©Brian George
Islwyn Borough Transport has just announced that it has sold its coaching holidays division 'Kingfisher' to a local coach operator. Their coach work will cease at the end of December, with just a few coaches retained for seat-belted school work.
Why is this news reported on Plymothian Transit? Because this leaves Plymouth Citybus as the only municipal owned fleet that are still running and advertising coach tours into 2009. There used to be quite a few but they have all either disappeared as companies or have just pulled out of coach holidays. Of course Citybus considered selling the Citycoach operation but it was trimmed down and saved due to customer demand. Mind you, its not just the municipal coach fleets that are on the endangered list as municipally owned bus companies are a dwindling band. The sale of Eastbourne to Stagecoach this month see's yet another company removed from this list.
I thought you'd forgotten about Reading Transport's Goldline Travel division, but then after looking on their website, it looks like all tours and holidays will be operated by a private company after April next year.. :(
ReplyDeleteShame, as they currently operate a spotless, high spec fleet.
Citybus should really be upgrading their fleet, even the Plaxton Paragons they have don't compare in any way to the swoopy modern looking coaches private operators use these days. But seeing as they wanted to offload the division not long ago, I can't imagine new coaches will be coming anytime soon.
What about selling all their current coaches to help fund for a couple of those new, super trendy Plaxton Elites?
We can all dream I suppose!