• As noted yesterday in Fleetlists, I have added an Arriva Midlands North Dennis Dart fleetlist.  I have now decided that the additional fleetlists will simply be titled Modern Low / Lower floor buses, and so as well as including those vehicles listed below, it will also include Dennis Arrows, Dennis Tridents & Volvo Olympians - The first fleetlists now will be added.

• Strange workings seen recently include Halton Dart 77 on the 61 in place of an SLF/SPD Dart on the 26th, and yesterday on the 27th there appeared to be around four different Halton Darts on Liverpool City Centre within minutes, as there was, in order of departure towards Runcorn on the two routes 14 & 61 the following Darts - 65, 1, 19, 77 & 15.  Also earlier in the day, Halton's only Lynx MkI, 37,  was on the 61 instead on a Dart.

• There have also been reports recently tat many of the 53 route branded Darts operated by Arriva Bootle garage are appearing on the routes 60, 61, 62 & 68 - As with much route branding it is completely useless if the buses aren't exclusive to a certain route, and with Arriva I think that is pretty impossible - They must be the only company who have vehicles branded for a route, that isn't even operated by that garage in the case of the 14 which is a Green Lane route, but the branded buses are at Gillmoss.   Bearing that in mind, its no wonder Arriva were so quick to remove the route 79 branding from the Speke Marshall Darts.

• Just a quick note at the end is to make sure that you all look out tomorrow for any early Y-reg buses, as I suspect Halton may have some, and Arriva probably will register its Myllennium DAF's very soon - Lets hope Arriva buy some more Darts this time around!!!

• Selwyns have now replaced the hired in Darts for the 500 - Liverpool Airport Express, with new DAF SB120CS's with Wright Cadet bodywork - Strangely with less than a week to go before Y-reg begins, they have X registrations!  They are in a Silver/Yellow/White livery, more similar to the original Smart livery than anything else.  I shall leave the Darts in the fleetlist until they are confirmed as withdrawn or otherwise.

• Soon I shall be adding fleetlists, for Merseyside companies only, of there other modern single deck buses, on separate lists from the Darts - In these lists, I shall include the following types:

DAF SB120CS/SB220/SB220LF

Dennis Lance

Leyland Lynx I & II

MAN 11.120

Marshall Minibus I/II

Neoplan N4009/N4016

Optare Excel/Solo

Scania L113/N113

Volvo B6/B6LE/B6BLE/B10B/B10BLE/B10L

In doing this there will now be a record of other vehicles than are similar to the Darts purchased by the bus companies, and bearing in mind how similar the new DAF's are, I thought they would be worthwhile adding - These lists will not include allocations, as there would otherwise be a never ending list of alterations to make to the site! - The Dart lists will of course, where applicable, continue to have allocation information.

• A strange working seen yesterday was of Arriva 7611 T611 JBA operating the 137 instead of one of the shorter Gillmoss MPD Marshall Darts, of the range 7602 - 7606.

• Later this week it is possible than Halton Transport may be getting some new Y-reg Darts, as on Thursday it will have been a whole six months since than last delivery to this company, who have average fleet age of less than 10 years.

• News regarding the Darts ordered by Warrington Borough Transport is that they are Marshall bodied as expected.

• As Arriva have now had 7675 V675 DVU,  repainted for a whole year, as it was the first ex MTL Dart in Arriva livery, does anyone have any photographs of it in MTL livery that could be submitted to the site, as I don't seem to have any photographs of it whatsoever! - Interestingly, I think it could have been in MTL livery for less than the time that 7601 was in Arriva livery!

• I have now further added to the Blue Bus (Horwich), fleetlist thanks to info from Tim Moss, and will soon also be adding the Dart spec sheets that were supplied by Tim to the Dennis Dart eGroup to the Dart Facts page.

• Supertravel appear recently to have had a shortage of Smart Eco Dart MPD's as every day for the last few days, X1 STM has been operating the 173/4 in place of one of the Smart Darts.

• Strange workings noted yesterday were of Arriva 1113 J313 WHJ on the 89 Speke - St Helens in place of the normal B6 or Metrobus, and another St Helens odd working yesterday was 7530 M30 GGY on the 39/39A Alder Hey - St Helens in place of the usual B6BLE. This second working was rarer as 39/39A is meant to be operated with vehicles with Arriva Manchester legal lettering, which the B6BLE's have, but this Dart didn't have!

