester they're close to being 100% low-floor, however within the larger Arriva Midlands framework, there is still much progress to be made.

Wilts & Dorset have started disposing of their first-generation Solos.

 

[Pumbaa]

Liverpool is the only big place they are the Number One company...

Yep - and they're still ****. We've got dozens of high floor still running around and not much being done in the way of replacement.

 

[317 forever]

When I went to Southend in October 2008 I noticed that most Arriva and First buses were still high-floor. The only notable modern buses were coaches on route X30 (Southend-Stansted Airport via Southend) and some 02-reg Darts with Stephensons. Even a Dart with Imperial Coaches was still high-floor.

Even since then, Arriva have taken Volvo Olympians cascaded from Kent by new buses, rather than taking new buses directly. Meanwhile, some Scania single-deckers that had been replaced by new Pulsars in Kent have recently been withdrawn due to service reductions.

I haven't been to Southend since then but gather few other changes have happened recently, giving Southend potentially more high-floor buses than many medium-sized towns.

 

[BrummyBoy]

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

The official last running day for them was near the end of July 2010 (may have been 24th) however most of the last examples were withdrawn in January and Febuary 2010.

 

[BestWestern]

Brighton & Hove are now, I think, fully low floor for the regular stage carriage routes, having fairly recently disposed of their last batch of step entrance Scania/East Lancs double deckers. A few step entrance Darts remain as trainers. First have begun scrapping some of their ex-London Marshall-bodied Dart SLFs, due to the chassis rot that most Darts seem to end up suffering after ten years or so. First have a policy of endlessly 'recycling' their ancient vehicles and running them until they drop, usually looking a right state by then. Quite handy if you want a bit of 'stepper' bashing though!

Many of the smaller independants seem to be getting their hands on early Dart SLFs disposed of by larger operators, however from experience it seems that many of these were only disposed of due to being completely sh*gged out, so in some cases they're not much of an improvement despite being low floor. Still, they do help operators move towards being DDA compliant if nothing else, until they completely fall to bits at least.

For a nice fleet of step entrance motors, all in decent condition, try Wilts & Dorset. With Go Ahead having taken over Southern Vectis/Solent Blue Line, much of their once large fleet of Olympians has been cascaded over to W&D, particularly the New Forest area opetations. Last time I was at Lymington depot there was a nice collection of all-Leyland Oly's parked up, along with a few of the Volvo variety with NC Palatine bodies, with some also to be found around the Poole area in the Damory fleet. The main W&D fleet also still includes some step entrance Daf DB250s with the impressive Optare Spectra bodies, as well as plenty of later low floor examples. Abus in Bristol have begun purchasing these upon disposal, plus at least one low floor example ex-Reading too.

 

[northwichcat]

I think it'll be the smaller operators who'll be the last to use high floor buses. There's quite a few operators who use their (small) buses just on infrequent rural routes, school services and late services where bigger companies don't want to run the late services because they aren't profitable enough. These buses aren't as intensively used and the operator will have less money to buy new buses.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Liverpool is the only big place they are the Number One company

North Western Road Car Co was a major bus company operating in Merseyside, Cheshire and South Manchester. However, since acquisition by Arriva Merseyside is the only real area they've bothered about keeping all the bus routes. In the town of Knutsford a company called Star Line Travel operated 5 routes - the company was taken over by North Western Road Car Co and subsequently Arriva and none of those 5 routes are now Arriva operated - Bowers (Centrebus), Vale Travel (GHA), Swans Travel and Town & District Travel now operate the former Arriva routes.

 

[BestWestern]

I think it'll be the smaller operators who'll be the last to use high floor buses. There's quite a few operators who use their (small) buses just on infrequent rural routes, school services and late services where bigger companies don't want to run the late services because they aren't profitable enough. These buses aren't as intensively used and the operator will have less money to buy new buses.

This is a good point; as the dreaded deadline closes in, the large operators will almost certainly be retaining every last low floor they can dig up and replacing anything step entrance, which will presumably result in a chronic shortage of anything worth buying on the second hand market. Many of these smaller firms you mentioned simply can't afford new metal, even under the various different Mistral etc lease schemes now available. By this time, much of what they have bought so far, i.e. mostly knackered Darts, will be well on it's way out as well, so there could well be problems here. I can see that deadline being extended!

 

[bus man]

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

You fell old I can remember atlanteans and PD2s

Must go now its way past my bedtime

 

[Zamracene749]

Arriva around Durham/ Teesside run a fair few step buses, most notably East Lancs European bodied Scania 113s on the trunk Newcastle- Durham- Middlesbrough x1/2 services.

Think all these are due for replacement very soon though.

Also they still have an Optare delta running, often found on the 24 Durham- Hartlepool or Sunderland service. This must be one of the last deltas in front line service with a major company, or indeed anywhere?

 

[BestWestern]

Arriva around Durham/ Teesside run a fair few step buses, most notably East Lancs European bodied Scania 113s on the trunk Newcastle- Durham- Middlesbrough x1/2 services.

