This is the first blog update for a while, but don’t worry all is well I’ve just been busy lately but as the final blog update of the year a little review of 2011 seemed quite apt!

This year has certainly been a year with lots and lots of loan buses used on Merseyside, some demonstrators and some on loan to cover for new contracts, buses on loan to Malta or late delivered buses. Today’s update is sole about those loan buses, while another update shortly will cover all of the other stories from the past 12 months!

Back in January one of the first demonstrators of 2011, which was used by first HTL Buses and in February by Eazibus was Wright Streetlite demonstrator MX60 GXB. Appologies for the quality of this photo, it was taken on my phone and the only photo I managed to take of it myself!

This one started the ball rolling, followed in April by Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse Urban BK10 MGE at Stagecoach Merseyside as its 80013.

During the summer of 2011, Dawson’s Rentals had a field day in Liverpool with Arriva sending 8 of its own VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar 2s to Malta (where it seems they are now going to stay) and so 8 buses arrived on loan in July/August to cover for these with 4 going to Green Lane and 4 going to St Helens. All of them returned to Dawsons Rentals during September 2011.

The 8 were as follows:

7901 X471 AHE Scania L94UB/Wright Solar – GL
7902 KM51 BFY Dennis Dart SLF 10.1M/Caetano Nimbus – SH
7903 KU52 RXV Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/Alexander Pointer 2 – SH
7904 KU52 RYG Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/Alexander Pointer 2 – GL
7905 KU52 RXR Dennis Dart MPD 8.8M/Alexander Pointer 2 – SH
7906 HV52 WTA Dennis Dart SLF 10.1M/Caetano Nimbus – SH
7907 KV03 ZFJ TransBus Enviro300 12M – GL
7908 KV03 ZFK TransBus Enviro300 12M – GL

Seen on one of the rarest workings I noted at all on Merseyside all year is 7902 KM51 BFY Dennis Dart SLF 10.1M/Caetano Nimbus very unusually on route 89 (St Helens – Liverpool John Lennon Airport). The St Helens loan buses generally stayed on route 20 in St Helens and as far as I know this is the only occasion one made it to Liverpool.

The highest numbered of the loan buses, the two TransBus Enviro300s were the last of the buses to arrive and ran a variety of routes out of Green Lane and their very bright interiors certainly made them noticeable to the passengers riding them!

HTL Buses have had a large number of buses on loan this year too, in addition to the Wright Streetlite already mentioned, they have had two demonstrators from Optare (both of which were also with Peoplesbus too in 2011), first Solo M710SE YJ60 KFP followed later silver by Solo M880SL YJ10 EYR.

Following demonstration of YJ60 KFP a further 9 Optare Solo M710SEs were delivered while more are on order, along with a few longer ones, initially expected in late 2011, now expected early 2012.

HTL Buses have also had (and at the end of December 2011 still do) a large number of buses on loan from Dawson’s Rentals, largely to cover for newly won contracts. They arrived in between July and October 2011. The full set are as follows:

KX05 KFD Alexander Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2
KX06 LXN Alexander Dennis Dart MPD 8.8M/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2
KX06 LXO Alexander Dennis Dart MPD 8.8M/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2
KX07 KOE Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200
KX57 OVR MAN 12.240/Plaxton Centro
KX08 HME Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200
KX58 GVA Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200
KX59 CYV Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200
KX59 CYW Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200
KX59 CYY Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200
KX59 CYZ Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200

Of these, KX57 OVR didn’t enter service (it had previously turned up at Arriva and didn’t enter service either!) and the last I heard was on loan to First Glasgow, while KX07 KOE was replaced by KX58 GVA. The rest are all still with HTL as at the end of December 2011.

Seen at Liverpool South Parkway is the longest of the buses currently on loan to HTL Buses, Alexander Dennis Dart SLF 10.7M/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2 KX05 KFD showing a typing error on its destination display – This has since been corrected!

Seen on a relatively rare working on route 174 on Christmas Eve 2011 is Alexander Dennis Dart MPD 8.8M/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2 KX06 LXN. These MPDs have high backed seats which are very nice and unusually twin bays in the low floor area of the bus, as most MPDs don’t have a ‘proper’ offside bay.

Peoplesbus also joined the ranks of companies with buses on loan in Merseyside from Dawson’s Rentals in 2011, with them hiring 4 Dart MPDs to operate routes 173/4 from July to October while they operated the two routes. Those used by Peoplesbus are shown as follows:

YT51 EAA Dennis Dart MPD 8.8M/Alexander Pointer 2
KU52 RXF TransBus Dart MPD 8.8M/TransBus Pointer 2
KU52 RXG TransBus Dart MPD 8.8M/TransBus Pointer 2
KU52 RXS TransBus Dart MPD 8.8M/TransBus Pointer 2

On Sundays, as route 173 didn’t run, only 2 of these were required to run route 174, so the other two could be seen on route 168 on occasion, as seen here with KU52 RXS.

The final company to hire buses in Merseyside during 2011 from Dawson’s Rentals was A2B Travel, who hired the following in October 2011 to cover for contracts gained after the demise of Supertravel:

KX04 HPP Optare Solo M990
KX08 HMA Enterprise Bus Plasma EB03/Plaxton Primo

Both of which were soon replaced by the follwing, which remain with A2B at the end of December 2011

KX07 KOE Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200
KX58 GTF Alexander Dennis Dart 4 8.9M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200

Two other very significant demonstrators came to Liverpool this year two, those both being CNG powered MAN N273F Ecocity/Caetanos, of which Stagecoach Merseyside operated WX61 FXO in the summer for around 6 weeks as seen below: (According to my Flickr stats, this is the most popular photograph on my Flickr account from 2011!)

Followed by Arriva NW&W who received WX61 HSL in December, which will be here for around six months apparently, seen in almost exactly the same position as the Stagecoach demonstrator:

Finally two other demonstrators have been used by Arriva NW&ampW in December, the those being YX61 EKO an Alexander Dennis Dart 4 10.7M/Alexander Dennis Enviro200 demonstrator (a mk2 version with a mid body emergency exit and a Plaxton Centro style interior) and Wright Streetlite CRZ 2495, both of which were operated out of St Helens depot. The Enviro200 only stayed around a week and was later reported with Helms of Eastham while the Streetlite stayed until mid December.

In addition to all of these, a few other buses were loaned to companies, such as Optare Solo MX05 ELW which was loaned from A2B Travel to Eazibus for a few weeks in August, as seen below.

Cumfybus also operated a Wright Streetlite MX11 EGY briedly while Avon Buses borrowed Dart/ALX200 Y263 KNB for a few days so I think that certainly gives a view of just how many buses have been on loan to Merseyside operators during the last year!

To see more of my photos from this week along with many other recent ones I have uploaded please view my Flickr page!