• Welcome to the second of the new quarterly news updates!  Plenty has happened since the last news update, much of which is excellently discussed in the forums.  The forums are continuing to grow, with them now also featuring an Aviation section, due to popular demand, as well as an ever increasing number of members joining!  Thanks again to everyone who posts to the forum and also those who send in news and photos for the updates!

• Arriva North West & Wales Birkenhead depot provided the first big piece of news after the last update with the delivery of 22 Alexander Dennis Trident 2/Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s for the 432, 433 & 437, 4400 - 4422, which entered service on 21/01/2009. 4400 CX58 FZM [PHOTO:buses7675] the first of the batch, seen in Liverpool City Centre in early February, shows the branding and Arriva Interurban livery off quite well. These have Esteban Civic V series seats, with headrests, the same type as those in Speke's Volvo B7TL/Alexander Dennis ALX400s.  As as result of the arrival of these new vehicles, some of the Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine II are being moved to Speke, Bootle and Skelmersdale depots, such as 3273 N273 CKB [PHOTO:Karl Sutton] which is at Bootle, seen on route 68 (Aigburth Vale - Bootle).

• Stagecoach North West also provided a very much welcomed upgrade of route X2 (Liverpool - Preston) which received a new fleet of Scania N230UD/Alexander Dennis Enviro400s replacing the existing Volvo Olympian/Alexander RL fleet.  Stagecoach North West isn't covered on fleetlist on this site, so their registrations are as follows: 15466 VLT 255 [PHOTO:buses7675], 15467 PX09 AWV, 15468 PX09 AWW, 15469 PX09 AWY, 15470 PX09 AWZ, 15471 PX09 AXA [PHOTO:buses7675], 15472 PX09 AXB, 15473 PX09 AXC [PHOTO:buses7675], 15474 PX09 AXD.  As can be seen 15466 has gained registration VLT 255 which was previously on the LFC livery Olympian 16335.  With these having 09 plates, they all entered service from the 1st February, apart from 15466 which as it isn't an 09 plate was able to enter service in the last week of February.  This does mean however that should it ever lose the plate VLT 255, it would have to be given a 58 reg plate (or older) rather than an 09 one.  All except 15466 have X2 branding, and they all have excellent high backed coach style seats [PHOTO:buses7675] (much better seats than those in the Olympians they replaced) and are even fitted with seatbelts!

• Helms of Eastham have also received some brand new vehicles recently, those being a pair of Optare Versa V1040s 101 MX09 ANF [PHOTO:Paul Redfern] & 102 MX09 ANR, of which 102 entered service less than an hour after midnight on 1st February, making it one of the first 09 reg vehicles on the road!  These Optare Versas are being used on the Chester Village Link routes and are the first Optare Versas, other than demonstrators, to operate in the area.

• Cumfybus have been acquiring more Optare Solos recently too, including ex Nottingham examples T295 BNN [PHOTO:buses7675], V272 DRC, V273 DRC, V274 DRC [PHOTO:buses7675] along with ex Go-North East acquisitions are Optare Solos S248 KNL, S249 KNL, S250 KNL, S252 KNL & S255 KNL.  On top of this, Cumfybus have also opened a depot at Poulton, Lancashire to operate some new LCC contracts, for which they have acquired further Optare Solos MX06 BTE, MX56 NLD, MX57 CCJ & MX08 DJJ.  It is not yet clear if the Solos at Poulton are just on loan awaiting delivery of new stock (or repainting or the newly acquired second hand buses) for Cumfybus or if they have been purchased.  Thanks to all the members of the forum for collating the registrations of these new Optare Solos!

• Other recent acquisitions by local independents include two Dart SLFs at ACE Travel, those being 717 P679 RWU & 718 P680 RWU which are Dennis Dart SLF 10.1M/Plaxton Pointer B35F,ex JPT, Manchester, but new to Armchair, Brentford both of which have been on Merseyside before with Norbus!  HTL Buses also have a newly acquired Dart, that being Dennis Dart MPD 8.8M/Marshall Capital V358 DLH, ex Metrobus, but new to First London, so it has a FirstGroup spec interior.  Finally A1A Travel have unusually acquired two step entrance Darts from Hoggans Travel, those being M116 BMR & P298 MLD both of which are Dennis Dart 9.8M/Plaxton Pointer and are B40F & B39F respectively.  These are expected to run the 107/207 (Liverpool - Mossley Hill Hospital/Penny Lane) which are now a commercial routes so don't have to operated with low floor buses anymore.  Yet another new Optare Solo too for the area is at Eazibus, with MAN engined Optare Solo M880SL MX09 AOC [PHOTO:Paul Redfern] arriving, replacing Solo MX03 YDE.

