Merseyside Dennis Dart Website

• Stagecoach Merseyside received its first new bus on Sunday 04/09/2005 - That being 34741 PX55 EDF, an Alexander Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2 [photo] as noted on the main page of this site! As well as the above photo, Karl Sutton (who has provided all of todays Stagecoach photos) was also able to get some other pics of this bus, including an interior view [photo] (layout is B38F) and a rear view [photo] showing the LED lights! This was the first bus to arrive brand new at Gillmoss for just over 6½ years as the last brand new buses were Marshall Darts 7601 - 7611 which arrived in March 1999! A second new Dart to arrive at Gillmoss is 34742 PX55 EDJ - The Stagecoach Merseyside fleetlist is also now fully updated with all new no's and new/acquired buses and is now on the mySQL server, much like the Arriva list, so can be viewed per depot, and will shortly have a fleet/registration number search facility added!

• A second acquired TransBus Dart SLF 10.7M/TransBus Pointer 2 from Stagecoach North West is 34477 PX53 DKD [photo] which like all other Darts damaged in the floods at Carlisle in January, now has a T suffix on its fleetnumber, believed to stand for 'Tidal'! If anyone knows otherwise, or if this is correct, please let me know!

• Quite a few ex GTL vehicles have now been repainted into Stagecoach livery, including ex CMT Dennis Dart SLF/Wright Crusader 33133 P811 YCW [photo], and ex MTL Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital 33166 T604 JBA [photo] and 33167 T605 JBA [photo], T605 JBA having been the last Marshall Dart in MTL livery! Two former CMT vehicles are also now back on the road after long periods out of use, those being what was GTLs newest bus Dennis Dart SPD/Alexander Pointer 33179 PN02 KCG noted in service in town today (no pic sorry!), still in overall red, whilst Volvo B10L/Wright Liberator 21072 R872 LHG [photo] which was seen in July by Mark Haldon at the Aintree depot with half its side and back missing arrived back at in Liverpool today, having been refurbished at Carlisle. As can be seen, this is now in Stagecoach livery with retrimmed seats, repainted grab poles and according to Karl, very clean and tidy inside! Currently away for refurbishment still are Optare Solo 47159 S44 ABC and Volvo B10L 21068 R868 LHG neither of which have been used for some time!

• A good number of buses now wear their new fleetnumbers too, with almost all those at Aintree depot doing so. Generally, it seems that when applied, they are only added to the front, although all old numbers are removed, whilst Aintree also apppear to be removing the front names from any of its buses too! Then final photo taken today by Karl is of a line up of Titans at Gillmoss [photo], possibly the last one of these all complete with their fleetplates!

• Quick bit of Arriva news is that over the weekend many buses were on loan to Crewe depot to cover the diagrams on the Crewe Works Open Day Shuttles, with amongst other local buses, two of the Speke Palatine Is were in use, along with 3049 B149 TRN [photo] seen by Chris McCann on Saturday!

• Applogies for todays news being entirely photos my copy of Dreamweaver seems to be going mad today, keeps resetting - time for a reinstall I think - ended up finishing this in Notepad!

• Stagecoach Merseyside are continuing to update its fleet with yet more Volvo B10Ms, Leyland Olympians and further Volvo B6/Alexander Dash being brought in, one very usual arrival at Gillmoss depot last week was Volvo B6LE/Wright Crusader 30342 N416 KPS [photo] last used at Stagecoach North West, but new to Docherty, Irvine. It is expected to enter service shortly, following some work being completed on it. An even more notable vehicle, although slightly more common is almost new TransBus Dart SLF 10.7M/TransBus Pointer 2 34478 PX53 DKE [photo] which arrived from Stagecoach North West today, which was a bus caught up in the flooding at Carlisle in January! Stagecoach branding is also being applied to vehicles, although this is being done progressively over weeks, rather than overnight like when GTL started, the transfers used have a white background, and the usual Stagecoach logo and name. Titans and the sole Metrobus 15924/818 OJD 818Y have larger offside logos to cover the GTL branding, which also have the word Merseyside below, as seen here on Titan 10733/2733 OHV 733Y [photo].

