• HTL Buses two new Alexander Dennis Dart 4 10.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200Darts (the rather long full title!) have been identified as being DK57 OPY [photo:Mark Haldon] and DK57 OPZ [photo:Andy Rigby]

• Both of these were delivered in overall unbranded green, with the LED destinations out of use and so far just one, DK57 OPZ has received branding and a fleetnumber, that being 28, a number previously used by TransBus Dart MPD DF03 NTE suggesting this may now have left the fleet.  These are B37F models, fitted with Lazzerini Practico seating and a nice blue based interior!

• Arriva have continued to apply its Lebus branding to various routes and vehicle types, the latest route to grain branding being the 82 with a number of Volvo B7TL/Alexander Dennis ALX400 branded, along with Dennis Trident/Plaxton Presidents 4000 Y46 ABA [photo:Andy Rigby] & 4001 Y47 ABA.  Also now branded for the Lebus 79 in addition to those already mentioned are a number of the DAF SB200/Wright Commanders, rather an interesting move as previously these generally tended to stay on the Halewood routes.

• Rather surprising repaints noted this month are those of at least two of the long stored Neoplan N4009s which have been resurrected, with both 602 M302 YBG [photo:Andy Rigby] & 603 M303 YBG having been noted this week on the S2/S3 City Circulars, both sporting repaints and 602 fitted with nice new light surrounds, which look like they are home made copies of the similar feature on the Plaxton Pointer 2 body, and they do look very good on the Neoplan too! The reason for these being fixed up isn't exactly clear, as although one of the Arriva livery MPDs from Bootle has been transferred to Arriva Manchester, the two working Solos plus the four CATCH livery MPDs should still be enough to operate the route, so perhaps some of the white MPDs are due to Bootle soon too.  Of note is a report that states that Traction Technology have been awarded the contract to provide four "new" hybrid Optare Solos to Merseytravel for its City Centre circulars.  By new though I tend to think this refers to a new traction package on the other four stored examples!  I assume that Solo 655 that has Wright Hybrid Technology workings will remain with these, at least for now, as the two working ones do seem to be quite reliable.

• Stagecoach Merseyside replaced all its ticket machines on the weekend of 20th January, with the ERG TP5000 machine [photo:Karl Sutton] which has allowed them to now provide a weekly ticket, the MegaRider, which has been heavily discounted to just £7.00 for 7 days travel, whilst the DayRider remains at £2.80.  Many buses initially had the branding applied but without the prices such as 34812 PX06 DVV [photo:Karl Sutton], though the price has since been added onto most of those carrying the branding.  A start has been made too on fitted the former CMT B10L/LE fleet with LED destinations as seen on 21106 S447 KCW [photo:Andy Rigby] which also shows the full new ticket branding.  Thumbs Up for Stagecoach!

• Avon Buses currently have MAN 14.220/MCV Evolution AE04 PFV on loan, to cover for accident damage to one of their Darts, but they have already begun to sell off its Plaxton Primos, with 556 YN56 NHB and 656 YN56 NHC having been sold to EST, Llandow with a possible order for further Dart/MCV Evolutions, though this time I assume they would be Dart 4s, rather than the Euro4 Dart SLF, unless they are able to source some stored from somewhere!

• Thanks as usual to all of the many people who have kindly submitted photos and news over the last month, further photos that were sent in can be seen in the January 2008 • 1, January 2008 • 2, January 2008 • 3 photo pages.  I have a slight backlog of photos that have been sent in this month as I have been quite busy, but any remaining ones should go online shortly in the February pages!