• Halton Transport recently celebrated its centenary, and to celebrate they have repainted TransBus Dart SPD 11.3M/ELC Myllennium 34 DE52 URZ into Widnes Corporation livery (with Halton Transport logos in addition). They have also produced a very nice booklet which may still be available in paper form on some Halton vehicles, but an online version is also available on the Halton Transport Website.  This contains a nice brief resumé of the company history along with some interesting photos, including one of a Leyland DAB artic on loan to Halton Transport in 1982!

• Stagecoach Merseyside operated many of the Park & Ride services for the Aintree Grand National this year and to facilitate this quite a few vehicles were loaned from Stagecoach North West, amongst the noteable ones being former Prestonbus Leyland Olympian/Optare 14557 J107 KCW [PHOTO:Karl Sutton] which had only recently been acquired from Prestonbus and repainted into Stagecoach swoops, and TransBus Trident 2/TransBus ALX400 18156 PX04 DPV [PHOTO:Karl Sutton].  These vehicles all returned to their home depots shortly after the end of the race meeting.  More photos of the loaned buses can be seen in April 2009 • 2 photographs.

• Stagecoach Merseyside have also been taking part in the Stagecoach Groups 'greenerbybus.com' Green Week between the 20th -24th April and so they repainted the front of ex CMT Dennis Dart SPD 11.3M/Alexander Pointer 2 33177 PN02 KCE [PHOTO:Karl Sutton] green! This is however expected to just be a temporary change for a few weeks, with it gaining the more standard two-tone blue front end again shortly!  One other ex CMT bus at Stagecoach Merseyside that is no longer green however is Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown 21118 W467 CRN [PHOTO:Karl Sutton] the former Biennial liveried bus has now been painted into Stagecoach swoops.  This is the final ex GTL bus to gain Stagecoach livery in the current fleet, as it was repainted into the Biennial livery straight from its CMT red paint.  Other buses have been painted at Gillmoss in recent months include many of the ex Prestonbus Scania N94UB/ELC Esteem, including 28511 PL06 RYO [PHOTO:Karl Sutton], 28513 PO56 JDF [PHOTO:Karl Sutton] & 28514 PO56 JDJ [PHOTO:Karl Sutton] all done to speed up the Stagecoach rebranding of the former Prestonbus fleet.

• Arriva North West & Wales route 700 (Liverpool John Lennon Airport - Manchester City Centre) is withdrawn from the 30th April, and as a result the three Mercedes Citaros have all now been repainted into standard Arriva livery and are expected to move to Arriva Scotland shortly.  The 700 is however being replaced by new route X2 (Liverpool City Centre - Manchester City Centre) via Liverpool John Lennon Airport & Manchester Airport, operated by Excel Coaches.  Excel Coaches is based at Manchester Airport and is a subsidiary of Telling Golden Miller and TGM itself was bought by Arriva last year, so in a very roundabout way it is almost just a transferred and extended route!  The Excel Coaches X2 will stop outside Lime Street station in Liverpool (so at least it won't use any stops the Stagecoach X2 does) and is expected to be operated with Volvo B12B/Plaxton Panther coaches.

• Arriva North West & Wales have added yet another new type to its fleet, albeit only a variant, with deliveries of VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar 2 now being made to the fleet, with 2930 - 2941 all due at Whythenshawe  Full registration details of these are on the Arriva North West & Wales fleetlist, but it is notable that these have MX series (Manchester based registrations) rather than the more usual CX or DK (Welsh based registrations) applied to all post 2001 deliveries to the fleet.  The final delivered standard Wright Pulsar 2929 CX58 FZL is unique too as it has a different interior to all the others (silver poles in place of yellow and seat moquette the same as in the DK55 Cadets, in place of the standard Arriva spec) and with it being the last one, it is likely to remain unique!  No one I have asked seems to be quite sure why it is different to the others, so if anyone does know, please let me know!