• Repaints have also started on the former GTL fleet, with two buses having been done at Gillmoss so far, with Volvo B6/Alexander Dash 30957/7297 M844 EMW being the first treated, also being the first ex GTL bus to wear its new fleetnumber. This bus had been in Stagecoach livery anyway, but with a mess of liveries on the front (due to panel replacement prior to arrival at GTL), but was done in order to test the painting methods. The first bus to gain the livery for the first time was splendid looking Dennis Dart SLF/ELC Spryte 33150/7461 P461 DCW [photo], a bus that had only recently gained GTL livery and been named IZZY! This had been painted early as it had some engine fault and so was in Gillmoss, but also I believe they are trying to get all the low floor buses painted quickly, with at least one Marshall Dart and one Wright Crusader Dart in the repaint 'queue'! Big thanks to Karl Sutton for all of the Stagecoach Merseyside photographs!

• So far at Stagecoach Merseyside, only the two repainted buses, along with post-takeover acquisitions have their national numbers applied, although as noted last time, some of the Olympians also have local numbers for the time being. The Stagecoach acquisitions so far are as follows:

Leyland Olympian/Alexander 14045 G645 EVV, 14046 G646 EVV, 14048 G648 EVV, 14180 G183 JHG & 14183 G180 JHG.

Volvo B6/Alexander Dash 30652 L652 HKS, 30670 M670 SSX, 30671 M671 SSX & 30672 M672 SSX

Volvo B10M/Alexander PS 20661 K791 DAO, 20700 K700 DAO, 20701 K701 DAO, 20702 K702 DAO, 20725 K725 DAO, 20748 K748 DAO, 20749 K749 DAO, 20921 R921 XVM, 20931 R931 XVM, 20934 R934 XVM & 20980 R980 XVM

• A bit of news from other operators is that Avon Coaches have recently acquired two Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointers IIs Y213 BGB and Y486 TSU to replace two of the Lance SLFs. Full details will be in the fleetlist update from Mark Haldon, which will be uploaded on Friday.

• I was sent quite a few more pics for todays update from Karl Sutton, Neil Hilton and James Rowlands but due to time restraints I haven't been able to get them online, but rest assured they will make it onto the site in the coming weeks. All photos and info sent in is greatly appreciated!

• Arriva NW&W did as expected take over all the services, vehicles and staff of Blue Bus yesterday. Although this apparently wasn't a buy out by Arriva, all the main assets of Blue Bus were bought by Arriva. As far as I am aware, they are to continue to lease the Bolton depot indefinitely, but the Eccles depot should be closed by early September, with services and buses progressively moving into the existing Arriva Manchester depot over the next five weeks or so. All vehicles, with the exception of the Leyland Leopard were apparently transferred, these have all now been added to the Arriva NW&W Fleetlist. Although some vehicles remain at Eccles, I have marked all of these as being allocated to Manchester, as they will all be moving over the coming weeks. To view the Blue Bus vehicles easily in the list, click on either the Bolton or Manchester depot link on the fleetlist.

• This also marks the first low floor double deckers to enter the Arriva NW&W fleet (and the use of the 4xxx) series, with the three Dennis Trident/Plaxton President being numbered 4000 Y46 ABA, 4001 Y47 ABA & 4002 Y48 ABA. Interestingly, all the MetroRiders and the four Mercedes Benz Varios (despite being only 4 years old) have all retained their Blue Bus fleetnumbers, suggesting their life here will be short. Maybe the Varios will go over to Arriva North East like many of the native examples are doing, as swaps for Dennis Dart SLFs! Arriva Day/Week Tickets (North West/North West and Wales zone) are valid on all former Blue Bus services already, whilst Blue Bus's own Supersaver tickets, valid only on former Blue Bus routes continue to be available at present. All buses were due to have Arriva branding by today whilst two of the DAF/Ikarus apparently went for repaint into Arriva today, with two unknown Darts being sent in as swaps! It has also been confirmed in the last few hours that the Eccles depot, is running on Arriva Manchester legal lettering (sensible as it it merging with it), whilst bizarrely the Bolton depot is running with Arriva Liverpool lettering (must have had enough spare Arriva Liverpool O disks!)!

