Glenvale Transport

[chris217]

RE: Glenvale Transport
I started at Gilmoss in 2003 under GTL.
Yes some of those ex London Metrobuses were shocking!
But most of the Arriva converted ones seemed to be OK to drive,and at least the heaters worked lol.

For me, the Leyland Titans were a dream bus.
I absolutely loved them to bits.
Nice to drive and some were quite quick too,although maintenance seemed to be an issue.
Then when we heard rumours of us being sold off, we got told it would be First Bus and to make the company a bit more attractive for sale,we purchased a large amount of Alexander Dash Dennis Darts and Volvo B6s which changed opinions amongst the rumour control.
These buses were not good for us and had poor availability, again due to maintenance although they were an improvement on the bouncy darts we had on the 14Cs.
We also operated a lot of dead wood routes. Basically as a nuisance value to cream off Arriva, like CMT were doing although those drivers would be working up to 12hrs a day,something Gillmoss wouldn't accept.
When GTL bought out CMT, they operated for a while from their own depot until it was moved to the one depot that was Gillmoss.
Unfortunately I was too late for me and the CMT's Nationals lol.
Generally, CMT's fleet was a tidy up of our own after we got shot of all the dead wood routes.
Perhaps the purchase of CMT added extra nails to the coffin for our demise as I believe it was a last ditch attempt to make us look more attractive to sell.

Towards the end of GTL, we were in dire financial situation.
It wasn't just drivers robbing the takings I'll tell you for nothing. There was a lot of management on the take too. This included drivers wages being paid late, and we were only days before a total collapse before Stagecoach took us over in 2005.


When Stagecoach took us over they must have been laughing their heads off with all the ex Stagecoach buses we had in our fleet,but credit due,they had a fleet replacement program which got us some nice new Dennis Darts and a mixture of mid life Alexander PS Volvo B10s.
We had some Double deckers added too which included some United Counties Olympians with ZF transmission and Gardner engines which were dire!

With all the vandalism, it was realised a single decker fleet was preferable and we gained a number of PS's to compliment our fleet.
They were a good bus for us and Stagecoach generally,but move forward a few years when everything had to be low floor.

We dabbled in newer Olympians and some Dennis Tridents, of which we had several ex London of the latter which had already travelled around the world twice!
We also had some Tridents and Enviro400s from Manchester and Preston.
Last year we received some mid life Scania Double deckers which are very nice to compliment our growing fleet of MMC 400s.

On minibuses, it's been mostly Optare Solos with some elderly examples in the early days of Stagecoach to the ex Arriva ones,some of which are retained.

As a driver of 17 years,there have been many a highlights for me including the Metrobus running day
Using M818 and the colossus that was the Titan running day, both thanks to Mr Les Burton (in case he's reading lol)
Remembering blocking Liscard Village with our convoy of Titans.
I was lucky to drive T1 on the day too????
I also took 24125 to the Wirral bus and Tram show in 2009, the day before the first ones entered service.

Stagecoach has played games over the years too with battle buses and Magic Bus in Liverpool.
I went to Nuneaton to pick a B10M up which broke down on the motorway lol.
Trust me to pick the only Voith gearbox one they had!
I have also gone to Portsmouth to pick up 33030 and 33034.
They were the ex Hong Kong Darts.
And drove from Inverness to Gillmoss depot in an ALX200 Dart a week before Christmas!
And yes we bumped into snow over Aviemore top!

One aspect of Stagecoach is the enthusiasm and plays a part for enthusiasts too with regular open days although we haven't had an open day here since Les retired.
Today we have a modern fleet of easy to drive buses that hardly break down.
Tbh, it can be monotonous driving the same thing every day, but looking back,the early years were far more interesting for all the wrong reasons.