The end once again

Picture shows E215 and E216 BTA together. E216 BTA (below) is about to work a 76 to Callington, where E215 BTA has just returned from a trip to Wembury on the 48.

With all the recent fleet updates that have been happening in the area, there, as has been reported, been a considerable loss of high floor vehicles.

The latest to go are the two E reg Volvo Citybus' these being E215 BTA and E216 BTA. These two buses (along with sister E217 BTA scrapped a few years ago) have become quite a symbol of Plymouth.

The three were new back in 1988, numbered 1815 to 1817. These fleet numbers were originally going to be Leyland Olympians, though the National Bus Company moved these three to Maidstone, where they staied. The Citybus' were bought specially to run the X38, back when Western National operated the service. These did many years of hard graft to Exeter, until the K-ORL batch took over in 1993. Though when Badgerline bought Western National, the BTAs were moved upto Bristol to operate alongside the D-GHYs, as this was a more common type in Bristol. Ironically all of the D regs are now working in Cornwall, albeit by the skin of their teeth.1815 and 1816 made it back down in Plymouth where 1817 remained in Bristol until she was scrapped in 2005. This was only a temporary move, though in fact 12 years extra service has been gained by these two, on their move to Plymouth.

The Citybus' have been used for a whole manner of different tasks since then, longer distance such as 93 and 76. They've been used on the Ugobus network, commonly seen on service 3. And E215 BTA was even used for a wedding trip, when the Routemaster failed!

So we bid farewell to the last reminder of the Western National era. Yes I know the W-PAFs are technically Western National, but does a Volvo B6 really represent that era?

So we say goodbye to these from the streets of Plymouth. But who knows, the 2 may join the D-GHYs as open toppers in Penzance. Only time will tell.