It has been reported that new Volvo double decker buses have been seen on delivery to First, for Park and Ride services in Bath. Normally this would not be anything to get excited about here in Plymouth, but once the new buses are in service they are due to release existing Park and Ride low floor DD Tridents to FDC. W709-17RHT 32709-17 are East Lancs bodied Dennis Tridents and are expected to be placed into service on the X80 Plymouth - Torquay service.
It has also been reported that the new Tridents currently operating down in Cornwall WJ55CRX, CRZ, CSF (32761-3) are due to transfer to Plymouth as they are not getting enough mileage down in Cornwall. I am not sure if this is true or not - but I have seen it mentioned more than once!
Deep Joy. I've travelled on most of the Bath Tridents and the combination of hard seats and rattles mean that from the Park and Ride to the City Centre is quite enough, thank you. The thought of Torquay/Paignton to Plymouth on one of these fills me with horror!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian - welcome to the blog!
ReplyDeleteI know other First buses from this time also feature much harder more uncomfortable seats. If the rumoured transfer of the Cornish Tridents is happening than maybe some of them will be used on the X80 instead? The route is certainly getting low floor double deckers this year.
Graham
I've been told that the Cornish '55' reg tridents will definately be moving to Plymouth to replace the Royales, which may be moving to the Truro/Camborne corridor.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it is apparently likely that two or three of either the Bath tridents, or the ex-London T8xx LLC park & ride tridents will be converted for Torpoint ferry use to replace the Olympians that have only just arrived their. Both types of tridents have short wheelbases, so would fit around the bottom lake road in Millbrook. Not entirely sure how true this is but it does seem to be quite possible.