Well the England Football Team Coach anyway. I was on my regular weekly trip to Southwold to meet up with a mate, and while I was there a huge grey Scania Iriza i6 arrived emblazoned with the 3 Lions badge and England. Can't be the real thing, I thought, looking at who was disembarking - if it was the England team it was the 1937 team with their WAGS! But a glance at the registration - FA15 ENG and a chat with the driver confirmed that yes, this was the real McCoy.
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| The England Team coach at Southwold |
Operated by Guideline Coaches of Chelsfield, near Orpington in Kent this coach isn't quite as flash inside as I expected. The driver explained the tables had been removed as England have so many backroom staff now it needs to be a 52 seater. The seats do look rather nice though it must be said!
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| Inteior of the coach |
The coach's presence soon got around and many young boys, ok and dads, were soon streaming up to have selfies taken with this celebrity coach, the E200 I was on completely ignored for some strange reason. It was good to see a celebrity vehicle in the area, and many thanks to the friendly driver for letting me take a look. Here are a few more pictures.
A fine English coach (not)!
ReplyDeleteIt needs to be nationalised. Hey, Steve?
DeleteThe thing about the 91 on Beestons is that on many journeys the number paying is in mid to high single figures with a large majority of those traveling not paying, especially outside peak hours where virtually nobody is paying.
ReplyDeleteThe only services that carry a decent number of paying passengers regularly are:
7:00 from Sudbury / 7:30 from Hadleigh
7:25 from Sudbury / 7.55 from Hadleigh
17:15 from Ipswich
18:15 from Ipswich
You will notice these services have been retained and the first two brought forward slightly in the timetable to cater better for people who are working in Ipswich. The two 91Cs are now being combined into the 91 service as well.
The local authorities and the governments need to start properly compensating the operators if they are to run a more frequent service, unfortunately Towns such as Hadleigh have a generally old population and bus companies are not charities.