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First Eastern Counties
- Thread starter buslad1988
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TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
More Electroliners on the way - saw a couple on delivery on the M6 today. No IDs - on trade plates
Whiteway215
Established Member
Only about nine still to enter service at Norwich- if you’ll excuse the phrase- according to BusTimes!!
BVW
Member
The remainder (36565/81-8) are all registered with DVLA and taxed, so I'd expect them to retain their booked BK73 plates. Somebody posted a picture on Facebook of 36587 at First Leicester's depot today, presumably charging during its delivery run. Meanwhile 36534 is tracking as 20802 this evening on Norwich city service 26. It seems as though there was a ticket machine swap at around 1815.
Whiteway215
Established Member
Is 20802 out of service withdrawn now?
MasterSpenny
Member
The first of the Kites for Norwich (63636/7) have arrived. This pair of buses is registered as BK24AAF and BK24AAJ respectively.
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vla50
Member
Which B9s are due into Cornwall? Is it just the Blue and Turquoise ones?
MasterSpenny
Member
Looks like the buses on Volvo B7RLE chassis across the First Eastern Counties fleet have begun to be repainted into the cooperative livery as the first one to receive this repaint, 69548, has been pictured in service today on the 77 wearing this livery. A photo has been uploaded to Flickr - this is not my photo.
www.flickr.com
BF12BWJ
First Eastern Counties 69548. 'Ipswich Reds' are no more it seems with this B7RLE having just returned from repaint in the 'new' corporate FirstBus livery. Can't say I'm a fan, dull and boring and will probably look worse once the shine has worn off.
www.flickr.com
F Great Eastern
Established Member
You have to wonder the amount of money that gets wasted in the industry these days.
First spent years painting everything into Barbie and eroding any kind of local branding which everyone agreed was a bit mistake. They have now spent the last few years doing everywhere up with local liveries only to the point that they then are now going back to corporate.
Someone once said to me that if you hang around in the bus industry long enough, everything that has been tried and failed comes back around again. That certainly seems the case here.
Ipswich themselves have only just painted a bunch of StreetDecks in Ipswich Reds livery.
First spent years painting everything into Barbie and eroding any kind of local branding which everyone agreed was a bit mistake. They have now spent the last few years doing everywhere up with local liveries only to the point that they then are now going back to corporate.
Someone once said to me that if you hang around in the bus industry long enough, everything that has been tried and failed comes back around again. That certainly seems the case here.
Ipswich themselves have only just painted a bunch of StreetDecks in Ipswich Reds livery.
stevenedin
Established Member
To be fair the new livery looks really nice and it’ll be nice to have a uniform livery so that when vehicles move around they aren’t moving all mid matched.
Leyland Bus
Member
Nothing would be mismatched if they got buses painted either before or when they arrived and they moved in an orderly fashion. It used to happen once over but I suppose staff were cut to the bone so they don't have the resources they used too...
stevenedin
Established Member
That’s why it’s better and cheaper to have a uniform livery so that they don’t need repainting until they are worn out looking and can move around their operations easily.
Leyland Bus
Member
Is cost more important than reputation? May'be it is these days? The whole idea of ditching a corporate look was that any bad apples tarnished the whole brand, which happened with barbie...
RUK
Member
I hope people here don’t mind me asking - I have recently moved to Norwich, and apparently there used to be an Orange Line number 22 service in Norwich, but according to one of the time-tables on one of the bus stops on the Orange Line, it’s currently suspended. I can’t seem to easily find any information on when it was suspended and why, what route it used to take, how it differed from the Orange Line 21 and 21A services, which still run, and if and when it might be re-instated. Thank you very much in advance for any information which you might be able to give me - I really appreciate it!
This map of Norwich from 2017 has the 22 and 22A on it. Beyond that all I have found was a reference to it still running in 2020.
https://ontheworldmap.com/uk/city/norwich/norwich-bus-map.html
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Best thing to do is go to the First Eastern Counties website.