• Stagecoach Merseyside have made quite a few alterations to the GTL fleet in a very short time already, with quite a few Volvo B10M/Alexander PS already having arrived at Aintree, whilst Gillmoss has received two Leyland Olympian/Alexander. So far the following vehicles are reported:-

14045 G645 EVV Ley Olympian/Alex (Ex SC Utd Cts)
14046 G646 EVV Ley Olympian/Alex (Ex SC Utd Cts)
20700 K700 DAO Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC NW)
20701 K701 DAO Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC NW)
20702 K702 DAO Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC NW)
20725 K725 DAO Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC NW)
20748 K748 DAO Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC NW)
20749 K749 DAO Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC NW)
20791 K791 DAO Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC E Mids)
20921 R921 XVM Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC Manc)
20931 R931 XVM Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC Manc)
20934 R934 XVM Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC Manc)
20978 R978 XVM Vo B10M/Alex PS (Ex SC Manc)

• Of these, Karl Sutton reports that the Olympians at Gillmoss, 14045 G645 EVV & 14045 G646 EVV have been given Glenvale legal lettering and temporary 'local' fleetnumbers to be used until the whole fleet is renumbered, 1445 and 1446 [photo] respectively. Those at Aintree haven't received any local numbers, and are even still running with their previous subsidiaries' legal lettering, such as 20791 K791 DAO [photo] seen at Gillmoss by Karl, prior to moving to Aintree, and 20931 R931 XVM [photo] seen in service last Tuesday on the 79 by Neil Hilton, with a very interesting destination! A visitor to Gillmoss depot, used as a shuttle bus for Stagecoach United Counties was Mercedes Benz 709D/Alexander Sprint 40305 N305 XRP [photo].

• One strange quirk in the fleet at Stagecoach Merseyside is that at Gillmoss, in order to use up paint, rather than wasting it, repaints into the 'old' allover red GTL livery, even with full GTL branding and receiving names have continued and are expected to do so for another few weeks. Two buses that have been completed after the Stagecoach takeover are 7303 H551 XGK [photo] 'KAL & CONNIE' (previously 'TIZER') & 7406 K767 OGK [photo] 'TEAGER' (previously 'TINA'). All photos taken at Gillmoss depot were taken by Stagecoach Merseyside employee Karl Sutton!

• Although not applied to any buses (apart from the B10Ms that had them anyway), 5 digit Stagecoach fleetnumbers have now been allocated to the entire former GTL fleet. Now online is an 'at time of sale' Stagecoach Merseyside fleet, including all the new numbers, with more details to appear shortly in the Stagecoach Merseyside fleetlist. Big thanks to 'paulw3726 for providing this info! This list, like the Arriva list can be viewed by depot, or as a whole, as it is running off the MySQL server and will be kept as a fleetlist showing all the GTL assets that were renumbered, and so will appear in the other fleetlists section!

• Arriva NW&W started commercial running of the 'AirLink' 500 (City Centre - Liverpool John Lennon Airport) from Sunday 24th July, with the new Scania Omnicities, registrations now confirmed as 2061 CX05 EOV, 2062 CX05 EOW & 2063 CX05 EOY. Andy Rigby saw these on the first day of service, and pictured 2062 CX05 EOW [photo] outside the Liverpool National Express Coach Station, showing the vehicles unusual livery. These are apparently already due to go away for modifications though, as the luggage racks are apparently far too small, just being a double level unit on top of the nearside wheelarch, whereas the Cadets had quite a long double layer rack, covering most of the first two bays on the offside of the bus! Of the Cadets that had previously been used, it is reported that 2479 X782 NWX (ex Selwyns 82) is now to stay at Speke, presumably as a spare and to cover whilst the Scanias are away for mods, whilst the other two 7683 X781 NWX (ex Selwyns 81) & 7684 X783 NWX (ex Selwyns 83) are apparently off to Arriva Midlands. This therefore explains the odd numbering and also looks as though Arriva are now keeping these permanently, although I believe they were on loan from Arriva Bus & Coach anyway, so its almost an internal transfer!

