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Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Optare Tempo SR's for Ipswich Buses

Thanks to several sources I can reveal that Ipswich Buses have bought 13 ex Trent Barton 12 reg Optare Tempo SR's to replace the surviving Optare Excels and Dennis Darts. I confess I'd never heard of the Tempo SR so did some research.

The Tempo SR was launched at Bus and Coach Live in 2011 ans I have to say looks rather smart.



They can seat 41 but have a large standing capacity too.  However, only one batch was ever built, ordered by Trent Barton to operate on their Rainbow 4 service.

Pic by John
I'm not aware of when the Tempos are due to enter service, but as I get the info I'll pass it on. Of course the question is why only 13 were ever made, and why Trent Barton are selling them. At least the Civic V3 seats (thanks Andy) are a whole lot better than the recently acquired Scania deckers!

In other news everyone is bracing themselves for the latest council budget announcements. As far as Suffolk is concerned I've been told subsidised services could face a 20% cut in funding, and 5 routes are under threat. Again, when I hear anything I'll pass it on.

After the last one was badly vandalised, Wickham Market, my old stamping ground in Suffolk formally opened their new bus shelter on Tuesday. I had no idea this was happening and just happened to be passing through. So I stopped, did a bit of nosing around, and left quickly before my mouth got the better of me when I overheard people asking where the buses went. Clearly a lot of non bus users wanted to be seen at the opening of a bus shelter...

The new, and quite impressive shelter at Wickham Market with a lot of car users....

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23 comments:

  1. Central Suffolk Bus Blog13 February 2019 at 23:06

    I will ask a spokesperson who works at Ipswich Buses about them coming into service. I know Dart 85 is apparently getting converted into a driver trainer. And did Clive tell you this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve W14 February 2019 at 03:01

      No he didn't. Clive is not one of my sources.

      Delete
  2. Central Suffolk Bus Blog14 February 2019 at 09:02

    I do pop around the bus depot occasionally, and if I do see a Tempo SR, I will get a photo of it and send it to your email address. And you can use it on your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clive Nixon14 February 2019 at 17:17

    Steve the Optare Tempos are due in March, and are not coming from Trent Barton but through ADL as a dealer, as a trade in for ADL E200MMC's.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve W14 February 2019 at 21:54

      Oh jeez is there any hobby more pedantic than transport enthusiasm. They will still have Trent Barton interiors not ADL interiors but for the sake of accuracy I will amend.

      Delete
    2. Clive Nixon15 February 2019 at 11:14

      I learnt from the best LOL.

      Delete
    3. Adam W15 February 2019 at 15:32

      Clive is correct - the Tempo SRs were taken by the Plaxton (ADL) dealership at South Anston, as I understand it. Trentbarton have gone all-in with ADL in recent years (new Engineering Director!) - and swept away all of their Tempos and started making inroads into the Solo fleet too. I'll be surprised if the eight electric buses TB got funding for last week aren't BYD/ADL E200 MMC.

      As for why these Tempo SRs were the only ones - they were the only ones in the UK, a handful were sold to Australia. In effect the Tempo was the wrong bus at the wrong time - the move toward more lightweight buses generally (something that also reduced enormously the demand for heavyweight Volvo and Mercedes-Benz single-deckers) meant that there wasn't the market for it, and some issues with Tempos generally seemed to spook prospective purchasers too.

      These Tempo SRs have recently had a lot of work done on them so I suspect they will be ok at Ipswich (probably rather less taxing work than being hammered on the i4 route out of Nottingham, too). Looking at the Ipswich fleetlist, I wonder if they will oust that one-off Carters VDL as well as the older Darts - and maybe the OmniCities too?

      Delete
    4. Transit UK98016 February 2019 at 10:33

      Doubt the SB180 will go as it's only recently been repainted Adam. Would put bets on all 8 Darts going though and the remaining 5 accounting for the withdrawn Excels maybe...

      Delete
  4. Andrew Kleissner14 February 2019 at 22:29

    According to Wikipedia, 4 more Tempo SRs were made for Manchester Airport use.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve W16 February 2019 at 02:47

      Article amended yesterday. No mention of them when I read the article on Wednesday. Anyone got pics or reg's?

      Delete
    2. Steve W16 February 2019 at 02:49

      OK they exist!!!

      Delete
    3. Unknown17 February 2019 at 13:50

      The ones at Manchester Airport were built for Australia but order was cancelled after they were built and were put into storage for about 4 years, see photo link when one came into Holmeswood back in 2017 for tilt testing...

      https://flic.kr/p/SZ3HVE
      https://flic.kr/p/T2tyH8

      Hope this helps

      Delete
  5. East Anglian Bus Blog15 February 2019 at 09:05

    Non Local News

    The Cardiff bus cuts are now confirmed. They are also making timetable and or routes changes to nearly all their other routes. The service 30 which is jointly operated with Newport transport

    AS an aside neither Cardiff bus or Newport transport have yet filed their statuary accounts which should have been filed by the 31st December. Locally Ipswich bus have also failed to file their accounts yet. All these companies will incur a penalty for the late filing of the accounts

    Cardiff bus may be struggling to remain solvent. They will be helped though by most of the loss being in the subsidiary company but winding that up will have an impact on the main company as it is owned a 100% by Cardiff City Transport Services Ltd but that impact will b e on this years accounts

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew Kleissner16 February 2019 at 14:28

      There was a major Extraordinary Debate on Cardiff Bus in Full Council on Thursday night. The motion - to reduce the number of Council non-exec. Directors in favour of recruiting from "outside" - was defeated. The debate did not extend to operational matters.

      Delete
    2. Andrew Kleissner21 February 2019 at 19:43

      Cardiff bus cuts: https://www.cardiffbus.com/service-change

      Delete
  6. Unknown15 February 2019 at 21:41

    Trentbarton where not the only ones to have tempo sr's. Manchester Airport got some in 2017

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Steve W16 February 2019 at 02:45

      How strange the Wiki entry was amended yesterday, as when I read it there was no mention of the Manchester SR's, or I'd have mentioned them myself!!

      Delete
  7. NBVictorianna16 February 2019 at 09:04

    239 Tempos built for various UK companies including 14 for Oz. Customers included Kinch, Mcr Airport, London United, Konectbus, Arriva, First and Bournemouth. Full list on blotw.

    ReplyDelete
  8. NBVictorianna16 February 2019 at 09:09

    Sorry not all SR’s of course. Just 14 for Oz and 4 for airport as mentioned and the 13 for Trent.

    ReplyDelete
  9. East Anglian Bus Blog18 February 2019 at 14:15

    Minor News

    Go Ride have given up the service 79. Brightlingsea to Clacton. Hedingham are providing a service 7 serving the same route from the 25th February

    ReplyDelete
  10. Andrew Kleissner18 February 2019 at 22:49

    Latest Cardiff update: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/750000-fund-set-up-save-15846485

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. East Anglian Bus Blog19 February 2019 at 08:22

      Full details of all the cuts and timetable changes are now on their website

      https://www.cardiffbus.com/service-change

      Delete
  11. Tony G9 March 2019 at 16:43

    Personally I liked riding the Tempo SR's on TrentBarton i4 route. Despite their in-service problems to me they were a far more comfy and airy vehilce to ride on that the current ADL MMC's and better that the original Tempo model which always ahd noisy rear axles

    ReplyDelete