- It looks like the 22 no longer exists
- It WAS an alternating 21/22 every 30 mins to create a common headway of every 15 mins on common sections (with half terminating at Bowthorpe or the hospital)
- It is NOW a more consistent 21/21A every 20 mins on the western half of the route see https://www.firstbus.co.uk/sites/de...ne_21_22-Bus_Times_from_25-02-24_Upd09-24.pdf
BVW
Member
The Bowthorpe - UEA section of the 22 is now covered by the 26A.
buslad1988
Member
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- 28 Dec 2018
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These E200/300’s must be due for transfer out or withdrawal shortly? Were they not trying to make Ipswich an entirely Wrightbus garage?
The E200’s look totally knackered. The E300’s would no doubt end up in Chelmsford with the rest of that batch.
Callum15632
Member
I believe I recall a Essex employee saying a few months ago that the E300s are due to be transferred to Essex and streetlites are due to be going the other way.
Current rumours suggest that the Ipswich Enviro 300s are due for transfer to Chelmsford shortly, with Streetlites supposedly replacing them. However, it is a mystery as to where these Streetlites will come from (potentially Norwich?).
As for the Enviro 200s, some of the vehicles have already been withdrawn, mainly due to issues relating to the vehicles' chassis. It would appear life on the 'Village Links' brand of routes has clearly not done them any good! These are currently being replaced with shorter-variant Streetlites, with ex-Cymru examples already operating in Ipswich (a batch of 4 at the moment). Originally, a whole batch of these were due to transfer, but contract wins in Wales meant that this plan wasn't to be fortunately!
Callum15632
Member
I'm not sure about this but could they come from Bristol? 47544/554/555/556 are the 4 non badgerline streetlites left in Bristol so maybe they might go to Ipswich when Bristol get the rest of Worcester's B7RLEs?
stevenedin
Established Member
There is also a batch of StreetLites that have been sold back to First via Ensign from the Scotland East operations that had been sold to McGill’s so they may possibly use them.
Some had originally been in Bristol and Bath, some new to Scotland East and I think some from Southampton but I could be wrong.
Some had originally been in Bristol and Bath, some new to Scotland East and I think some from Southampton but I could be wrong.
F Great Eastern
Established Member
There's been at least two on it today. Not one with another two on other routes.
47680 is a recent transfer in from Colchester.
67752 and 67774 both off for MOT (plus a backlog of engineering work) explains some of the odd vehicle workings at the moment. A "non P&R branded" bus being allocated Ipswich Park & Ride work will quite often happen so that a certain bus with reliability issues can be "kept local" (instead of being 30 miles away from depot at Aldeburgh, for example), and in the event of it breaking down, it allows for quicker attendance by fitters, less disruption to service etc.
buslad1988
Member
- Joined
- 28 Dec 2018
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- 650
So First have won the operation of three Norwich Park and Ride sites…
www.firstbus.co.uk
This will no doubt be a large blow to Go East Anglia.
The article states they will be run by electric buses; so presumably there are more incoming as they won’t “pinch” some city buses to use on these surely? Maybe redirected deliveries to elsewhere?
Seems like the Sprowston site will just be absorbed into the pink line.
First Bus Awarded Contract for Norwich Park and Ride Services
Following a successful competitive tender process, First Bus East of England has been awarded the contract to operate services from the Airport and Thickthorn sites for the Norwich Park and Ride. This new contract, set to begin in early 2025, will run for up to eight years, demonstrating Norfolk...
The article states they will be run by electric buses; so presumably there are more incoming as they won’t “pinch” some city buses to use on these surely? Maybe redirected deliveries to elsewhere?
Seems like the Sprowston site will just be absorbed into the pink line.
aswilliamsuk
Member
- Joined
- 10 Jul 2016
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- 527
I'd be surprised if they aren't repowered StreetDecks, but they will be only for Airport and Thickthorn - Sprowston just becomes a stop on the Pink Line, so with that and the Simonds win below, the PVR may actually cover the repowered StreetDecks after all.
The E400s at Konect that will be displaced should help to oust more of the elderly 'deckers at Hedingham and Chambers...
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Ok, it's not all of the P&R routes to First - Simonds (Central Connect) have won Postwick and Harford: https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/...ostwick-park-ride-site-saved-closure/?ref=rss
The E400s at Konect that will be displaced should help to oust more of the elderly 'deckers at Hedingham and Chambers...
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Ok, it's not all of the P&R routes to First - Simonds (Central Connect) have won Postwick and Harford: https://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/...ostwick-park-ride-site-saved-closure/?ref=rss
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