• I have also noticed that Halton 22 X968 ULG has now has a sticker on the bonnet noting that it has Voith transmission, so either the depot staff were getting confused with the normal Darts which have Allison AT545 transmission, or there Y-reg deliveries will be SPD's with the conventional Allison World Series transmission.

• The final results to the first quizlet, titled 'Which of the current Dart SLF bodies do you think is best?' show that you think Plaxton Pointer 2 is the best body - I agree too, and as it is the most popular choice amongst operators it is not surprising.  Out of the 250 respondents, the final percentages for each type were:

• 1st - Plaxton Pointer 2 - 35%

• 2nd - Wright Crusader - 24%

• 3rd - Marshall Capital 16%

• 4th - Alexander ALX200 - 12%

• 5th - ELC Spryte - 8%

• 6th - Caetano Nimbus - 5%

• Thanks to all of you who have voted since December 1st 2000 - Please also answer the new quizlet!!!

• Warrington Borough Transport now have an order for a further 10 Darts, cut from the original plan for 12, bodywork is still unconfirmed, though Marshall Capital is likely - Arriva Runcorn Garage currently have Dart 7411 & B6 7215 on hire from Speke.

• I hope you like the new clock o on the main page, but if it ever isn't correct it is as your computers clock isn't quite right as it is based on the machines own time!!!

• Thanks to all of you who joined the eGroup over the weekend - There are now spec sheets for Dart MPD, SLF and SPD's with Pointer bodies there, along with many photographs from Pete's Travel Bromwich, including R85 XNE which is currently operated by Norbus.

• I have added more photographs today, such that I now have a second page for Dennis Dart photographs, as even with the thumbnails, (which are quite large!), the page was starting to take a long time to load.  The photographs are of Arriva Merseyside 7603, Arriva Cymru SDC 590, Chester City Transport 373, First Manchester 6202 and Halton Transport 1 - There is also a picture of Aintree Coachlines Trident W5 ACL in the other photographs section - Links to both sections are provided from the the first Photographs page.  The new photographs yet have descriptions, but you can still see the full image from the thumbnail, and some info is with the thumbnail too - Descriptions will be added soon.

• As you may have noticed there is now a new quizlet with the question 'Which of the following Merseyside bus operators do you think provides/ed the best service' - Please answer it if you can - The concluding results of the previous quizlet will be in the news tomorrow.

• A strange working seen over the weekend include X1 STM operating the 173/4 on both Friday and Saturday instead of a Smart Eco Dart (When referring to operations on the 173 and 174 I always use 173/4 as any bus on either route will always be on the other route on its next diagram, as both operate between Penny Lane / Allerton Library - Belle Vale, and all buses on either route will always change to the other every time they get to  Belle Vale) - Also noted on Saturday afternoon was Halton 16 that appeared to have failed in the alighting bay at the bottom of St. Johns Lane - Its hazard warnings were flashing, its blind set to 'Not in Service' and it was parking a but in the way, and although the driver was aboard it wasn't going to move and it was there for at least half an hour.

• Yesterday, the 18th February marked the anniversary of the sale of MTL to Arriva and one year ago today the first ex MTL buses started coming out with Arriva serving Merseyside logos.  Though Arriva's attitude to bus operation may leave a little to be desired, in the last year they have bought far more buses than MTL ever would have done - The buses that Arriva have bought (Including those for North West and Manchester) are

• 50 Dennis Dart SLF - Plaxton Pointer 2

• 9 Dennis Dart SLF - Alexander ALX200

• 20 Volvo B6BLE - Wright Crusader

• 30 DAF SB120CS - Wright Cadet (Still being delivered)

• 10+ Volvo B10BLE - Wright Renown (Exact total unknown, as they are still being delivered)

• Arriva's wealth has allowed them to buy many vehicles, and put some more on order after these, some even operating on routes that MTL had recently but huge investment into such as the 79, though Arriva did remove newer buses from some routes such as the 68 and 92 (Now 62), which between then has 14 brand new Marshall Darts in late '99 and early '00, of which only a occasionally now operate these routes - I won't go to much into this, as it is mainly for Simon Ackers Unofficial Arriva Merseyside Website, but Arriva should know that no matter how many single deckers that they buy, even Darts, (which possibly quite rarely I actually DO like), when I am crammed into one I do think, or see a B6 fly by on the 79 as it is already fit to bursting, that some low floor double deckers would do the trick. - Arriva need to take note that in Manchester even the smaller independents have Dennis Tridents and Volvo B7TLs, so why is it that Liverpool is the only major city in the country whose only low floor 'decker is used by an independent on a school contract?

