Service News And Kent Obs

It is a nervous time for rural bus routes again, with Councils having to cut yet more services. I say rural routes but don't be surprised if town and city routes suffer too, as I understand at least one local county council is thinking of cutting Concessionary Pass rebates to operators. If this happens the local bus map could look more spartan than the rail map did after the Beeching cuts.

With this in mind on VOSA this week Suffolk Norse have cancelled just about all their services in the Ipswich area. The 179 from St Augustines - Newbourn, the 173 from Woodbridge - Trimley St Martin, the 163 from Levington - Ipswich, and the 72 between Woodbridge and Ipswich have all been cancelled effective March 26th. Now this could just be a tender change and Suffolk Norse have decided to pull out of service work, concentrating on school/swimming contracts etc, but we shall see.

I'm grateful to Trevor Arbon, who alerted me to the fact last week that Galloway had cancelled the 482 between Frramlingham and Diss. Thankfully this appears to be just a tender change as Simonds are taking the service over from March 29th although no tenders have been published.

Also on VOSA this week Norfolk Norse are amending the route and timetable of the weekly 143 from Bury St Edmunds - Norwich, and First Norwich are operating the Norfolk Showground - Norwich City College service 100 on exam days 9 - 11th Feb, 26th May, 7th and 9th of June only.

Yesterday I braved the wind and rain and popped into Chatham for a couple of hours to see what was going on. Arriva are the main operator but my friends at Nu-Venture have a number of routes there too. I spotted a couple of "Nu" arrivals yesterday.

First up is ex Stagecoach London ALX400 Trident V364 OWC. This vehicle was last seen with Geldards of Leeds.

Nu-Venture Trident V364 OWC at Chatham

Tucked in behind you can see another ALX400 Trident V142 MEV. Still carrying fleet number ALX5 from it's days at Sullivan Buses of Potters Bar this bus was also new to Selkent, which became Stagecoach London in 1993. Many of this batch are dotted around the country.

Nu-Venture Trdent V142MEV at Chatham

I also saw what looked to be an ex Metroline President but wasn't quick enough with my camera. I hope to pop into Nu-Venture in the next couple of days for more details.

I won't do too much on Arriva in this post but I am reliably informed that this is an incredibly rare working. Normally decker operated the 700 from Medway to Bluewater gets very busy. So when I saw an E200 pull onto the stop at 1530 yesterday it caught my eye. When the driver who took it over had an incredulous look on his face and checked the carline number at least 5 times my instincts were confirmed. I'm glad I wasn't waiting at Bluewater for the return journey. I imagine it was rather cramped. I did catch it for a 10 min ride just to see what another 09 reg E200 was like and it wasn't too bad. However not as good as the other 09 reg E200 I'm familiar with!

More to come as week goes on.

Arriva 4054 E200 GN09AXG on the 700 to Bluewater