• Finally a very interesting preservation project has recently been unveiled by the Merseyside Transport Trust, that being of their newly acquired vehicle, former Arriva Volvo B6/Plaxton Pointer 7227 L227 TKA [PHOTO:Karl Wilton] which has been repainted into MTL livery at St Helens depot by MTT members and so is now first privatised MTL bus to be preserved!  Good luck to all those at the MTT with its preservation and all the other vehicles excellently restored by them!

• More photos from the last couple of months are also online, many of which tell their own story, and they can be viewed in the February 2009 • 1, February 2009 • 2, February 2009 • 3, March 2009 • 1, March 2009 • 2, April 2009 • 1, April 2009 • 2 & April 2009 • 3 photo pages.  Next update should be in July!

• Its been a VERY long time since the last site update, so welcome back to the Merseyside Dennis Dart Website! As has been evident, and from info on the forum, over the past 12 months I had been working far too many hours to manage to update the site properly, in the usual monthly way.  I am now working slightly fewer hours so actually have some spare time again, so the "grand" plan now is to update the news at least quarterly, but on occasion I might add an extra update in, but the main news updates will be every January, April, July & October. Fleetlist updates will hopefully be made on a similar sort of rota, a few days before or after the main news update.  Thanks again to all those on the forum who have stuck by the site over the last year (or years, the site is now just over 8 years old!) and lets hope we can keep it going a good while longer!  As this is the first update in nearly a year, this will concentrate on events at the end of last year and start of this, rather than trying to give 12 months of news of things you knew about before the summer!

• Arriva have been busy buying new buses over the last few months, with deliveries of VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar, Alexander Dennis Enviro300s, Alexander Dennis Enviro400s and Optare Solos, all new allocated over the North West.  Since the last update too, albeit many months ago, Southport depot also finally got its 4 Alexander Dennis Enviro200Darts for the Park & Ride service!  Shown below are a selection of the new deliveries, those being VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar 2668 CX58 EUK [PHOTO:Karl Wilton] shown next to one of the Neoplans they replaced, and Manchester allocated Alexander Dennis Enviro300 2747 CX58 EVW [PHOTO:Karl Wilton].

• The Alexander Dennis Enviro400s are expected to enter service in late January from Laird Street depot, on Cross River services 432/433/437.   These vehicles have ADL chassis, not Volvo as initially expected and are being numbered 4400 - 4422.  As seen in the photo of 4409 CX58 FZW [PHOTO:Karl Wilton] being prepared at the former Liverline depot at Bootle they are the first vehicles in the local Arriva fleet to use the 'express/interurban' livery, the only exception being the Enviro200Dart demo that was on loan to Chester last year.  It is expected that when the Enviros enter service fully, some of the Volvo Olympians that currently run the service will move to both Skelmersdale and Speke depots, some however will remain at Laird Street.  Which vehicles will move to which depots however is at yet unknown to me!

• Major changes have been made on the Liverpool City Centre bus routes, with all of the S1-S3 and 11 replaced with circular services C2, C3, C4 and the 11 replaced with route 139 (Liverpool - Prescot.  Routes C2 - C4 are still operated by Arriva, as a Merseytravel contract, using the short Darts that had previously been on the S2 & S3, though I've not yet seen any of the Eco Solos on the new routes yet.  Route 139, which also replaces former Arriva route 39 (Broadgreen - Prescot) as well as the 11, is operated is now a Merseytravel route, operated by Cumfybus.  The selection of buses on the 139 can be varied, the most common buses are the former Millennium Dome DAF SB220/ELC Myllenniums, such as C15 MFY [PHOTO:Andy Rigby] though Cumfybus recently also acquired a pair of Optare Tempo X1260s (the longest normal service buses in Merseyside at 12.6M) which seat 46.  The two which were formerly operated on Alton Towers contracts are MX06 ACU [PHOTO:buses7675] & MX06 ADV which are both still in plain white.  In addition to the Optares, Cumfybus have also recently acquired three Dennis Dart SLF/Caetano Compass (UVG Urbanstar design), Y483 TSU, Y484 TSU & Y485 TSU, however as yet no reports have been made of these on the 139, they seem to be based at the Southport depot, replacing the Myllenniums which are now on the 139.  To make things more interesting, last week at least two Optare Solos made it onto the route, with Cummins engined MX06 YXV [PHOTO:Andy Rigby] making it out on Monday, whilst VX51 RBF going out on Wednesday.  Despite these vehicles seeming very small, there are only a handful fewer seats in these than the Myllenniums!

