Saturday 20 August 2011

August Scenes

August has been an unremarkable month so far. Bus workings have become less rigid with double deckers operating on route 1 and further single deckers appearing on routes 9, 11 and 14. Route 17 has seen variety too with regular use of Excels and even new liveried Olympian 369 today. Further Olympian repaints are in the pipeline following the return to use of 379, sister buses 376/7 have been dispatched to Bus and Coach World, Blackburn for contract repaint. Trident 338 has also returned to service after a repaint into the new livery and 339 is now underway which will mean that 322-342 have now all been treated, leaving 301-316 in Line 14, 317-9 in pool livery. 

Olympian 818 is the third open topper to operate the City Sightseeing tour - initial duties were dominated by 857 and 873 


The aged Olympian fleets continues to dominate route 20 with several of 402-417 also appearing on route 1 duplicates throughout August. 402 demonstrates how several further Olympians have lost their route branding - though oddly retaining the Schools + 1 sticker.
 
Olympian fans have welcomed the regular appearance of 411-417 on local service work during the school holidays

416 at the Sylvan setting of Blackpool Zoo


Most buses have settled back to normal routes with the end of major road works in Blackpool and Cleveleys. Solos 252 (above) and 296 (below) head along the Promenade on route 5.



Passengers board 309 on route 1 on the Promenade near the Tower.

Trident 311, the last bus painted into a Metro route livery leaves Church Street on route 11 to Lytham

Tridents such as Line 14 liveried 315 have been allocated to service 1 for the summer holiday period providing extra capacity. On busy days, particularly Fleetwood Market old Olympians have provided duplicates