Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Merseybus initial fleetlist October 1986

(26/09/2020 12:12)moreton407 Wrote:  What happened to the Volvo Ailsa's? They were my fave buses.

The Ailsa's were withdrawn in late '95 when the Silver Service Palatine 2/Olympian's went in at LS.

They were mostly sold on to Cardiff Bus in' 96 who kept them until the early 2000's. Cardiff had Northern Counties Ailsa's so these fitted in well in their fleet.

Cardiff Bus may have sold these on to Edwards of Llantwit Fardre in the mid 2000's not sure but their NC Ailsa's went to them for schools work around then.

A couple of them didn't go from MTL to Cardiff and went to Vale of Llangollen - 0075 was one which was with them and they were still knocking around about a decade or so ago.

Strangely not long after MTL withdrew the Laird Street Ailsa's a couple of ex London one's V1 & V2 transfered from MTL London to Sightseers for schools/private hire in 1995-96. They then went to long time Ailsa user Black Prince who had the rear exit one V3 and kept these couple until selling them on to Isle Coaches in the early 2000's. One of V1/2 got preserved now too.

Surprised the Ailsa's never operated from a Liverpool depot, even as a loan as they spent all their Merseyside careers at LS.

Gillmoss did have a Ailsa demonstrator in the early '80's TGG386W a Greater Glasgow PTE one which at that time was a long term loan to West Midlands PTE as their 7053. Marshall bodied Alisa's were also a long term loam from Derby City Transport too.

This probably this led to the MPTE order during 1983-84, surprised only LS got and had Ailsa's maybe if deregulation hadn't happened a Liverpool depot may have got a batch of these or the B10M/Citybus it evolved into. Also interesting these were the largest number of the experimental '00' fleet of vehicles MPTE ordered in the early/mid '80's too.

Hope this helps.