First a FirstBus, a bendy bus carries 145 passengers between Manchester and Bury. In the past I have used this service a lot and have had to pay but now all I have to do is flash the concessionary pass and go and sit down. No bother about telling the driver where I am going or getting a ticket like passengers do down here. Runs every ten minutes even on a Sunday and was, well if not exactly full, wasn't empty either. I did get 3 photos of bendybuses, all from behind. By the time I had seen them coming and got the camera to my eye they had gone past.
These two Enviro 400s seen here in Picadilly Bus Station, the 255 and the 256 heading for Partinton and Flixton on the south side of Manchester.The journey home was much easier than the trip down but given the cost of fuel and the hire car next trip will be by bus, National Express. I suppose I could use my bus pass and go by local transport but that would take a bit too long.
10 comments:
Well good luck in trying to use your staff pass to get up there. There are no Stagecoach services which run towards Bristol from Exeter. And Stagecoach is non-existent in Bristol as well.
A local bus journey would average something like 20 or 30 miles per hour, so work that out from Torquay to Manchester.
By the way, is Torbay still going to be getting some Enviros? I seem to remember you mentioning it a while back, with the Trident 2's going to Exeter.
I just had to comment .... I know it's angle and perspective.... But the roof of the bendy bus looks totally odd with the houses behind it... Funny as heck!
I believe the articulated bus above is a Scania OmniLink, as shown here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Arriva_7870_Amsterdam_13-12-05.JPG/800px-Arriva_7870_Amsterdam_13-12-05.JPG
(unfortunately blogger will not allow me to embed this image in my message)
They have some very nice buses around in their K Series
the colour of that bendy bus in manchester is the same colour that they have in chelmsford,
The artic is a Scania OmniCity. There is a difference between an OmniCity and OmniLink but I can't tell - I have to be told!!
All I know that so far the only OmniLinks in the UK are very new and aren't bendy.
You don't fancy driving bendy buses do you David???!
An omnilink is slightly taller then a city as the engine is under the floor. A omnicity has a different engine layout. This includes a large "shower cubicle" at the rear of the vehicle which contains engine gubbins.
In Geneva they have bendy buses that are 24 metres long (33% longer than the Scania Omnicity) and bend twice. Now that would be fun in Brixham.
Yes, those are bi-articulated buses. Have been around for a little while now...perhaps 2 decades?
They are very popular in South America. A city whose name escapes me has bi articulated buses up to every 50 seconds. That's close to the capacity of a subway train line (700 passengers every 90 seconds)
Enviro 400's due for Exeter, believe it is 6 new and about 10 second hand 06 registered ones from Manchester, for the 2 Exeter - Newton Abbot service plus other routes, so yes some are coming :-)
Oh god - they've not got more new buses in Manchester. It's daft, they buy new ones and then replace them almost immedatley with more new ones!
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