When First Essex decided to close Braintree depot earlier this year Stephensons stepped in and started operating some of the routes discarded by First. One of them is the route now branded "Three Rivers", the 38/38A which operates between Witham and Halstead via Braintree. Yesterday Stephensons took delivery of 5 brand new ADL E200's for the route, and I am grateful to James, who via the North West Bus Blog made these pictures available. I would think. these are some of the last E200's built that are not MMC's (unless both versions are still available). For reference the buses are fleet numbers 471 - 475 and registered EU65 EOG/H/J/K/L.
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| Stephensons new 473 E200 EU65 EOJ |
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| Rear view of 473 |
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| Interior of 473 |
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| The Three Rivers Branding on 473 |
As a postscript it is noticeable that since First turned Braintree into an outstation the fleet based there has improved immensely. Presidents are replaced by ALX400 B7tl's, including ex Lowestoft 32651/2/4, and old Darts by B7rle's. Also of interest is the apparent transfer of ex Ipswich P&R B7rle 69421 AU58 FFLfrom Colchester to Chelmsford.
The old shape E200s will remain available as long as ADL will continue to offer the Euro 5 version, they have not yet indicated they will stop doing so on any specific date and may be waiting for the government to remove the loophole which is allowing them to continue offering them after the EU regs cut-off date. A lot of operators, particularly the smaller ones, are reluctant to switch to Euro 6 due to the increased cost & complication that has come with achieving Euro 6 and as long as the government fail to close the loophole (effectively they need to change the legislation that covers Individual Vehicle Type Approval which still allows Euro 5 to only allow Euro 6 emissions regs) these operators may remain pushing for Euro 5 models.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dwarfer. I'm not treating that as good news!
DeleteI suspect the First Essex vehicle moves have something to do with the batch of new Streetlites due to Colchester around now (and not before time). The "old" 132 fleet seem to have moved en mass to the First's "new" 72 where you never know what's coming next, a resurrected portion of the former route they abandoned a few years ago. What goes around, comes around, as they say. I like what Stephensons are doing on the old First route (photos linked on their website, by the way). It'll be interesting how they fare compared to First's new 72 which now goes the other direction to Chelmsford and doesn't have all the customer friendly stuff. (A joint 71/72 routes timetable hidden away on their website, a cut and paste press release in the local paper, and that was it). The customers don't seem too bothered either, from what I can see after the first 6 weeks, living on the 72 route. Interestingly as the new Stephensons and First routes overlap, who'll give up first (the clue is in the question)?
ReplyDeleteOr they want the more reliable vehicles at the outstation?
DeleteShame about the seat fabric, it looks about 15 years out of date.
ReplyDeleteAs long as the bus turns up, the seats are comfortable and I don't get shaken to bits the seats can have My Little Pony fabric on them for all I care!!!
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