• As a result of all the additional vehicles in the Arriva fleet, and those routes that have been changed, it has resulted in the withdrawal of many older types in the fleet.  Since the summer, all of the Neoplan N4016s have been withdrawn, the last of the Volvo B6s has just been taken out of service, whilst even the first inroads into the Volvo B10B/Wright Endurance are beginning to made.  The Dennis Dart SLF that had previously been used on route 11 (Broadgreen - Brunswick Station) are now used on a mix of different Bootle depot routes, whilst the VDL SB120CS/Wright Cadets that had been on the S1 are working their way through the paintshop (though some have been out on other routes in full S1 livery!) and are mainly used on the X53. Several routes have also changed depots including some in St Helens moving to Skelmersdale depot, whilst route 62 (Penny Lane - Crosby) have moved back to Bootle depot again.  The 62 is still  in the main operated by a mix of Dart SLF/Marshalls and B10Bs, but on the first day Bootle operated it, the former S1 Cadets were the mainstay, including 2518 DK5 FXC [PHOTO:Karl Wilton] in full S1 livery!

• Halton Transport have just received another four Alexander Dennis Dart 4/MCV Evolutions to complement the four delivered last year.  Numbered as follows, 5 AJ58 PZH, 6 AJ58 PZK, 7 AJ58 PZL & 8 AJ58 PZM.  These are slightly longer than the first set (chassis length on these is 11.3M, against 10.9M, using the length descriptions from the ADL website) thus the capacity is increased, albeit by just 1, a tip up seat, bringing the new ones in at B41F.  One of these was seen at the NEC in Birmingham in November, albeit un-numbered at the time [PHOTO:Andy Rigby] the delay between this and them arriving for use in late December was apparently due to an them requiring nox detectors to be fitted to the exhaust system prior to entering service. Between September and December when these Darts arrived, Halton had 4 VDL SB200/Plaxton Centro on loan for schools work, those being 92 YJ57 BCU, 93 YJ58 FFC, 94 YJ58 FFE, 95 YJ58 FFN.  Other additions to the Halton fleet last year were ex Uno step entrance Dennis Dart 9.8M/Marshall C37s 67 N421 ENM, 68 N422 ENM & 67 N424 ENM.  These too are mainly for schools work, though they have been reported on some local work around in the Widnes area too.  Finally with Halton, one other note is that Dart/Myllennium 52 PN05 SYH [PHOTO:Andy Rigby] is now in an overall advert for "Bee Aware" an environmental awareness campaign for the Halton Lea area.

• Stagecoach brought its Magic Bus concept to Liverpool late last year, with the first route being taken being the 14C (Liverpool - Broadway).  Sadly this seems to have been started at the expense of the Stagecoach 79 that finished the day beforehand!  Vehicles used for this are all Volvo B10M/Alexander PS, boldly branded for the route and advertising the low £1 fares, such as 20207 N207 TDU [PHOTO:Andy Rigby] seen leaving Elliot Street, where these services start, rather than using any of the bus stations.   A spare for the Magic Bus routes is 20720 K720 DAO [PHOTO:Andy Rigby] which is in overall blue, but completely unbranded.  As it is unbranded, this often sees use on other routes, mainly the 10B.  Another loss from the Magic Bus routes sadly was the Liverpool Corporation livery on 20744 K744 DAO, which gained Magic Bus livery for the first day of the new services.  Over Christmas to cover for an expected increase in patronage, a number of Leyland Olympians were borrowed from other Stagecoach fleets to operate on the route, those being 13616 G189 YRJ, 13628 K688 CBA, 13632 H778 VHL, 13642 H625 LNA, 14239 F201 FHH & 14240 F202 FHH.  These were all one time Megabus vehicles too, and whilst the two F reg vehicles were new to Stagecoach Cumberland, the others were all new to Citybus, Hong Kong.  All of the Olympians left the fleet again in early January.

• Many more photos from the last few months are also online, many of which tell their own story, and they can be viewed in the January 2009 • 1, January 2009 • 2, January 2009 • 3 & January 2009 • 4 photo pages.  Thanks again to everyone for sticking by the site for all these years and remember for up to the minute news and views you can read (and post!) on the dartslf.com forum for which all members are welcome to join if they haven't already!  Next news update will be no later than the end of April, whilst the fleetlists should be updated over the coming weeks, the Arriva one needs just a little bit of work on it!