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!