Optare StarRider
Here we see former 202 waiting opposite Reading Station before turning around and returning to Newbury on route 102.
The first StarRiders in the fleet were bought new in 1989 and were given fleet numbers 607-608. Later in 1991, they were withdrawn as a new delivery of Optare MetroRiders arrived. The departure of 608 actually came after the MetroRiders arrived, and so in August 1991 it was renumbered 08 so that the fleet numbers of the new MetroRiders could follow on from the old Metroriders.
In 1992, ten more StarRiders (201-210) joined the fleet when Reading bought The BeeLine's Reading and Newbury services. These vehicles, new to The BeeLine in 1988 were all allocated to Newbury. 202, 204 and 208-10 were refitted during 1999 to give them a number of years of extra life ahead, however they were all withdrawn just over a year after this work was completed in December 2000! 201, 203 and 205-7 were not refitted and were replaced in 1999 by MetroRiders which had become surplus to Reading's requirements. The re-fitted examples were replaced by Optare Vectas which were also surplus to Reading's requirements.
Of these, it is known that 607 passed to Perry, Bromyard where it was reregistered F721 TLW. It then moved to Evans, Tregaron in July 2004.
Last updated: 27-01-05
