Now these are some of the last buses I would have expected to be re-painted in the FDC fleet! But here you have it, the N reg Airbus Volvo Olympians have been going through a re-painting programme over the last few weeks down in Cornwall, and, it is true, they do look at lot better for it. Here pictured is 34199 looking very smart in Truro operating the 27 from St Austell. All I will say, is I don't like the new scheme for the grill! I much preferred the black grill pictured below, as well as the extra blue band around the windscreen. The Olympians that have more recently arrived in Cornwall are painted in this way, so I presume this has been done to blend in with the rest of the fleet. Of course many of you will remember when this batch came down to work the X80s, and were branded up with the banner "Take it easy". I would presume this was the last time they were re-painted (until now of course), so has been a fair few years. 
The last of this batch to operate in Plymouth was 34198, which hung on for several months longer than the rest of the batch which were moved down around the end of 2008. 34198 is registration UKT 552, but is 'famous' for the fact for a few days(?) she ran around with UKT 522 after her number plate was re-printed! I certainly miss them in Plymouth, but really are ideal for the routes around Cornwall, in particular the X18, where you can see them having a really good air out along the A30! These still shift, and tackle the various hills of Cornwall with ease and grace. So hopefully, seeing them being re-painted now is a sign that they do still have a fair few years longer to run in service before being withdrawn.
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4 comments:
These might survive longer than the DDA in 2017 as these have wheelchair lifts.
My memory of these are a bit hazy, but I'm quite sure these buses are not DDA compliant. The wheelchair lifts are of an old, non-standard design, there are no dedicated wheelchair spaces with rear facing high backed seat cushions, and there are no low mounted stop bells fitted either. There may be some other technicalities present that I've not listed too.
Some of the above is why the big groups have withdrawn some early Dart SLFs and B6LEs even though they are low floor.
When First purchased them from Ensign back in 2005, is when they we last painted, but they did initially have a wheelchair space, but First had them upseated.
As far as I Know only 34198 got upseated after an accident, the rest are as back in 2005
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