Think all these are due for replacement very soon though.

Also they still have an Optare delta running, often found on the 24 Durham- Hartlepool or Sunderland service. This must be one of the last deltas in front line service with a major company, or indeed anywhere?

A shame, the Delta was always a genuinely very nice looking bus, I always thought the design was ahead of its time and still holds its own. Was sad to that Blackpool have withdrawn all of theirs recently, nice motors with cumfy seats, much nicer than their obscure looking Plaxton Centro replacements!

 

[trentside]

A shame, the Delta was always a genuinely very nice looking bus, I always thought the design was ahead of its time and still holds its own. Was sad to that Blackpool have withdrawn all of theirs recently, nice motors with cumfy seats, much nicer than their obscure looking Plaxton Centro replacements!

I agree that the Optare Delta was a fantastic looking bus. It's just a pity about the DAF SB220 chassis on which it was built, even when brand new it sounded like it was struggling to find power!

 

[BestWestern]

I must admit I had only very limited rides on them, just in Blackpool, and have never driven one (or any DAF come to think of it). Optare's early range was genuinely striking, and always in a good sense; the Spectra still figures as one of the smartest modern d/deck bodies in my book, and still looks up to date now. A very clever bit of design which makes the bus look huge, despite just being the same size as everything else! Solo also a design classic, love or loathe 'em. It's a shame they initially chose to go niche and only body the DAF stuff, which must have limited their market considerably. Shame also about the dodgy reliability of the Excel, another good looker.

On the Delta front, Bailey's Buses who are contracted the Portsmouth Ferryport shuttle bus runs, have at least one ex-BA 3 door airside Delta running, or certainly did recently. More than likely some shots on Flikr or somewhere.

 

[Eng274]

I also thought some of Optare's designs were light years ahead of their time, particularly the Excel, which looked great but was dogged by reliability problems which it couldn't shake off.

Similarly the Spectra looked good, but restricted to the DAF chassis* didn't help its sales much. I bet a couple of Optare directors were quietly livid in 1998/9 when sales of B7TL and Trident LF's quickly overtook those of the first-to-the-market DAF DB250LF.

While the Delta was also a striking design, it's a shame the front wasn't carried onto the other designs for the MAN and Dennis alternatives of the time - other than the front they were pretty much identical.


* Though its possible the Spectra was developed in partnership with DAF themselves, so it may have been a condition that it was only built on DAF chassis

 

[anthony263]

The Optare spectra is still very popular and a few are now by a few of the small bus operators. There is 1 presently used on schools & local bus services in Port Talbot.

The early optare buses like the optare vectra wrer good, the excel seems to have become very popular again in fact a few of the reading examples are now sprining up all over south wales. They are certainly much better than any dart, particulary the dreaded alexander ALX200 or marshal bodied bodied darts

 

[BestWestern]

The Optare spectra is still very popular and a few are now used by a few of the small bus operators. There is 1 presently used on schools & local bus services in Port Talbot.

The early optare buses like the optare vectra were good, the excel seems to have become very popular again in fact a few of the reading examples are now sprining up all over south wales. They are certainly much better than any dart, particulary the dreaded alexander ALX200 or marshall bodied bodied darts

Indeed, Abus in Bristol have a good few Spectras on the go, and as W&D seem to be gradually withdrawing their older examples, a good few more are bound to spring up around the country. Blackpool have recently refurbed their Excel fleet, even though a while back they seemed to be trying to get rid of them.

I always quite liked the Marshall Capital body on the Darts, I certainly preferred driving those to the inevitable Pointer versions, as the deeper windscreen on the Marshall gives the feel of a bigger bus. Bit sweaty when the sun is beating in on you though! It's strange how narrow a Pointer Dart feels in comparison! Never driven an ALX.

 

[159jim]

We have lots of high floors here at Wilts & Dorset. e.g Dennis Darts, Deltas, Spectras, Olympians, etc


But even though theres loads of high floors, theres this thing with Wilts & Dorset, where if you happen to be travelling on a high floor bus which is orking a route booked for a low floor bus, you caan mail your ticket to the head office, and then you get the money for your bus fare back!

 

[tbtc]

We have lots of high floors here at Wilts & Dorset. e.g Dennis Darts, Deltas, Spectras, Olympians, etc


But even though theres loads of high floors, theres this thing with Wilts & Dorset, where if you happen to be travelling on a high floor bus which is orking a route booked for a low floor bus, you caan mail your ticket to the head office, and then you get the money for your bus fare back!

Thats a nice touch.

Go Ahead (in the north east of England, at least) used to guarantee to pay your taxi fare if they ran a high floor bus on a low floor route - don't think they do this any more though.

 

[northwichcat]

Many of these smaller firms you mentioned simply can't afford new metal, even under the various different Mistral etc lease schemes now available.

I've just found that Mistral are actually selling ex-leased low floor buses. The cost seems to be around 60-70% of the new cost so I'm not sure if that might still be too expensive for smaller operators:

http://www.mistral-group.com/used-bus-sales/