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Wednesday 24 February 2016

Ollie Ollie Ollie.....

I needed some therapy today, and what better therapy than spending the day riding Olympians. Obviously not in East Anglia as they have all but vanished but down in East Kent there are plenty still plying their trade on some very picturesque routes, and so I caught the train down to Canterbury to see what I could find.

Canterbury Bus Station from the City Wall
 I had been advised which routes the Olympians were to be found so of course the first bus on that route I saw was an ALX400. However there were a few parked up and it wasn't long before one of the old warhorses showed up in service on the 1A to Chartham, a village a few miles outside Canterbury. A round trip took an hour and it seemed rude not take advantage of the opportunity. 16792 P722 GND was new to Greater Manchester before Stagecoach took over, and was part of the Magic Bus fleet before going on loan to Hastings and finally ending up in Canterbury. I don't really need to say the ride was great, no rattles, comfy old bench seats and smooth, but it was (and yes it's an Alexander body), even if the driver reckoned it was the only Olympian he didn't like!

Stagecoach Olympian 16792 at Chartham terminus
On return to Canterbury I saw another Olympian was on one of the routes I'd been advised were a regular haunt so jumped on the 14 to Sandwich, which is a seriously old town. Some of the streets the buses have to negotiate are ridiculously tight and I have a feeling a few of my driver friends in East Anglia would suffer extreme SBT (think Fergie) if they saw the narrowness of the lanes with 13th century buildings hugging the kerb either side! This time I had 16501 R501 UWL. New to Thames Transit she has also seen service in Manchester before coming down to Kent in 2012, initially at Herne Bay but now at Canterbury. Another gem and the journey reminded me why Kent is regarded as the Garden of England. Shame so mich of Kent is a compost heap though!

Stagecoach 16501 R501 UWL at Sandwich
I was meant to meet my pal in Canterbury, who has just taken up a senior management position at Stagecoach, but unfortunately a meetiing with the union overran and he was forced to cancel. However it gives me the perfect excuse to go back down there, especially as Stagecoach South East are soon to take delivery of the first combination of a particular body/chassis in the country in the next few weeks and I've been promised all the info/pics etc and of course I'll have to road test them. I'm not giving anything away yet but I'm looking forward immensely to it.

Anyway after wandering around Canterbury for a bit - really lovely City - and taking many other pics of which more in a second post over the weekend, I witnessed an Olympian exodus all out of service clearly heading for school work. I thought that was it when yet another Ollie came in on the 89 to the old mining village of Aylesham. I wasn't sure if it was coming back but Aylesham has a station so no worries. As it happens it did come back, and this Ollie was probably the best of the three I went on today. 16760 R760 DRJ was another bus new to Manchester, and has seen service at Eastbourne and Folkestone before moving to its current home in Dover. I must thank the extremely friendly driver who stopped especially for me to take this pic - the sun had been a nightmare all day photography wise and this was undoubtedly my pic of the day. Aylesham has changed since I was last there 30 years ago but again some of the roads the bus had to get down looked like cul-de-sacs!

Stagecoach 16760 R760 DRJ at Aylesham
There are a couple more Olympians native to the South East I want to go on before they are retired but today was just what the doctor ordered. Great buses, great scenery, friendly drivers. Can't get better than that.

As a side note I was researching the train fare to Canterbury on the Southeastern website last night. Now I know train companies have been criticised for not showing all alternatives but the concept can be taken a little far. The website told me I could catch a train at 0822, take 59 mins to get to Canterbury for a return fare of £15. Not bad these days. However it also told me I could get the same 0822 train, travel via Ebbsfleet and Ashford on the HighSpeed network, get to Canterbury 30 mins later than the first option and pay the princely sum of £38.40.  Well thanks for the choice, Southeastern but I decided to pass!

As a second side note with regard to Ipswich P&R I have been asked to point out that it is Suffolk County Council who want to close it, not Ipswich Borough Council who want to keep it open. In which case why don't IBC take it over? Could it be its not making money which is why SCC want to close it but IBC are making out of the tender so want it to stay open? Would that be a cynical view? Of course if IBC finally sorted the ridiculous traffic flow problems in Ipswich (not to mention the huge amount of empty shops, finished the Waterfront and made Ipswich a more attractive place to shop) then more people might use the P&R to get there! Revamping Tower Ramparts and calling it a fancy name won't be enough!

17 comments:

  1. Can I just make a correction on that one P722GND wasnt in the gm buses fleet they never had this model as im aware it could have come from stagecoach ribble

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    1. Here is my source http://www.buslistsontheweb.co.uk/index.htm?http://www.buslistsontheweb.co.uk/list.asp?ListName=87&Type=Body&Page=2&WW=0

      Here is the entry in question 9418/7 P722GND Vo YN2RV18V3 YV3YNA413TC027100 H51/36F 10/1996 Greater Manchester South 722

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  2. Roads and traffic are generally a county matter. Certainly the whole Travel Ipswich debacle is SCC's handiwork. Bring back Civic Drive roundabout, amongst other things!

