Seeing Blue... Part 1

Throughout the last couple of months Arriva North West & Wales and Arriva Yorkshire have been investing heavily to modernise their fleets and remove the buses built in the late 90s and early 2000s. Towards the back end of 2016 a batch of 51 Volvo B5LH Wright Gemini 3 double deckers started to arrive on Merseyside with deliveries continuing through to March. These buses were originally used for Rail Replacement on the Merseyrail Wirral Loop line. Once the work had been completed they were split across 2 depots Speke and Green Lane and deployed at Green Lane to routes 14 and 18 Croxteth and Croxteth Park to Liverpool and Speke's allocation onto the 79 and 79D from Liverpool to Halewood.

Seen departing Liverpool Queen Square is 4817 BT66 MUV

Next up on the investment list were 5 ADL E40D/ ADL Enviro400 MMC Double Deckers for Bootle depot and their route 55 from Liverpool to Old Roan. These were the first brand new buses for Arriva North West to carry the new standard livery.

The first and the last... ADL Enviro400 MMC 4693 YX17 NFH is the first bus to carry the new standard livery where as Volvo B5LH/ Wright Gemini 3 4850 BV17 CJX is the last bus to carry the old hybrid colours. The pair are seen in Kirkby supporting the annual North West Vehicle Restoration Trust (NWVRT) Open Event.

More ADL Enviro400 MMC's have been placed into service at Arriva Yorkshire. A total of 36 buses are split across Castleford and Heckmondwike depots for use on routes 163 and 166 from Castleford to Leeds which have became Sapphire services, route 189 from Wakefield to Leeds , route 254 Leeds to Dewsbury and route 255 Leeds to Halifax.

Seen in Leeds City Bus Station is Sapphire 163/166 branded 1962 YX17 NKM off route already on the 410 service from Pontefract to Leeds.

Seen in Halifax on the 255 is 1975 YX17 NLM.

Last up for now, back in Arriva North West & Wales territory, local services around Macclesfield are now being operated by a fleet of 9 22 seater Mercedes Sprinter's with Mellor Strata conversion work.

Seen departing Macclesfield Bus Station is 4705 LM17 WOC on route 2A to the Weston Estate.

That's all for now, in part 2 later this year we will feature the now in service ADL E40D/ Enviro400 City's on Sapphire service 1 from Wrexham and Chester, the second batch of MAN EcoCity's destined for Runcorn as well as the BYD/ ADL Enviro200MMC EV's due for Liverpool's 'Belt' Routes 26 and 27.

Thanks for reading!

The next post will be about the 2nd of GB Railfreight's 2017 Charity Railtours "The Absent Shunter" which takes place this coming Sunday, the 13th August 2017.