• I have recently been supplied with some more information about Arriva Cymru, and Arriva NW and have updated the fleetlists, one of Jim Gorman's photographs of First Crosville Dart IDC 935.  I shall add some of my own photographs tomorrow and on Monday!

• I hope you like the new coloured scroll bars - I will add them to all pages over the next few weeks when I am sure which colours I am going to use, as altering the HTML in every page can be time consuming if I change my mind about the shade of blue!!! - Please note that if you are viewing this in Netscape Communicator the coloured scroll bars do not work - I can only confirm that they do work in all recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer - Please let me know if you are using a different browser on what result you get!

• As you may have noticed, this site now has a Message board which can be used by anyone without signing up for discussions, articles or news - For brief news please still enter this into the Guestbook, as it is much quicker to use and view.  This is also now a mailing list which you can sign up to in which I will send out a monthly review of the Dennis Dart news - The first review will be sent towards at end of March covering the whole of March, so as to give people some time to sign up.

• Apart from Arriva 1184 now being allocated to Huyton , ex Warrington there isn't too much news today.

• James Rowlands has confirmed that as well as Bettabus still being an operational company, but just using the same depot as LMS, it has never operated L201 GHM, so its owner is still unknown - Possibly the observer mistook a Volvo B6 for it and wasn't too sharp on registration plates, or possibly it was just a hoax - I don't know!

• Thanks to all who have joined the Dart Clubs, Group and Webring - To all of you who haven't, please join and remember the FREE e-mail service is still available with nearly all addresses still available!

• I think now that Arriva have a policy of giving me and the other Merseyside bus website owners something to do every day by making sure that they reallocate some vehicles every 4-5 days or so, just to keep the websites interesting!!! - A bit like the site itself, every few days in my I.T. lessons, I discover something new that I could add to the site, like the colored scroll bars, and add them!!!!!!

• I have now added the rest of the news from bottom of this page, from before the 23/01/01 to the Archive news section.  An odd working I saw yesterday was of Halton 67 operating on the 61 Liverpool - Runcorn, instead of one of the SLF/SPD Darts.   W365 ABD was once again operating route 224 City Centre Circular, after its absence on Saturday - I thought it may have returned off-lease as a result of the two new X-reg Darts being delivered.  I have added a few notes and made a few corrections to the Avon & First PMT fleetlists today, information courtesy of John Cooper - Although I know that neither First Manchester of Isle of Man Transport operate in Merseyside, there fleetlists really now make the fleetlists section more of a 'North West' section, but as other operators from Merseyside operate  into Manchester, such as Arriva I though they were worth adding.

• I shall soon be adding some more links to this site, including the obvious ones, such as the official Dennis website, and the body manufactures such as Plaxton, Marshall etc.

• I hope you all like the new colour scheme, let me know what you think, but I definitely think it is easier to read from this background colour.  I will be concluding the current Quizlet at the 18th, one year after Arriva's purchase of MTL, and placing the final results on the page, but has anyone any ideas for a new survey? - Just a note is that there is a survey on SDL Dart bodies on the eGroup page, but for the web-site Quizlet there can only be a maximum of 6 different responses - Please send any of your ideas to me at buses7675@dennisdart.every1.net or buses7675@altavista.com - All suggestions are welcome!!!

• As you can see I have once again given the site a 'makeover', by changing the background colour to a slightly brighter shade of blue - Let me know what you think!

• I have now received enough information so as to add a First Manchester & Isle of Man Transport fleetlist to this site, along with improved entry to service dates for many fleets, including nearly every Arriva NW vehicle.  John Cooper has once again supplied some more information for Arriva NW which has been added, and First PMT which will be added tomorrow.  Unusual workings seen on Thursday the 8th include that of an unidentified Halton Lynx operating the 61 Liverpool - Runcorn in place on the usual Dart, and also one of the vehicles an the Selwyns operated Liverpool Airport Express 500 on both Thursday and Saturday was a W-reg Mercedes Benz Vario minibus with Marshall bodywork, again in place of the usual Dart.  Also unusually noted on Thursday was Dart 2266 operating on the 81, a route which is normally only operated by Speke B10B's and Olympians.  Odd workings on Saturday the 10th included one of the Bootle Plaxton Dart SLF's was operating on the 61 Bootle - Aigburth, Supertravel was operating X1 STM on the 224 on Saturday instead of the usual W365 ABD, and on the 173/4, Supertravel was operating T7 STM, instead of one of the Smart Eco MPD's.

• One working which is now becoming more commonplace is that of First Crosville Scanias on the Cross River Route X8 in place of usual Plaxton Darts, as these have been seen on it by me on many occasions, though I have not yet ever seen one of First Crosville's Dart SLF's.

• I still have no idea who operated L201 GHM on the 86, so as I suspect it may have been Bettabus, I shall try to find out - Just a note to add about Bettabus is that apparently one of LMS's Atlanteans operated the 35 last Sunday (The last day Bettabus operated the 35) with a note in the window saying 'On Loan to Bettabus'

• I will add some more photographs to the site over this week, including some of the Arriva 17xx temporary Smart Darts (If anyone has got some photographs of these and would be willing to have them on the site, please e-mail them to me at buses7675@dennisdart.every1.net - Thanks), and some of the Wirral Bus & Trams show Darts, including Chester 373  V373 KLG, Arriva Wales Linxx branded SDC 590 V590 DJC, First Manchester 6202 S765 RNE, which is an ex Springfield Coachways MPD, though it strangely has a SPD transfer on the back bumper! and a photograph of Merseyside's only Low Floor Double Decker, Aintree Coachline Dennis Trident ELC Lolyne W5 ACL.

• As you may well know Go-Ahead have now withdrawn from the purchase of Gillmoss garage from Arriva, as noted yesterday in fleetlists, as they weren't too happy about Arriva still operating the routes 12/13/14/53 & 55 that were all ex Gillmoss routes.  As a result they are definitely going to own it past the one year mark on the 18/02/01. The Office of Fair Trading are going to advise (or tell!) Arriva what to do in the next few weeks, but due to the poor condition of some of its Titans they may POSSIBLY allow Arriva to keep the garage so long as it replaces the Titans quickly with some new Low-Floor double decks.  Anyway back to Darts, this may result in 7601 getting another repaint into Arriva livery!!!!

• A new Dart seen operating yesterday was Supertravel X1 STM, another Supertravel liveried Plaxton Pointer 2 MPD, seen by me operating the 165 Belle Vale Circular.  Also noted yesterday, unusually for a weekday was the use of Arriva Bootle 2231 on the 62 - These Darts normally only operate on this route on Sundays.

• News received yesterday was that Arriva Darts 7540 - 7543 had been reallocated to Warrington, as I reported in the Guestbook, but at least 7543 either hasn't been transferred yet, or isn't going to be transferred as it was still being operated by Speke yesterday on the 79 - I will therefore wait for confirmation of the situation before altering the fleetlists.  Oddly of the four Darts, 7540 is a Huyton bus, 7541 & 7542 are St. Helens and 7543 is Speke - Arriva must be playing by numbers!!!

• Remember you are all still welcome to join the Dennis Dart Group, which a few of you have, and the Dennis Dart Club, of which I am still the only member!!!!! - You can also still get a FREE e-mail service from this site now with <username>@dennisdart.every1.net addresses

• I was surprised to learn yesterday that the rest of the MTL Carlyle Darts have now been renumbered into the 11xx series.  The thing I want to know is why, as the 11xx series is more cramped than the 74xx series, and as there are currently no repeats in the combined Merseyside/Manchester/North West fleet except the two 1211, 1218 & 1219s, but the Gillmoss Olympians are going to be sold anyway, so why?! - For more details, and other alterations, see the Arriva NW Fleetlist

• You may have noticed that this site now has its own e-mail facility with <user-name>@dennisdart.every1.net addresses - You are all welcome to sign up if you want by using this link at the bottom of the homepage, but as a  result you can now also send e-mail to me at buses7675@dennisdart.every1.net as well as buses7675@altavista.com - At least with the two addresses it is unlikely that my disk will ever fill up again!!!  I get all of my eGroup and Club mail sent to the altavista address, so this is more likely to fill up faster, so it may be easier to send mails to me at the new address, but I WILL still be checking both regularly, so you don't need to change your address book!!!!

• If anyone wants to join the Dennis Dart web ring who has a website, but doesn't want the navigation bar on the bottom of there page, you are welcome to join without it.  The only person who checks is me, and personally I'm not really too bothered if you don't wish to have it on your site - If you do though, Great!!!

• By the way, we have passed the 1000 visitors mark now, as i was the 1000th at around 1 O'Clock yesterday afternoon!!!

• I still haven't found out who owned L201 GHM, but if it was Bettabus, then I don't think we will be seeing it out for a while, as the company no longer has any registered daytime services, as they withdrew there route 35 and 86 services at the weekend.

• I have also now got the thumbnail of 7540 working - I don't know why it didn't work, but I just uploaded it again and its fine now - Sorry Dave!!!

• Once again John Cooper has supplied more information to update the First PMT fleetlist - Thanks John!!!

• More photographs have been added to the Dart photos today including MTL 7647 & 7645, Arriva NW 1300 and Arriva Cymru SDC 565 in one photograph, Supertravel T6 STM & Express Travel P454 DCW - Added to the other photographs is Arriva NW 1292 & 6303 in one photograph.  The film with the Arriva Neoplan N4009's at Gillmoss, and First Red Rider REL 905 is still in my camera, but when I get it developed, it will be on the site very soon after.  Other photographs to be added on the near future include some of the 17xx Temporary Smart Darts, and K930 EWG, 6401, the first Smart bus.

• News to report is that the Alexander ALX200 Darts are now back onto the route 79 after nearly a weeks absence, which was for no apparent reason, but it did mean that we had some Titans and Olympians!!!! - Also Arriva NW still are the legal owners of Darts 7601 - 7611 T601 JBA - T611 JBA, as the deal with Go-Ahead still hasn't gone through.

• Just to note also that the current Quizlet on the site will end on the 18/02/01, exactly one year after Arriva bought MTL - I will then publish the final results on this page and start a new quiz/survey off!! - As we speak it appears that Plaxton Pointers in the lead - Please remember that you are all welcome to join the Dennis Dart Club & Group, and for web site owners, the Dennis Dart Webring - All of the links on the main page now work!!!  - I must thank you all for visiting the page now, as we now have nearly, or may have by the time you read this, passed the 1000 visitor total on the counter!!!!!

• A big thanks must go to John Cooper for the vast amount of information supplied for yesterdays updates - He has also supplied some updates for First PMT which will go on-line on Monday.  Just to note that the sale of Arriva Merseyside's Gillmoss garage to Go-Ahead didn't go ahead as thought yesterday! - Not that Arriva appear to be in any rush to sell it, as in another 16 days, and on the 18/02/01, Arriva will have owned it for a whole year!!!!

• It now appears that contrary to previous reports that ex Arriva London P952 RUL - P968 RUL are now not going to be transferred to Merseyside.  Some more photographs should go on-line on Monday, including one of 79 branded MTL North livery 7647, and possibly one of 7645 in 'Live it up in Liverpool, were even the buses get down!!!' livery, courtesy of Simon Ackers.

• Another note about Gillmoss is that 7601 was seen yesterday unusually operating the route 3, Liverpool - Kirkby.  Also noted, and ridden on was 7411 on the 79, so it has fortunately returned to use as a service bus.  Oddly, on the 31/01/01, I saw 2269 running through Paradise Street Bus Station, with most of its seat cushions, in the nearside luggage rack - I've no idea why, as it has only been in service for less than a month.  I have added a few further notes to the Arriva NW fleetlist for 7411, as I noted that oddly it has round headlamps instead of the usual rectangular ones, and its nearside display, is electronic, reading route 2, with it half covered over with a bit of card.

• I still haven't got around to altering the fleetlists, but I have added some more photographs - Some by Andy Jackson, and some by myself.  The added ones are Arriva 1153, 2219, 2258, 2271  & Belfast 634 on the Dart section, and MTL 0654, 0703, Arriva 2436 and Liverline J412 NCP to the other photographs section.  By the way my e-mail is now working, I just had too many files stored on the account, as I had forgotten to empty the trash, so the mails were building up - Please feel free to send contributions to me at buses7675@altavista.com - You can also now also leave your contributions on either the Dennis Dart Yahoo Group, or the even newer Dennis Dart Club.  The Group is meant to be for local stuff, the club for national, but it isn't too important, but with the club you can find out if I am on-line at the time, which I am for a lot of the of the weekday, and you can send a Yahoo Instant message to me.  My Yahoo I.D. is  buses7675 - It will say on the main club screen if I or any of the other members are on-line with Yahoo Instant Messenger at the time, and if you click on buses7675 you can send me a message, and I should respond in a few seconds.  If you already use Yahoo messenger you can send me one anyway, offline or online.  Please join both the Club and Group.  Also for those of you with websites, there is now also a Dennis Dart Webring - Please join if you have either a Merseyside based site, or and Dennis Dart based site.

•   After it appears that Arriva Dart 7411 was used in the Training School at Bootle I can gladly report that it is now back in revenue earning service, as it was on the 79 yesterday.  I still cannot confirm who owns L201 GHM, but as it was on the 86 is could have been Bettabus, as it was apparently in London Red, and the owner of Bettabus, James Rowlands does like ex London Darts - We shall wait and see.....

• Arriva NW fleetlist updated again, and others will be very soon thanks to info from John Cooper - Tanner St. Helens to also be added.  Former Mersey Darts will be updated soon too!

• It seems that since I established the eGroup last Thursday, Yahoo have now put there mark on the eGroups, as the owners, so they are now Yahoo Groups! - Please join the Dennis Dart group if you have not already done so!!!

• Even more new photographs will be added soon from Andy Jackson and myself.  A new Dart was apparently seen operating the 86 recently, registration L201 GHM, but I cannot be sure which operator yet, so I will add it to the relevant fleetlist when I find out.  Just a note too that 1286 is the only M erg Dart formerly operated by Arriva London North East, so no more of that batch will follow - The Alexander SLF's will be next!!! - Just a note for those of you who have websites - Would you please join my Dennis Dart webring, for all Merseyside & any Dennis Dart Web Sites - See the link at the bottom of the main page!!!!

• I hope you all like the enhanced site, including a virtually new photographs section!!! - As requested some time ago, I have now created a Dennis Dart web ring in the form of an eGroup - The link on the main page will allow you to join - Otherwise use this link

• Arriva NW are now apparently due another 16 ex Arriva London North East Darts, this time Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M, Alexander ALX200's.  They are registered P952 RUL - P968 RUL.  I predict that they could gain fleetnumbers in the 13xx series, possibly 1352 - 1368.  They were originally purchased in 1997 by Grey-Green, and originally had the fleetnumbers 952 - 968.  They were first placed into service on the 8th March 1997 for London services 20 & 167 and have red steel frame bus seats.

• I have noticed last week that there are less of the ALX Darts, and Wright DAF's on the 79 and to replace them, more Olympians - Does anyone know if this is because of the serious overcrowding that the low capacity buses brought about?

• Although Arriva Green Lane doesn't actually have a Dart allocation on Friday 26/01/01, I  saw an unidentified East Lancs 9.8M Dart inside the garage, along with Huyton 7571.  Also seen inside the depot were a few Millennium Olympians (Why, I don't know as they are about to be sold!), including 0312 and Plaxton Prestige DAF SB220GS 1401 R151 GNW was also inside with its blind set for the 14.  I can also confirm that 1286 M950 LYR is B40F, with a standing capacity of 17.  An interesting piece of information I discovered after looking through my EFE bus models was that 1286 is also ex Grey-Green, as a model of it is produced, so I can tell you its former fleetnumber is 950.  Its EFE model number is 20617.  The other Arriva NW Dart model is of 1179, which is route branded for the Cityplus 350/351 Maghull - Liverpool - EFE model number 20622.  Two other Arriva NW buses that are modeled by Original Omnibus are 0607 in BeeLine / North Western livery, and 0309 in Millennium MTL livery.

• Not much to report, apart from Arriva NW now having a 367th Dart, 1101 L941 GYL.  I have also added three new fleetlists to the site, and on Monday 29/01/01 I will be completely revising the photographs section, with many more photographs, including a few non Darts! I will also create a thumbnails so as to speed up loading times, so as all photographs can be seen quickly, before you choose which ones to view full-size.  If you would like to submit any photographs, remember you can send them to me at buses7675@altavista.com

• Further to yesterdays news, I have received confirmation that M950 LYR is 1286 as I suspected.  Also further to my Christmas holiday news, it appears that at least one Dart did operate on Christmas day, this being On-Line's W386 WGE - It was operating the 212 Liverpool - Huyton.

• I was amazed, when traveling on Arriva 1110 yesterday to see how few seats there are in them - Only 31 - This is as the layout is not only very spacious, but also the front three nearside seats are single seats only, not double as is the norm.  1110 also still had an advert in it asking for new bus drivers for Arriva London North East!!!

• The number of Darts operated in Merseyside is still increasing, with the delivery of Arriva 2267 & 2271, completing the batch of 9 Alexander ALX200 Darts that were on order - I expect that more Darts will probably be in the 2001 order, as although it is mainly meant to be of full size single deckers, Arriva are likely to put in a few Darts too I think!  Arriva now also have 1105, 1107, 1110 & 1286.  The 11xx Darts are in the L9xx GYL series, but 1286 is M950 LYR - I cannot be sure that 1286 is its fleet number, as when I noted it, I took 1296 down, abut as this is a Lance, I expect 1286 is correct.  For further info and news, see the Arriva Merseyside / Manchester / Northwest Fleetlist page.

• It appears than the Carlyle Darts are now becoming more common on the H5, with them having been absent from that route for a while, does anyone know why this had suddenly changed?  Noted on the Supertravel 173/4 on 14/01/01 was T6 STM, in place of one of the V-reg Smart Eco MPD's.

• It would seem that Citybus S511 KTL has been involved in a collision, as when seen on 15/01/01, its bumper and surround was covered in unpainted filler.

• Thanks for to all for your info regarding the new deliveries to Avon Coaches and the Arriva 110x series Darts - 1104, 1106 & 1109 are now all at Huyton.  Selwyns appear to have another new Dart, this time an Dennis Dart MPD 8.8M, with Alexander ALX200 bodywork, W937 JMF, which I saw on route 500 three times on the 11/01/01.

• Other odd workings to report are Arriva Dart 7560 on the 408 Woodchurch - Liverpool Cross River service on the 9th, along with Express Travel liveried Dart P456 DCW, on the 176, a route which is normally operated by Smart Eco liveried Darts.  Speke garage are still getting new deliveries of not only DAF SB120's, but also more ALX200 Darts on the shape of 2269 X269 OBN.  These Alexander Darts, and Wright DAF's are now becoming the norm on the route 79.

• Dart 2268 now appears to have MTL style internal fleetnumbers similar to those on Titans internal numbers.  They are gold in colour, and are much like the taller fleetnumbers latterly used by MTL - Why they have been applied I do not know, but it seems that MTL never really will completely die off!!! - Its about as confusing as Dart 1123, which having had never been an MTL bus, nor has it ever been allocated to an ex. MTL garage, it still somehow manages to have MTL legal lettering!!!

• I have now also revised the layout & added a few Darts to the Former Darts fleetlist, accessible through the Mersey Dart Facts page.

• Thanks for all your e-mail & Guestbook updates - It's good to think that people do visit the site and help to improve its accuracy and keep it up to date!!!  I have added a few links to the Links section, including Halton Transport, Warrington Borough Transport & AC's (See Guestbook!) Hong Kong Bus Enthusiasts Page.  Thanks for info about L939 GYL, 1109, it is useful when accuracy can be enhanced.

• It seems that 7817 K817 NKH, although repainted into Arriva livery may now have been transferred to Bootle as a Driver Trainer! - If so I wonder if it will be repainted into the trainer livery that the Nationals are in, and if it is to replace one on the Nationals anyway! - I must say how I think it is sad that Arriva appear to have withdrawn one - Lets just hope it is only temporary, and will go back into service, preferably at Speke again. I think James Rowlands of Bettabus will be very sad to see it go too, as it is his favourite Dart! - I hope my favourite Dart, 7411 K911 OEM is not on its way out too, as it seemed full of life last week when I had a ride upon it on the 79.

• I have now FINALLY added another photo of 7601 to the photographs page, courtesy of Andy Jackson.

• New Darts also operating on Merseyside include Avon's 821/2 X821/2 XCK, which are 10.8M ELC Spryte Darts.  It seems Norbus is the operator of V899 DNB, which is a Plaxton MPD - They will be added to there fleetlists soon!

• News to report also is of Bootle 2217 operating a run on the 14 on the 07/01/01, and also 7641 being used as a Driver Trainer.  Arriva 1269 & 1270 are now reallocated to Warrington garage.

• I FINALLY managed  to update the site today - Sorry about the inconvenience, which must have been caused by 20m's server, as the page, as many have you have said was offline over Christmas - I'd complain to 20m, but I'd never get a reply anyway, so I don't think it is worth the bother as long as it doesn't happen again! - NOTE - There are several items of news below, which are all new - they are dated when I wrote them, but they were all put on-line, today, the 08/01/01.

• Anyway, Arriva NW now have its first new Darts for this year, being 2268 X268 OBN & 2272 X272 OBN.  Both are allocated to Speke, and 2272 was on the 79 yesterday. Other new buses delivered to Arriva, though not Darts, I think they are worthy of coverage here are 2 Volvo B10BLE's, 2701 & 2702, which are currently stored at St. Helens garage, pending use - Whether they will be allocated there or not I don't know, but at least they are the first new single deck buses delivered to Arriva/MTL/North Western since the P-reg Scanias to MTL & R-reg Scanias to North Western.

• Also observed yesterday was 2228, route branded for the 53 on the 61 Bootle - Aigburth, and an unidentified Warrington Dart on the H5 route branded for the 20/21, also seen on the H5 on Friday 05/01/01 was Arriva NW's oldest Dart 1138 G128 RGT.  Halton 71 was once again on the 61, Liverpool - Runcorn on Friday too.  As you can see I have added some colour to fleet & registration numbers on this news page - Hope you like them & find them useful!!!

• Happy New Year - I have again tried to put this on-line today, but due to problems with 20m, which is why is was off-line during Christmas I was unable too.  Anyway, there are several big updates of 'new' news - see below.  I have now also added an Arriva Cheshire list for Winsford garage as this isn't, and hasn't been part of Arriva North West since April 1 2000 - Sorry for leaving the two transferred Darts 1137 &1331 in the list.  As well as in the Arriva Cheshire list, the two ex. North West Darts mentioned above are also in a small table at he bottom of the main Arriva North West list, to show what there ex. Arriva North West fleet numbers are.  I have also compiled a list of Darts that used to operated on Merseyside with a particular operator, this list can be found using the link on the Mersey Dart Facts page.  There is now also an Archive news section containing last years news, so all of the news on this page is new 2001 news!

• Today, I noticed Arriva Southport Dart 7624 V264 DBN on the 284, and St. Helens 1125 on the 10.

• Not much to report today, apart from two ALX200's on the Arriva 79, and a B10M on the H5, but both of these are becoming more common as Speke gets more buses, and Warrington gets its B10M's back from Southport.

• Some more odd workings to report today are the use of Halton 71 on a daytime 14 - a service that is advertised as running with a low floor bus.  Two odd vehicles were on the H5 today, both of them only displaying the route number 5, as they appeared not to have an H on their bilnds.  The buses were an unidentified, even though I saw it twice in different locations, Carlyle Dartline Dart, and even rarer Leyland Lynx, 380 D634 BBV.  This is the ex. Nova Scotia Lynx allocated to Warrington, but this didn't even have a blind to display the destination Warrington, as when I traveled on it there was a card in the window! - I think that both of these vehicles were covering for unavailable Plaxton Darts.  One thing I have noticed about the H5 is that except on Sundays, when it is a Merseytravel subsidised route operated by Warrington Borough Dart SLF's, there are NO low floor vehicles on this route ever!!! - Does anyone know of an other routes that never have low floor buses on them, as I think Arriva Warrington garage must win the award for the only Arriva garage to have a zero low floor allocation!!!!

• HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL - Though this, any many other parts of the site are dated 01/01/01, though were not on-line then, this is the date I got around to typing them all up.  I have added much information to the fleetlists section, including Express Travel & Warrington Borough Transport lists - I have also finally got the Mersey Dart Facts section started!!!  Thanks for all of your e-mails that I received over Christmas, which included an additional photograph of 7601 in Arriva livery which should be on the site soon.

• I noticed loads of odd workings over the holiday, so they are summarised below - to note, Huyton garage was closed on Boxing Day and New Years Day, so its services were covered by Speke garage.