Photo Number 6 - P637 ARN

The Metrorider. Before the fitting of its new wheels and some vinyls. Already a hit with some after its first outing yesterday afternoon! If this overwhelming enthusiasm continues then I cannot see why this vehicle will not be with us for some time to come!

The Changing Of The Fleet

Again I cannot resist the temptation to buy more vehicles. The age profile of the fleet improves a bit more with the latest purchases!

New in is our first (and probably only) Optare Metrorider P637 ARN from Lancashire United ( a part of the Transdev group) and another Dennis Dart L720 JUD from Chepstow Classic Buses. I am hoping that another Scania will follow soon as F705 BAT is due for withdrawl at the end of the week! H886 LOX is also not long for this world (at least in service) and should be out of the fleet by mid November.

I cannot bear to part with H843 NOC or H886 LOX and so I am trying to negotiate some secure storage for them until I decide what to do!

Another One Bites The Dust

And so it is a sad farewell to another Carlyle Bodied Dart. H887 LOX has now made its final journey to the great bus depot in the sky (well, actually a scrapyard in Barnsley but I prefer the poetic version!).

After months of sitting in the corner, quietly donating parts to other vehicles, the opportunity of creating more parking space could be avoided no longer. It was the last vehicle remaining in the former Ebley Bus colour scheme (not sorry to see the back of that).

The reign of the Carlyle bodied darts is now coming to an end. Already H887 LOX and H889 LOX have journied to Barnsley, H843 NOC is delicenced and sits out of action in the corner soon to be joined by H886 LOX. I am still hoping to keep one but not in active service, purely as a preservation project!

Ebley Bus did have another one of these darts (H142 MOB) but this went to Barnsley some time before the company was sold.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

A title from one of my favourite old sci-fi movies and also a good description of the beginning of the new school year where an otherwise stable bus network can descend into chaos!

The problem, as always at this time of year, is passenger numbers. We carry many students to school who, because of their parents choice of schools, are not entitled to a bus pass or dedicated school transport. There is no way of knowing how many new students will travel, how many will change from one form of transport to another or which route(s) will begin to burst at the seems!

Early indications showed that Cirencester Deer Park School would be up and Thomas Keble School would be down. If this became reality, then a simple switch of resources and problem solved. Every year, no matter where I have worked, I find that it can never be that simple!

Cirencester Deer Park School's numbers travelling were up! so that's one point to me! However Thomas Keble Schools numbers were static with the exception of route 5 which shot up by about a third! The terrain this service negotiates means that it has been difficult to find a bus small enough to go round the route but big enough to carry the required number of passengers! I believe I have found one and so should be able to sort that one out by half term. I am hoping to go and pick it up on Monday!

So that is one of the many issues that have stopped me from attending to the important business of updating the blog. Look out for more posts that I intend to publish over the next week or so including the following subjects:

• our new pet duck
• fleet changes
• more school route tales of woe
• two new drivers
• fuel duty rebate
• the night bus
• fuel
• Stroud Town Centre
• return of the squirrel

and I am sure many more!