New buses for Metrobus

Metrobus have recently put in service some new Enviro 200's. These vehicles, which represent a £1 million investment, are built to a high specification including Isrighausen high-backed Civic V3 seating, free wifi, audio-visual announcements, a 180 horsepower 4.5 litre Cummins ISBE Euro 6 engine, and a 6 speed ZF AS-Tronic Lite automated manual gearbox. These vehicles also are painted in a new blue and yellow livery, designed by Ray Stenning of Best Impressions, with branding for routes 200 and 270, with 2 spare vehicles in a plain livery advertising mobile ticketing. These vehicles look very smart and I hope to see more vehicles in this new livery. I hope you enjoyed reading his post.

South East Bus Festival

Saturday the 28th of March saw the annual South East Bus Festival take place, at the Kent County Showground in Detling in Kent. This was my first visit to this rally and I was very impressed. There was a wide variety of vehicles at the event, with a big emphasis on preserved Maidstone & District vehicles, and indeed this event originates from the centenary event of M&D hosted in 2011. There was around 120 vehicles at this event, including preserved former M&D 5928, former Metrobus 834, and a rare Nu-Venture Irisbus Agora-Line new to Norfolk Green for use on Coasthopper services. The event was hosted in conjunction with the Kent Heritage Transport Show, which saw vintage cars, vans and lorries also present. Also at the event was brand new Arriva Southern Counties Enviro 400 6479 present, new for route 101 to replace older 58 plate Enviro 400's at Gillingham depot. This vehicle had not entered service when the event was being hosted, so I was lucky to be able to see this vehicle before entering service. I enjoyed this event very much, and I look forward to visiting the event next time it is hosted on the 2nd of April 2016. I hope you enjoyed reading this post.

Route 212 Observations

On the 7th of March, route 212 passed to Tower Transit after 5 years with CT Plus. The route was introduced in 1981 using Leyland Titans running between Chingford and Walthamstow Central. In 1982, the route was extended to Yardley Lane, however this was withdrawn in 1988 and the route resumed terminating at Chingford once again. As part of the break up of London Transport operating subsidiary London Forest in 1991, the route passed to Capital Citybus. The route also received new Leyland Olympians the same year. During the 90's, the route was extended to St James Street. In 1998, the route passed to First Capital as part of the sale of Capital Citybus to FirstGroup. In 2000, the route was converted to single deckers using Darts with Marshall Capital bodywork, however, within a few years the route had resumed double decker operation using Dennis Tridents with Plaxton President bodywork. In 2010, the route passed to CT Plus using Scania Omnicities from Ash Grove garage. In 2014, the route was awarded to Tower Transit, using new Gemini 3's with a Volvo B5LH chassis. The vehicles have been equipped with the pleasant green and grey Tower Transit interior and a high backed, leather padded Chapman Nova Urban drivers seat equipped with a seatbelt. The buses were very nice, and the drivers seem friendly, however, within around 10 mins of leaving St James Street, I'd already seen 8 212's, and it seems they were having some problems with keeping a even service, however I wish Tower Transit luck with the route over the next 5 years, and hope for a more even service. Thanks for reading this post