Since the withdrawal of Oxfordshire County Council subsidies on 20th July 2016, Thames Travel has been operating the Bicester Town bus services 22 and 23 on a commercial basis. These services run at a loss of approximately £4,500 per week and therefore this decision was a temporary arrangement, while Thames Travel continued discussions with several local stakeholders to pool existing finances and resources to safeguard the longer term future of the services. The company’s proposal included extended operating hours to better meet the needs of commuters using rail services, offering improved daily links to the new Park & Ride site and providing a frequent service between the... see more
Ahead of upcoming service changes which will see "Wear Tees Xpress" service X7 revised to operate between Sunderland and Peterlee only (with the link between Peterlee and Station Town being retained by a revised "indiGo" 202 service and the link between Station Town and Middlesbrough being withdrawn completely), this vehicle has been repainted into Go North East's new corporate livery. The new livery design is a a lot more eye-catching and features a two-tone base livery, with the traditional key colour of red towards the front of the bus, and non-metallic dark blue towards the back. It is thought that further vinyls will be added at a later date, in order to reflect... see more
This vehicle has received "Frequenta" branding, with generic "Frequent connections into Stockton" branding, enabling this vehicle to be used as a spare for both services 7 (Stockton - Yarm) and 15 (Roseworth - Stockton - Thornaby).
Following the recent repaint and refurbishment of Scania CN94UB/Scania Omnicitys 4660 (NK07 FZC), 4661 (NK07 FZD) and 4662 (NK07 FZE) for the "Cross Pennine" 685 service, this vehicle has also been repainted and refurbished (albeit to "MAX" specification). It has been repainted and refurbished to "MAX" specification, in a generic spare livery, so that the interior specification of the 685 service is maintained when one of the branded vehicles is off the road, but can also be used as a spare vehicle for "MAX" service X16 when one of the branded VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar 2 vehicles is unavailable for service.
Ahead of upcoming service changes which will see "Wear Tees Xpress" service X7 revised to operate between Sunderland and Peterlee only (with the link between Peterlee and Station Town being retained by a revised "indiGo" 202 service and the link between Station Town and Middlesbrough being withdrawn completely), this vehicle has been repainted into Go North East's new corporate livery. The new livery design is a a lot more eye-catching and features a two-tone base livery, with the traditional key colour of red towards the front of the bus, and non-metallic dark blue towards the back. It is thought that further vinyls will be added at a later date, in order to reflect... see more
Following repaint; this vehicle has transferred from Slatyford Depot to Stockton, albeit presently in a reserve capacity. The allocation of this vehicle to Stockton Depot is believed to allow for the withdrawal of older MAN 18.220LF/Transbus ALX300 vehicles in Stockton's fleet.
