“Oh well that's it. The most unique fleet of buses in the country has gone West. South West to be precise as this afternoon the 12 MAN Ecocity gas buses left Anglian Bus to begin a new life in Devon at Plymouth Citibus. Myself and Tim were at Ellough to witness the departure.”
See more of the departure of the MAN Ecocity fleet from Anglian with some nice photos on Steves Bus and Train Page including a nice couple of videos taken as they left
Steve is clearly fond of the MANs.
Thanks to Steve for supplying a few photos of the departure…
The buses arrived in Reading for an over night stay and refuel before the final trip into Plymouth on Monday.
Photo on Facebook from Jason Beverley, one of the drivers. The estimated time of arrival in Plymouth looks to be aprox 4 to 5pm Monday Afternoon.
there are 13 coming down, the 3th will come down on a low-loader & be used for spres
ReplyDelete12 not 13 the other one was written off after an accident late last year i think.
DeleteI just want to thank those who took the videos and photographs of these super buses, from Ellough. It was really good to see them leaving one behind another - it reminded me of the film The Dambusters when the last of the Lancaster bombers were peeling one after another, from stand onto the runway for take off!! Also to the driver Jason, who put the photo of them lined up together at Reading. These are special buses ro us who have been passengers on them over time, and I KNOW they will have a good home with Citibus Plymouth. I do hope someone will be at Plymouth to see them all coming in and photograph for us all. Thank you again
ReplyDeletefrom one gas bus fan
If they're so brilliant, why are Anglian getting rid of them?
ReplyDeleteHead office orders .What the boasman says goes.
Delete"Goodbye Beccles...Hello Plymouth lol(tagline on my video) Yes it was a poignant moment as I have not witnessed such a mass exodus of vehicles since we used to deliver Avis cars in the late 70's en masse. I hope you will all enjoy them and appreciate them down there I too hope to get a run that way one day.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Tim(as above lol)
Why are they the "most unique fleet of buses in the country"? Unique if you ignore the 22 identical ones with Arriva perhaps?
ReplyDeleteEven Stagecoach has some in Sunderland.Maybe the writer has never heard of them.
DeleteThe Stagecoach ones are ADL bodied Scanias (as also bought by Reading Buses) rather than the Caetano bodied MANs that these & the Arriva examples are. Gas buses aren't yet widespread but Arriva have just placed a repeat order for MANs whilst Reading & Nottingham City Transport have both ordered Gas powered Scania deckers with ADL bodies (Reading also have just acquired secondhand a batch of Optare Solos that were converted to run on Gas for Stagecoach Lincoln that are just beginning to enter service).
DeleteAnyone know what's happening about the refuelling system for the gas buses? Is that being transferred from East Anglia too? And is it up and running yet?
ReplyDelete