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  3. Will you be going to the Stephensons Olympian Running Day in June?

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  4. Hi steve I just needed to check again gm buses south was taken over by stagecoach in 1994 the vehicle is registered in 1996 the information busweb have is wrong ....gm buses never had this model

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    1. Define GM Buses, as the official name of Stagecoach Manchester has always remained Greater Manchester Buses South (as stated on buslistsontheweb). If by GM Buses you simply mean the PTE owned business then they never owned Volvo Olympians as it ceased to exist before the Olympian became Volvo-ised. GM Buses was split & privatised, both to their management, as GM Buses South (later bought by Stagecoach) & GM Buses North (later bought by First and ultimately became First Manchester). The Volvo Olympian in question was new to GM Buses South, under Stagecoach ownership maybe but that is still the official company name so the description is not incorrect in that it was delivered to GM Buses South but it was after Stagecoach bought them.

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  5. Gm buses south is stagecoach manchester

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  6. http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/ipswich_park_and_ride_set_for_relaunch_to_save_service_1_4432824
    A link about park &ride

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  7. From a past post of yours "- Anglian haven't put up ther fares yet - I'm told that will coincide with the latest service cuts on Feb 22nd - ironic eh - "

    Maybe don't post things unless you've heard it from the horses mouth. Could get you done for defamation.

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    1. Trouble is at Anglian the horse changes every week and decsions made by one horse are overriden by another horse. I have spoken to a horse who says the fare revisions are now planned for April - probably waiting to see what First are charging on the 40.

      Incidentally you need to check out defamation laws. If information published in good faith that turned out later to be incorrect was sueable there wouldn't be a newspaper or magazine in existence. Especially as the worst offender is the governent, but since you're only young you probably don't realise that.

      Nevertheless it means that Anglian's day ticket is still cheaper than Konect's and I'm not 100% sure THAT is legal so I suggest you go to your horse and tell him.

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    2. But you said it very negatively..if you said "anglian wilL double their fares next week" to make them look bad and then you blame it on them, and say they changed their mind. I could say I know that you are going to get run over tomorrow then become a member of the new teletubbies series ...I had somebody tell me...not defamation at all. You seem to be the only blogger with a hatred for anglian. Others may not like them, but never slate them at every opportunity. We know anglian won't get new buses, so why slate them? First got some 2002 buses a few years ago, was an improvement from v reg. Don't think you'd say bad things about that...

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    3. I'm the only blogger who has to use Anglian on a regular basis. I'm the only blogger who bothers to get to know drivers and find out what's going on without having to bother management all the time. I'm the only blogger who praises those drivers for battling on under ridiculous circumstances.I'm the only blogger who's been a bus driver so sees angles others may not.

      I do not hate Anglian. I hate what has happened to Anglian and the way the company has been decimated by bad management. When I started this blog I was accused of being a First hater. They tend to get praise now because they have upped their game. That doesn't make them immune from criticism - only today I criticised their timetable changes to the 64 and I hate those 02 reg buses you mention with a passion. You can't use them much or you'd know they were no improvement whatsoever comfort wise on the V reg ones. I wasn't blogging then but I slate those B7l's at every opportunity too.

      I praise whenever I can. I criticise when I have to and believe me there is so much more I know about what's been going on at Anglian over the last year I haven't published. Of course if you know anything positive about Anglian I can report then please tell me. I've got to do that 50 min wait in Southwold on Monday thanks to the latest timetable changes so I'm not feeling that happy with them. And the bad news for you is there's another post critical of Go-Ahead and the way passengers are treated in East Anglia as a whole coming up when I've got the stats from Stagecoach I need.

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    4. . And the bad news for you is there's another post critical of Go-Ahead and the way passengers are treated in East Anglia

      Many konect passengers are happy, and as a regular customer, I always get through on the phone, always a reply to emails and always on time. I don't think I've been treated too badly.

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  8. I agree with the above. Surely if it was to see firsts fares they would try and keep all of the 87/88 passengers by increasing other fares and reducing 87/88. This was they would lose no revenue - why would they keep fares at the current rate and lose out on a first mover advantage when they know first will offer a discounted rate? If first offer all journeys on the 40 for £1 and anglian come in at the same price later, they will have already have lost a lot of their custom. So..That's not the reason.

    Also, if you know basic law, discriminatory pricing is legal. Funny how you are accused of defamation then try and rub it off by saying konect and anglian are the ones breaking the law! -very cleaver! (Defamation again as it is obvious, even to a 3 year old, that it is legal).

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    1. Tesco must be breaking the law. Their petrol is cheaper in Norwich than dereham. Same product isn't it?

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    2. I did not say they were breaking the law - I said I was not 100% sure it was legal. I was actually 99% sure it was, but you took the bait nicely. Oh and I was falsely accused of defamation - get the facts right as you seem so keen on them - ask those 3yo's to explain it to you!

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