Staying Power

If you have Flash installed on your computer you should see a small slideshow of a collection of my Trident Photos. Click on the small thumbnails. Hopefully this will work on most computers!

When FDC took over the Park and Ride contract they obtained 7 Tridents from First London which entered service in London Red and were slowly repainted into Barbie livery. It was expected that these buses would then pass on to Glasgow once the new Enviros had settled in.

The buses T802/3/8/12/17/19/46TLC (fleet numbers 32802/3/8/12/7/9/46) are Dennis Trident with Cummins C220 engines and Plaxton President bodywork and were new in June 1999 (T846LLC was July 1999).
They arrived had arrived at The Ride by the beginning of January 2006. Initial reactions to these vehicles arriving in Plymouth for the P&R contract included one comment on their use in London as “undoubtedly the worst vehicles I rode -- noisy, uncomfortable, gutless, dark boneshakers.” Not very encouraging!
They duly entered service in March and I have to say they were a lot better than I had expected. They were not the fastest buses in the world, but they were comfortable, quiet buses with a nice clean modern appearance, especially when compared to most double deckers we had in Plymouth at that time.

By the beginning of April the first one had been repainted into Barbie livery. By August they were all repainted and looking very smart. If it wasn’t for the registration numbers most passengers in Plymouth would have thought these were a lot newer than they were. They seemed to perform well on Park and Ride duties although I have noticed a few break downs over the year they seem to have been reliable.

With the posh new Enviros now into service we were waiting to see when the Tridents would make their journey North. However it now seems that they are staying in the Westcountry as Marc Reddy (who should know!) states:

All 7 Tridents will be staying with FDC, converted to single door, and LED Destination. Location of these vehicles will be announced in due course.

It remains to be seen where these will end up, but it is nice that they are staying. Of course Plymouth now has the three Cornish Tridents and a few from Bath with possibly another 4 to follow which are currently in York. Just one more example of how First Devon and Cornwall has transformed itself (well in Plymouth anyway!)