Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)

[tbone]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)

(06/10/2012 16:56)Metroline1511 Wrote:  This new seating does indeed represent a change from the alternate gold/ blue seating introduced in 2003. Maybe I shall have another daytrip to Derby ca 2014 to ride some new and refurb buses.

Trent Barton is going through quite an exciting period and I can see a lot of new liveries in the near future, and the new buses are certainly worth a ride- they are done to a very high quality!

727 has now entered service at Derby. Along with 726, they have displaced Derby excels 234 and 262, although they will remain in service whilst the Mickleover Volvos are refurbished.

Solars 676 and 680 are at Nottingham to cover for accident repairs- 3 Indigo Volvos and 1 Keyworth Connection Tempo are off due to damage. When they return, 676 will head to Derby to replace Solo 466 in the spare fleet, which will become a dedicated (though not branded) se7ens vehicle. 680 will head to Langley Mill and will replace excel 260.

4 more former Rainbow 4 Solars are in the process of becoming trent barton spares. These will likely replace excels, with the intention of all excels being withdrawn from the Trent Barton fleet by christmas.

Se7ens branded solos 423 and 411 are withdrawn at Langley Mill

Scania Wrightbus Solar 625 is currently being refurbished for Skylink Leicester Derby.

Mickleover Volvo 734 is the first of the 8 to be refurbished for the service; it is currently at Langley Mill

[tbone]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)
The latest bus in a new livery is ex Rainbow 4 Solar 674 which is in the new zigzag livery, along with the new style seats. It hasn't yet gone into service.

Solos 418 (ex Trent Barton spare) and 424/5 (ex Ruddington Connection) have been branded for 'Line 30', a route that TM Travel are taking over from First. Former Se7ens solos 411 and 423 have also appeared at TM's Halfway depot.

Former Allestree solo 464 is also at TM Travel, in a 'new livery'

Centro 1184 is believed to have been branded for Notts and Derby's comercial 73 service from Derby to Weston on Trent.

I've also heard a rumour that four of the ex Rainbow 4 Solars are to be branded for the 141 service, with non branded solos being used on the evening runs.

[tbone]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)
Demonstrator Scania ADL Enviro 300 YN62 AAK is on loan to Trent Barton and is to be trialled on the Rainbow 1 route.

Scania/ Wrightbus Solar 625 has had its refurbishment and repaint into the new Skylink Derby Leicester livery and should be out in service any day soon. It is the last bus to be refurbished.

[tbone]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)
Scania Wrightbus Solar 678 is the latest spare bus out of the paintshop, it's in a 'you told us' version of the trent barton livery. See Matt Burley's picture here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattburley0...hotostream

[tbone]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)
734 has returned repainted into a slightly different version of purple with 'teaser' branding for the new look Mickleover. It is expected that they will all return like this before having the vinyls put on together. The interior remains unchanged at this stage.

A further hint as to what the eclipses will look like can be found on the trent barton website:

https://www.trentbarton.co.uk/services/mickleover

[tbone]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)
The Enviro 300 demonstrator has been given some Rainbow 1 branding and is now out on service. Customers are being asked for their feedback.

Solo 437 has transfered to TM Travel and is in their 'new livery' which consists of all over red with small cream fleetnames, presumably to allow adverts on the side of the buses.

TM have also withdrawn deckers 18,19 and 20 as well as a 'D' plate ECW Olympian.

Photos © Matt Burley

[tbone]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)
The three solos currently out and about in the new TM Travel livery are 437, 444 and 464. All have come from within the Trent Barton fleet.

The solos that have been branded for TM Travel's new "line 30" have been fitted with LED blinds and are now out in service. See 424 here.

The solo Derby Leicester Skylink Scania Wrightbus Solar 625 is now out in service

[Metroline1511]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)
I was reminded of Trent Barton when I rode an Eclipse-branded Volvo B7RLE-Eclipse with First on the Fareham guided busway on Thursday. This is because it had leather seats and a wooden laminate floor.

As most buses in the area are M-S reg single-deckers, I wonder whether First might divest this ex-Provincial depot before long? If so, Wellglade would make excellent successors even though it is well outside their home turf!

[tbone]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)
I would love to see a bit of Wellglade expansion! I reckon the Kinchbus brand could do wonders to First's Leicester depot guess I'll have to keep on dreaming!

[Metroline1511]

RE: Wellglade (Trent Barton, Kinchbus, TM Travel, Notts and Derby, Midland General)

(03/11/2012 22:37)tbone Wrote:  I would love to see a bit of Wellglade expansion! I reckon the Kinchbus brand could do wonders to First's Leicester depot guess I'll have to keep on dreaming!

If First really need some good income from a sale, this could fit the bill. Mind you, I was dismayed in March not to be able to use my ZigZag ticket on Kinchbus in Loughborough.

Actually, as First are planning to divest other operations in the Midlands, such as Northampton which is just about in the east Midlands, this could be a good candidate for Wellglade!