First Manchester

[WWH44L]

RE: First Manchester

(08/07/2013 23:04)Polo Mint Wrote:  It is a shame they couldn't have got new deckers and upgraded route 81/81A with them, however the wifi and leather seats are more competitive against Stagey and JPT.

What has happened to the Eclipses on the 81? Have they been de-branded and moved onto other routes? I am guessing the 425. Or are they been transferred out of Oldham?


In the article SF07 pointed out some guy replied saying: 'Actually over the last few weeks more of the "newer" buses have been shipped out to Yorkshire and Scotland and have been replaced by S and T reg buses. Therefore I honestly do not believe that Bolton First garage will be 100% low floor. Also with regards to the older buses they will end up on services in Bolton - such as the hourly services (22, 31, 533, 536 which normally get the rubbish of the rubbish!!!).'


Does anyone know anything about that? What currently operates the 501? I know some sheds came from Yorkshire to fill in for Maytree services.

Bolton only has 4 step vehicles that are the four S/T reg Olympians that were moved over from FSY and repalced the remaining older Arrows. The rest of the fleet is low floor and has been for over a year now and nothing has been shipped out to Scotland or Yorkshire since the B7RLEs entered service back in 2006!!! The none overground routes were the mainstay of the Darts, then the Scanias (still 10 in service) and more so the B7RLEs of which there are 61 of these and only 10 of these now need repainting.

The average age of the fleet at Bolton is 4.7years now but people still moan and hark back to the "good old days". I've knocked First over the years for many a reason but I do believe things have changed for the better. The fleet, especially at BN has never been in better shape!!

The 501 btw is now the mainstay of the new Enviro300s.