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October 2006
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New Scania OmniCity Vehicles for Vodafone
23-10-06
Newbury's fleet of seven Scania OmniCity single deckers entered service today. Numbered 6-12 the buses wear a dedicated red Vodafone livery, and feature colour LED destination displays and air conditioning. The seating appears similar to Reading Solars 1021-30 as opposed to the Reading OmniCitys.
9 arriving at Newbury Bus Station this morning on the SH2 to Horizon West.
8 showing the nearside profile of the vehicles.
7 and 9 loading at the bus station.
Vodafone Optare Solos 120 and 121 appear to have transferred to the Newbury town fleet, although they still retain their Vodafone logos for the time being. Optare Excel 963 is temporarily being retained for use on Vodafone services whilst Scania 11 or 12 is experiencing engine difficulties - 11 and 12 were absent during a brief visit to Newbury today.
Newbury OmniCity Preview
16-10-06
The Vodafone OmniCitys were delivered to Newbury on 13th, and are being prepared for entry into service next week. In the meantime number 8 has been in use today on driver training around the Vodafone routes.
8 at Newbury Business Park today. Thanks to Richard Aldous for this photo.
New Scania OmniCity Vehicles for Thames Valley Park
02-10-06
The fleet of five new Scania OmniCity single deckers entered service on the Thames Valley Park shuttle today. Numbered 1-5 the buses wear a dedicated livery of very dark green with coloured swoops, and feature colour LED destination displays, leather seats, air conditioning and Euro IV engines powered by bio-fuels.
2 arriving at Reading Station stop SW from Thames Valley Park.
From today the pick-up stop at the Station has moved to stop SA (adjacent to the FastTrack/DayTrack stop for Green Park) to avoid the reversing and congestion associated with the old stop. SA is also used for rail replacements and several works contract services. From TVP buses continue to drop off at SW and then head down Station Hill to turn around at the bottom.
1 making the turn at the bottom of Station Hill.
5 at the new Station boarding point. The vehicles looked very smart indeed.
As part of the re-launch, the number of buses on the service has been increased from four to five to allow the peak frequency to increase to every 8 minutes. Today the off peak 20-minutely service was being operated by 2 and 3, number 5 joined them for the enhanced lunchtime service and all five were in operation during the peaks in the order 1, 2, 4, 3, 5.
"Welcome to Reading". 3 passing the entrance to Reading Station.
Each of the vehicles has a different strap line along the top:
- 1 - The Greener Cleaner Friendly Bus
- 2 - Save Your Fuel Travel By Bus
- 3 - Supporting Sustainable Transport
- 4 - Go Green Go By The Bus
- 5 - Helping Our Environment
and all have the following words on the rear:
Environmentally Green
- Low Emissions
- Reducing Greenhouse Gases
- Powered By Bio-fuels
Solo Next in New Newbury Livery
01-10-06
Optare Solo 109 has emerged as the second repaint into the new Newbury Buses livery to join Delta 516. It went into service on 25th September after several days of operation without vinyls/logos.
109 at Newbury Bus station on 27th September. Thanks to Paul Hilton for this photo.
Whilst the Solos don't currently have room for external advertising on the sides due to their SoloRider branding, it is interesting to note that the application of the new livery to 516 seems to now preclude it on the rest of the fleet as well. It was only a few years ago that the original single deck livery was revised with a lower green stripe to make space.
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