Friday was a trip to West Yorkshire to sample the a Flying Tiger brand, of which I found the Optare Versas to be absolutely superb! Cummins powered, I love the sound of them
even managed to get one on the trip to Bradford on the 737, after passing a Scania on the 757 I wondered if there might be one that went walkies, turned out there was! Next on the list was bashing some of the many new and refurbished E400s in the Arriva Yorkshire fleet, testing out the MAX and Sapphire routes. Didn't quite manage the Sapphire route (110 in Wakefield-Leeds) but the MAX buses I rode were spot on. Plenty of power in those new Enviro 400s on the 202/203 and they're actually well suited to the route, which I never thought I would say given they replaced Volvo B9TL Olympus. I spent just under an hour at Leeds station on the way back, looking at what operates the various peak services. I am sure when I put the diagrams together that little bit of work will answer some of my many questions!
Friday 15th May
0833 Thornaby - Leeds TPX 185122
1009 Leeds Stn - Airport 757 YT 791
1100 Airport - Bradford Int 737 YT 793
1221 Bradford - Dewsbury 268A AY 1911
1354 Dewsbury - White Rose 203 AY 1923
1435 White Rose - Dewsbury 202 AY 1917
1505 Dewsbury - Wakefield 126 AY 1532
1656 Wakefield Kirkgate - Leeds Northern 158848
1808 Leeds Stn - Royal Armouries 70 FWY 69417
Saturday I played tour guide for Kuyoyo around the Peak District although we spent the morning touring the eastern side of Derbyshire, seeing some of the really good (and not so good!) bits of the Trent Barton network. The really good bus company like to tell us they are really good all of the time. Three 9s within 15 mins in Alfreton when they run a 15 min frequency... Hmm...
Started with one of the more random ways to get to Chesterfield, although the 77 threw up one of the ex council liveried E400s, which went really well for an Enviro of it's age! It's a shame that the Chesterfield end of the Red Arrow appears to have been downgraded to service buses, none of which wear the Red Arrow livery, and one suspects they're trying to dilute the brand enough to get rid of it.... This would leave the flagship Derby to Nottingham service (which funnily enough suffers competition from Yourbus), running every 10 mins with the Red Arrow brand, and new coaches in the pipeline.
The ride on the Transpeak Enviro 200 from Matlock to Buxton was an interesting point in the day. It seems that these have been ordered with a higher spec than normal, both mechanically and internally. I believe the rumour is that these will be pushed elsewhere in the near future though, which would back up why only 4 were ordered and they arrived in the Centrebus orange/blue with the awful, contrasting, green branding applied for the Transpeak service! You can tell Trent really aren't interested in the High Peak operation despite the 50/50 ownership.
Highlight of the day was our ride on my old friend, TM Travel Lowlander YN54SYG on the 65 from Buxton to the delightful village of Litton, for a quick connection to Hulleys service 173 to Bakewell. I was definitely tempted to stay on the 65 all the way to Sheffield though! One of the best Lowlanders around and one of my favourite buses ever since my first ride on it around 6 years ago
The trip back to Sheffield gave a good impression of how investment (if it can be called that) from Wellglade has slightly improved the fortunes of TM's Peak District services, where the 218 has received 4 refurbished Scania Solars with an improved half hourly frequency, serving the ever popular Chatsworth House enroute. Unfortunately this has come at the cost of losing the direct service from Sheffield to Matlock.
The trip back home from Sheffield was going swimmingly until I happened to notice on Realtimetrains that my train home from Leeds had been cancelled. A bit of digging later I found out that it was restarting from York. No good for those passengers wanting to join in Leeds of course. Luckily I noticed there was a Newcastle service just 4 mins in front, so checked with the conductor before hopping on that to get to York and catch my original service home! Bit of fun on the way home never spoilt the weekend of course
Will try and get the photos uploaded tomorrow or Monday!
Saturday 16th May
0738 Leeds - Sheffield EMT 43076+43046
0830 Sheffield - Clowne 53 SEM 34573
0925 Clowne - Chesterfield 77 SEM 19317
1050 Chesterfield - Alfreton RA TB 740
1135 Alfreton - Ripley 9.3 TB 476
1202 Ripley - Belper 6.2 TB 692
1304 Belper - Matlock EMT 153326
1337 Matlock Stn - Buxton Transpeak HP 594
1500 Buxton - Litton 65 TM YN54SYG (1171)
1526 Litton - Bakewell 173 HUL YJ62JZT
1625 Bakewell - Sheffield 218 TM FJ03VVM (601)
1747 Sheffield - Leeds XC 220002
1849 Leeds - Thornaby
1845 Leeds - York TPX 185112
1916 York - Thornaby TPX 185129