Sunday 27 May 2012

Snap on Sunday


Unfortunately it appears that First Devon and Cornwall's open top service between Barnstaple and Croyde won't be materialising itself again this year. Although the day I travelled on it, it did seem quite busy, this was the first couple of days, so the town may well have lost interest later into the holiday season. 


Luckily though, this hasn't marked the end for the two Volvo B10Ms that were in use on the service, D701 GHY and D705 GHY. They've both been moved back to their old haunt of Weston Super Mare, in which their lives were played out on the X1 from Bristol to WSM when new. Now in open top format, they run the service from the Railway Station to Sand Bay. It seems somewhat unclear at the moment as to what has happened to the L reg Volvo Olympians that had previously been used on this service though. I can't see the B10Ms replacing these newer Olympians, and yet I wouldn't have thought there would have been much scope for a raising of frequency, especially now that this route now runs in competition with Crossville. All I can therefore suggest is that there is a regional manager somewhere up there who was desperate to have them back, I say with rose tinted spectacles on. They were certainly loved back then though, and maybe, just maybe, someone wanted their memories re-kindled within the town! 
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous27 May 2012 at 22:27

    i the 8 will not be coming back because stagecoach all ready have a bus that dose the same route and its due to first saleing north devon to stagecoach

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  2. G28 May 2012 at 00:43

    On the other hand, it (route 8 shown as "summer only") was specifically listed as part of the North Devon operations to be sold, in First's own press release when the deal was announced. It therefore seems possible that the two open-top Citybuses form part of the "around 30" buses in the contract agreed with Stagecoach. Unless the two parties subsequently agree otherwise, we may find that they're only on loan in Weston and thus may have to return. Who knows? I don't! But it'll be interesting to see what happens assuming the authorities allow the sale to go through.

    Graeme

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  3. Anonymous28 May 2012 at 23:10

    I work for First in Weston and 38001 has not appeared in Weston. Service 1 to Sand Bay is operated by 38005 and 39920 the Olympian and this was the case this afternoon.

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  4. Anonymous29 May 2012 at 20:22

    38005 currently on loan to Weston. 38001 stored in Barnstaple Depot. Both part of the proposed sold fleet

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