Weekly News Round Up 11/4/15

A shortened Round Up this week, as tomorrow I will be publishing a special interview. I had the idea while watching (on pain of death) the Scottish Leaders Election Debate on Wednesday that with the Election coming, this would be the ideal opportunity to find out where the various political parties stand on local public transport. So on Thursday evening I emailed all 5 of the candidates standing for election in the Suffolk Coastal contituency. Within 3 mins one of them had replied and agreed to an interview at Chez Steve this afternoon (Saturday), which I'll be publishing tomorrow (Sunday). As I type one other has repliied only to ask for my full name and address, and the other 3 haven't replied yet. It will be interesting to see what happens. I am not revealing who I'm interviewing today yet, but it probably won't be the party who most of you will think.

There really isn't much to round up this week, as everyone is still getting back into the swing of things after Easter but this is what I can find:

Something I have known for ages and just not got around to posting is that former Ipswich Scania 65589 is now a permanent transfer to Colchester. I always thought her the best of that batch and right now she is the only one still going, although ex Norwich sister 65586 is reported to still be going strong too.

65589 in Saxmundham November 2013

You would think with the schools off there wouldn't be much Olympian action in Yarmouth but you'd be wrong. They have all seen plenty of action this week, even with 34114 spending Thursday afternoon on the X1. The only one I haven't seen any report of is 34109 so if anyone knows the status of her let me know.

After a much heralded arrival Anglian's refurbished ex Metrobus Scania Omnidekka 556 has had to go back to Hants & Dorset Trim to have some teething troubles sorted out. I am meeting with Dave Jordan on Tuesday, not yesterday (Friday) as planned due to logistical probs, and I hope to have more information then, as well as explanations behind some of the more contentious changes Anglian are making in May.

Also next week I am going to be breaking new ground for a blog. I'm not going to give the game away now but look for a very special post on Thursday. I can't think of many days I've looked forward to more than this one. As if that wasn't enough there will also be a special feature from a part of the world I would never have expected in a million years to do a feature on thanks to a contributor who has sent me so much material this week half the posts will be his!

Galloway have a Mercedes Citaro on loan. I'm awaiting confirmation from them as to how long it is with them for, but most of the available images for this vehicle were taken during a 3 week spell in the North East last year, with a spell in Oxford too. Here she is on Go North East's X66, which operates between Gateshead and Metrocentre, taking a whole 10 mins from one end of the route to the other! The pic is by LVNWtransFoto whose Flickr page you can access here.

The Mercedes Citaro Demonstrator on the X66 to Gateshead     pic by LVNWtransFoto

The interior or this demonstrator is very different to the Citaro demonstrator Ipswich Buses had a few weeks ago (see here). This pic is by North East Malarkey whose Flickr page you can access here.

Interior of Mercedes Citaro demonstrator BP14 FJZ       pic by North East Malarkey

The train page of the blog is fully updated to give easy reference to every rail post published so far. I'm hoping that from this week I'll be able to publish far more rail news on a regular basis. What is important to remember is that rail news tends to be far more national than bus news, and as such there will be more news from further afield in the rail news.

Fleetlists are now available - 4 at present, and more will be added as fast as I can cattle prod Cameron into doing them!

That's just about it for this week - hopefully there will be more news next week, but in any case it's going to be a good week for the blog. As usual here is the round up of posts published this week.

37562 - A Very Complicated History  a popular and detaild history of the much travelled Gemini.

Class 170 Transfer Two Scottish 170 transfer to Southern, and a happy coincidence

Post Revisited - Ipswich 31/10/13  The first of a regular series revisiting posts from the blog's early days that few have seen.

And You Thought Your Bus Route Was Tough A series of pictures from the Indian State of Pradesh, with what has got to be one of the scariest bus routes in the world

Yarmouth Obs and Blog News A couple of hours in Yarmouth, including a rare working for 37573

Tight Turns & Trams Part One Part One of a series of photos sent in by Paulo, of Lisbon's incredibly tight tram network

VOSA changes 9/4/15  Some interesting forthcoming changes for our region

Tight Turns & Trams Part Two  Part Two of Paulo's Lisbon collection

Are Car Drivers More Important  One of my rants asking why P&R services get all the new vehicles.

47 790 Follow Up Post  A Contributor answers questons and fills in the gaps arising from original post