Six second hand Plaxton President bodied Dennis Tridents were acquired from Pete's Travel of West Bromwich during February 2003. From Pete's they stopped at Yorkshire Traction to receive bodywork repairs and a repaint, before arrival at Reading for the application of vinyls and fitting of bright-tec displays, CCTV, vaults and ticket machines. 476 was the first to arrive in Reading from Yorkshire Traction's Central Works in Barnsley on 28th February 2003. All six had CCTV cameras fitted in their headlight units by Reading to catch drivers illegally using bus lanes as a short cut! They are allocated fleet numbers 471-6 to follow on from second hand Mk 2 Metrobuses 455-69 and entered service on 1st April 2003. 471 is seen below two weeks later on 16th April and again on 6th June 2003:
472 is seen below at the Moor Street Interchange in Birmingham on 15th February 2003, a few days after the purchase of the Tridents was confirmed. 471-4 all left for repaint at Yorkshire Traction roughly two weeks later, whilst 475-6 had already departed.
Below are two views of the interior of 472 on its first day in service in Reading on 1st April 2003, note the extra bus stopping sign at the back!
474 is seen below at Showbus on 23rd September 2001, whilst still in its first month of service with Pete's Travel and on 1st April 2003, its first day in service in Reading.
The second photo of 471 at the top of the page illustrates the Dennis Trident badges and tree deflectors that were added to the vehicles during their first month in service. Also during their first month a problem with their side exhausts became evident - they were prone to crushing, particularly when going over the Ford's Farm bus ramp! Therefore work was done to move them to the rear of the bus through a semi circular cut-out in the offside rear panel. 474 was the first to be treated by May 2003.
475 and 476 were repainted into Quality Travel generic silver livery during October 2007, with 475 re-entering service on approx 15th and 476 by 18th. 474 was treated by 14th November, and 473 returned from repaint on 7th December. 472 went away for repaint on 7th December, was ready to return by 9th January 2008 and back in service by 19th January. 471 departed for repaint on 21st January and had returned to service by 16th February. 475 is seen below on 27th October 2007:
