• Welcome to the first news update to this site in over a month! Thank you for being patient and continuing to send in information, the delay has been due to various matters, including additional work hours I have had to work due to poor health of some of the management, and also due to a few upgrades I have made to the software on this PC, which is now running Windows XP Professional SP1 and the website is now being authored with Dreamweaver MX 2004 7.01, which is a big improvement on the previous 7.0 edition!

• Major news of late is the arrival of a further three TransBus Dart SPD 11.3M/ELC Myllennium Sprytes for Halton Transport, those being 44 DK04 MKG, 45 DK04 MKF, 46 DK04 MKJ & 47 DK04 MKE. These are in a slightly revised livery without any Low Floor branding, which is now to be standard, as all services apart from a few school contracts are operated by low floor Darts!  Apparently new buses have in the cab side window, glass made of double skinned bonded glass which a brick cannot pass through, allegedly also bullet proof, which is now part of Halton Transports standard spec. All other buses have now had anti vandal film fitted to cab windows to contain any bricks and broken glass.

• GTL Glenvale Transport are continuing to name is vehicles, some with rather more bizarre names than others, such as the former Greenbus 2084 T37 CCK, which has recently been repainted, and named 'FIONNULA' - Other slightly less odd names include, all of which are on Alexander Dashes (B6s or Darts) are 'NICHOLE', 'DOUGLAS', 'DEB' and perhaps the not so normal 'LOGIE' - The GTL fleetlists will be updated in the next few days with full up to date fleetlist including all currently known names!  David Sidor, a GTL Aintree (or CMT Buses!) employee has contacted me, and advised me that Lynx 2059 F208 MBT is now withdrawn, as is Volvo B6/Plaxton Pointer 7245 L245 TKA which Karl Sutton reported stored at CMT back in November, despite being repainted and named 'VALERIE', it seems it never entered service after repaint!

• Dave also reports that the CMT Volvo B10B/Alexander Strider that was involved in the fatal at Garston on New Years Eve was 2074 M393 VWX, which is still impounded by the Police after nearly three whole months.  Many CMT vehicles have now had their fleetnumber stickers replaced with white GTL ones (despite still having the same numbers), and causing further confusion on the numbering system, Dennis Dart/Wright Handybuses 7505 and 7508 have both transferred from Gillmoss to Aintree, yet still have their MTL 75xx series numbers, even though other vehicles from the same batch at Aintree still have 20xx numbers, 2094 indeed even having has its numbers changed last week to white ones, despite still not being repainted!!!

• GTL are intending to give up many of the Merseytravel contracts that it inherited from CMT, those known to be going in April are the 102A, 168, 209 & 218 - Of these, the 102A is believed to be going to Arriva Green Lane, with the original daytime service 102 going to Gillmoss too!  The replacement operators of the other routes are as yet unknown, though Supertravel seem a likely candidate, as they will have a few spare vehicles and drivers, as they lost the 224 in February due to the Arriva Le Bus changes, whilst route 111 moves to HTL Huyton Travel in a weeks time.  As a little reminder of the CMT/GTL 168, see this [photo] by Neil Hilton, showing the rather unusual spelling of Aigburth!

• Merseytravel are making further changes to its Joblink network from April 4th, with some routes withdrawn, others altered, two new routes starting, 801 (Paradise Street Bus Station - Broadgreen/Alder Hey Hospitals) and 802 (Brunswick Station - Broadgreen/Alder Hey Hospitals), whilst another new route to be operated by Supertravel (possibly with the bus from the 111!) is the 886 (Halewood - Garston Station) though this is considered to be Smart, not Joblink, despite replacing services 883/884!  It is thought that the 801 & 802 will be operated by North Liverpool Community Transport, although this is still to be confirmed.  For further details see the Travel News Update 4th April page of the Merseytravel site.

• Over on the Wirral, Raddoneur who operate a lot of the Joblink services are still bringing some extremely odd buses into service, even borrowing from Wirral Community Transport (Raddoneur is the commercial arm of this company!), Neil Hilton has noted this rather odd Fiat Ducato minibus on Merseytravel route 125 [photo]!

• More news (and photos) very hopefully sometime this week, along with fleetlist updates!

• Not a great deal of news items to include since the last update, but still enough worthy of an update, those added include the rather interesting situation that has now arisen with the former Smart 1, 4, 5 routes!  Fleetlists should next be updated within before early next week!

• As reported earlier, Smart services 1, 4 & 5 were replaced by commercially operated Arriva 'Le Bus' services 1, 4 & 4A on 09/02/2004, but at the same time Merseytravel withdrew its routes 222/224 (City Centre Circular), and routes 100 & 200 were rerouted, so as to no longer serve the Albert Dock complex.  Following this, Merseytravel then started additional subsidised routes 2 & 3 which are also City Centre Circulars (one clockwise, one anti-clockwise), though these take a different route, and are seemingly not as useful as the 222/224 - Arriva (Bootle garage) won the contracts for these routes, which have been operated with a variety of vehicles since, including Plaxton and Alexander bodied Dart SLFs, and even an East Lancs EL2000 step entrance Dart was noted which will really please Merseytravel!  Many of the former Smart Darts, 2314 - 2324 have now been repainted into Arriva corporate livery, many of which have gained either 'Le Bus 1' or 'Le Bus 4' branding.