• First Cheshire & Wirral have just received a new batch of Scania L94/Wright Solar for route 1 (Liverpool - Chester), replacing the Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200, those reported to far being 65735 YN05 WKD, 65736 YN05 WKE, 65737 YN05 WKF, 65738 YN05 WKG, 65739 YN05 WKH, 65740 YN05 WKJ & 65741 YN05 WKK. These are all allocated to Chester depot, as the route has been revised such that all diagrams work out of this depot, previously Rock Ferry had run some diagrams. Amy Thompson saw 65737 YN05 WKF [photo] 23th July, with its route 1 branding in place, this seemingly one of the first photos of the type with branding in place, as Mark Haldon had seen one a few days earlier without branding.

• The independents of the area are also having a busy time with fleet renewals of late. Ogdens Travel of St Helens received Dart SLF/Marshall Capital R407 XFL from Halton Transport last week (its former 87), whilst Cumfybus have sold its two Swifts, and have purchased former MTL Olympian E218 WBG, ex- Dickson, Glasgow Volvo B6R/Alexander Dash L238 CCW along with another Dennis Javelin and Volvo B10M coach. More details on these to follow. The Olympian and Volvo B6 are expected to enter service in September. Thanks to Chris Jackson for the Cumfybus info!

• Bit of late news added on here is that Arriva Dart SLF/Marshall Capital 7650 V650 DVU was involved in some sort of accident with a coach at the weekend with a coach. Photos can be seen at southport.gb.com. Looks as though bus may well be written off, drivers of both buses are believed to be okay, although did go to hospital. Another Arriva NW&W bus lost recently, although due to arson was 1222 M322 AKB, having been stolen from Runcorn depot at night.

• The big news from last week, as noted on the main page of the website, is that Stagecoach have purchased GTL Glenvale Transport, on Wednesday 13th July 2005 for a reported £3.4M cash! Although the business is now officially known as Stagecoach Merseyside, as yet nothing has changed. Shortly though, we can expect renumbering of the entire fleet (assumedly with all the ex Stagecoach Alexander Dashes regaining their previous 5 digit fleetnumbers!), repaints will probably start soon and I can only assume that the policy of naming buses will at that point come to an end. For the moment though, they are still painting buses in GTL livery, indeed this morning I saw Titan 2257 GYE 257W [photo], in service, a Titan that was painted after the takeover. Apparently, as this vehicle was being finished on Friday, a day when paint shop staff leave earlier than normal, it entered service without its side GTL logos, or its above door name. These are still expected to be fitted shortly, and not Stagecoach branding. It it suggested that the Leyland Titans may be withdrawn by October, with 2257 having been the final repaint, although this is by no means confirmed - Further details of the fleet upgrade plans (investment by Stagecoach was promised within the current financial year) are expected later this month. Ironically, some of the current fleet is already in Stagecoach livery, as they were never painted out by GTL, including Volvo B6/Alexander Dash 7298 M678 SSX [photo] seen by Neil Hilton, last week. Other interesting liveries in the fleet include Volvo B6/Alexander Dash 7295 L237 CCW [photo] in a blue/white livery, again seen by Neil, and Volvo B6/Alexander Dash 7205 L708 FWO [photo] in Ensignbus green/cream seen in the pouring rain this morning by myself.

• Another company that is in the process of being purchased is Blue Bus, which is being taken over by Arriva, reportedly with effect from 01/08/2005. It is expected that the entire current Blue Bus fleet, with the exception of their Leyland Leopard/Alexander. All in all, this means Arriva NW&W will finally get its first low floor double deckers (ahead of the ones it has just ordered!), as Blue Bus have three Y reg Dennis Trident/Plaxton Presidents! A summary of the Blue Bus fleet is as follows: (figures in brackets are quantity of each type)

Dennis Dart/East Lancs EL2000 (2)
Dennis Dart/Alexander Dash (1)
Dennis Dart MPD/Plaxton Pointer 2 (5)
DAF SB120CS/Wright Cadet (4)
Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown (2)
MAN 18.220/Alexander ALX300 (1)
DAF SB220LF/Plaxton Prestige (1)
DAF SB220LF/ELC Myllennium (1)
DAF SB220LF/Ikarus 480 (3)
DAF SB220LF/Ikarus Polaris (7)
MAN 14.220/ELC Myllennium (4)
Dennis Javelin/Duple (1)
Optare MetroRider (22)
Mercedes Benz Vario/Plaxton Beaver 2 (4)
Volvo Citybus/Alexander RV (3)
Volvo Olympian/ELC Pyoneer (5)
Dennis Trident/Plaxton President (3)
Leyland Tiger/East Lancs EL2000 (2)
Dennis Lance/Alexander PS (16)

• As can be seen, a generally modern fleet, but with far too many Optare MetroRiders, and 4 very new Mercedes Benz Varios!

• Arriva NW&W started running the 500 (Liverpool Airport Express) last Monday, two weeks earlier than originally intended, as for reasons not yet clear, Selwyns were taken off its contract two weeks early, as a result, the first two weeks of Arriva's service are still as a Merseytravel service, with it becoming a commercial service from Sunday 24th July. The problem with this is that the Scania Omnicities that Arriva ordered for the 500 have only just arrived, and still won't be ready for service until the weekend, and so a rather odd situation had occurred. For the first few day Arriva used DAF SB220/ELC Myllenniums 2462 Y462 KNF, 2463 Y463 KNF & 2464 Y464 KNF. It was agreed that the main three DAF SB120CS/Wright Cadet that were in Airport Express livery would be transferred to Arriva temporarily until its vehicles were ready, these were first noted on Friday by myself and Mark Haldon. These have very strange Arriva fleetnumbers, those being 7683 X781 NWX [photo], 2479 X782 NWX [photo] and 7684 X783 NWX [photo]! Photos of 7683 and 2479 are by myself, 7684 is by Mark Haldon. As can been see 7683 still has its Selwyns branding, where as the other two have Arriva branding! The Scania Omnicities were reported to have arrived by yesterday, and are numbered 2061 CX05 EOV, 2062 CX05 EOX & 2063 CX05 EOY, photos of which can be seen on Matt Southart's Fotopic Site.

• Arriva NW&W is also due a large batch of Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2 from Arriva North East shortly, as a swap for some of our Mercedes Benz Varios (good swap in my book!). So far as I know, all of the Darts are to go to Welsh garages, although they may get some at other depots that have a large minibus allocation at present. The Darts expected from Arriva NE are 1609 R609 MHN & 1610 S610 KHN - 1635 S635 KHN. I should expect in line with earlier Darts from Arriva NE, these will become 2609 - 2635. Of note, R609 MHN is an early Pointer SLF, not a Pointer 2, as this was meant to have transferred to Arriva NW&W along with the rest of the R6xx MHN batch in 2002!

• Neoplan N4009s continue to deputise for the Optare Solos on routes S2 and S3, with 0602 M302 YBG [photo] being noted today, interestingly displaying just '2' as apparently its blinds were stuck, so showed this all day, whether on S2 or S3! Solos seen today on the routes were the first of the set, 0651 MX54 YZR [photo] and the last of the set 0656 MX05 MKN [photo].

• Last week, Andy Rigby was able to see the Saints Bus operation in St Helens, which unlike the Soccerbus in Liverpool, uses Nip-On Transport low floor buses! Seen by Andy were DAF SB120CS/Wright Cadet MV54 AOC [photo] and Dennis Dart 9.8M/Marshall C37 P655 HEG [photo].