• GTL Glenvale Transport have continued to repaint and name its recently acquired Alexander Dash bodied buses, those noted recently being Dart 7114 (unknown reg) 'ZOE-LEE', B6 7261 L416 JBD 'KEIGHLY', B6 7265 (thought to be L837 CDG) 'RYAN' (This also has a new LED display), whilst the name 'EMMA-LOUISE' is on an unidentified Dash!  Thanks to Karl Sutton and Neil Hilton for this info!  GTL currently have two know duplicate names, with B6 7246 L246 TKA and Dart 7102 K109 XHG both being named 'GRAEME', similarly Dart 7101 J549 GCD and Titan 2570 NUW 570Y are both named 'LAUREN'!

• On 22nd January, Dave Root rather interestingly noted a red TransBus Enviro200 demonstrator on test in Liverpool!  He saw it on Liver Street, main registration still reading 'Enviro200' but using trade plates 860 OR.  It is possible that this could have been with a view to eventually use the type on a City Centre circular (assumedly routes 2 & 3 now!) as Merseytravel do intend to get a hybrid fuel bus on a city centre route.

• Chester City Transport have now repainted one of its former Park & Ride Scanias into its standard Blue Diamond livery for low floor buses, seen here photographed by John Murray is 82 R82 EMB [photo] - This livery seems to suit this type well, it just seems odd that only this one is repainted, as all the others are in the new Park & Ride livery, which they work alongside the new BMC Falcons!

• HAPPY NEW YEAR - A bit late, but I've been hard at work revising for my exams, and actually at work earning some money!

• Supertravel have now begun receiving the first of its Optare Solos, those noted so far being YN53 ZWH (which lives on the 224) and YN53 ZWJ (which lives on the 165) - These two seem to have replaced the two Alexander ALX200 bodied Darts Y184 KNB and Y185 KNB which used to always operate the same two routes - Interestingly, these two Darts seem to have been withdrawn earlier than their final Marshall Minibus, R112 VLX which was noted in service on the 173/174 (Belle Vale - Allerton/Penny Lane) late last week!   Neither of the Solos have yet received fleet numbers, both are in full fleet livery and a total of around 8 is expected altogether.

• Peoplesbus unusually managed to win one of the Boxing Day/New Years Day contracts in the holiday, that being the 61 (Bootle - Aigburth), noted by Peter Ferrigan (Boxing Day) and myself (New Years Day)!  Vehicles used were smartly turned out Titans, along with its recent acquisition DAF SB220/Ikarus Citibus J51 GCX, which is in fleet livery, B48F and new in 07/92 to Strathclyde.  I intend to contact Peoplesbus sometime shortly to confirm the current status of their fleet as I've a feeling some of the older Atlanteans may now have left.

• Arriva didn't successfully win the daytime contract to operate Smart services 1, 4 & 5 after February 9th, but in order to ensure that any other operator (most probably GTL) didn't win, Arriva have decided to operate the routes commercially from February 9th, evening services will continue to be subsidised, and assumedly operated by Arriva though the evening service contracts are unconfirmed.  Signs of this impending change are already apparent, as Dart 2323 T323 PNB had been repainted into standard Arriva livery by Sat 10/01/2004, noted on Smart 1.  This is the fourth coat of paint since new, having been delivered in unbranded original Smart, then having two repaints in Smart Eco and this fourth Arriva repaint!

• On the subject of Smart services, it is still believed that the Halton 14, Arriva 79/79C/79D and the GTL/CMT 79 will all become Smart services from sometime around about April.  It is unclear what Arriva are going to use, but it is believed to possibly be some newish DAF DB250/Alexander ALX400s from London for the Speke 79/79D, with some single deck Darts/DAFs for the Runcorn 79C.  Halton don't need to do anything really, their fleet is very new and clean, the route is 100% low floor except in emergencies, and all the newer Darts either already have, or are having Smart timecheckers fitted!  GTL are not be lived to have ordered anything yet, though this is unconfirmed.

• LMS have bizarrely now started to compete with Arrivas 699 (Liverpool University - Carnatic Halls) service, by operating its own similar route 99, using ex London rear entrance Routemaster SMK 723F, noted in service on Monday by Dave Root!

• Arriva have now started to replace the electro-mechanical destination displays in the Cross River Volvo Olympians with LED units, the first three noted being 3286, 3293 & 3301 - Similarly Mercedes Minibus 0160 also has one, as it is backup for the Optare Aleros operated from Chester.  On this note too, there are now another two Optare Aleros at Chester, although they are not brand new, those being 0614 VU02 TTF & 0615 VU02 TTV.

• Fleetlists should be updated tomorrow or Friday, as today was my last exam, I've a bit more free time now!  Hope you like the revised site colours too!