• Arriva NW&Ws fire damaged Dart 7540 P540 MBU finally re-entered service at the beginning of this month, although at Green Lane, rather than Chester as expected, probably due to vehicle shortages, owing to the new routes they now run. Is now reportedly has Arriva seat covers and was seen by Mark Haldon recently [photo] on the 62 (Penny Lane - Crosby) at Wavertree Clock Tower.

• Big thanks to all the people who supplied news and photos for this update. One final photo is one of mine that has been 'lost' for a while, but was found last week and scanned in is of MTLs first Neoplan 6401 K930 EWG [photo] - Taken when I was 11 on a cheap compact camera, but is my only photo of it and the only one I've ever seen online! Interesting that almost every building (except the Fire Station) has now gone! There are even more photos that aren't featured here which will appear in a gallery in the photographs section sometime later in the month!

• Thank you to everyone who entered the Amazon.co.uk voucher competition - A total of 20 entries were made, and the winner is a Mr Alan Quinn - You will be emailed the voucher code over the weekend!

• Arriva NW&W current vehicle order is now continuing to swell, with at least 30 Alexander Dennis ALX400 now confirmed on order for Speke depot, most reports state the chassis for these should be Volvo B7TL, some others state VDL DB250. Additionally a number of VDL SB120CS/Wright Cadet are reportedly on order for Runcorn to operate the 79C (Runcorn - Liverpool) whilst 14 of Dennis Dart SLFs will be refurbished for the other services at Runcorn. More details on the Runcorn developments should come in the following weeks. Finally, and rather surprisingly, it is reported that Arriva NW&W have some VDL DB250RS/Wright Pulsar Gemini on order - I did read this on a website, but can't find any link to it now, if you have the link, please let me know! No depot or route was given for these vehicles, so we'll have to see if they arrive!

• Napier Point (Castle) have recently acquired ex Nottingham Leyland Olympian/East Lancs K481 GNN. It is seen here in the company depot alongside Volvo Citybus G94 PES by Neil Hilton [photo], both looking very smart and in an almost spotless depot!

• Happy Al's have also acquired some further Olympians, although much newer Volvo examples. Two very late build Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine Is have arrived from Kenneally, Waterford (Ireland). The UK registrations the two have been given are T192 KDM (Irish reg 99-W-11) and T241 KDM (not confirmed, but I think Irish reg 99-WD-111), any further info would be excellent. So far as I can know, these were originally built for London, hence a dual door spec, but as they were completed in April 1999, by which time London was only buying low floor buses, they were instead sold to Kenneally. Seen by Neil Hilton at the Happy Al's depot is T192 KDM [photo] still in Kenneally livery, and with dual doors, whilst repainted and very well rebuilt T241 KDM [photo] is seen resplendent in the depot! Another new bus at Happy Al's too is brand new Alexander Dennis Dart MPD 8.8M/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2 DK05 FWB which has nice high backed seats with seatbelts and is in a mainly white livery with Happy Al's branding - Seen in St Helens today by Andy Rigby [photo], this is used only on the 140 (St Helens - Bold Heath) for which it carries branding and a fixed destination.

• Supertravel are continuing to rebrand its coach and private hire fleet as 'Supertravel Minicoaches' using a new silver livery with turquoise relief, similar to the livery that Mercedes Benz Vario/Plaxton Cheetah R3 POW (that was in Mistral livery) arrived in! They are also replacing some of the fleet with newer vehicles, a newly acquired Mercedes Benz Atego O.1123L/Optare Solera, similar to S7 STM, that had been previously seen, but to identified, was seen by Mark Haldon yesterday and confirmed as being Y773 OEE.

• GTL have withdrawn Metrobus 808 OJD 808Y, and with the help of Karl Sutton and the crew at Gillmoss, it has been converted into a comedy bus, and been adorned with advertising for Liverpool's Comedy Festival. Seen by Karl himself after all the vinyl had been fitted [photo] looking rather nice!