Over the course of 2013, Portsmouth is to receive many new buses for the two primary fleets that serve the city - First Hampshire & Dorset and Stagecoach South. Stagecoach's final batch is arriving at present, and this post documents the latest upgrades to the routes around Portsmouth city.
First up are an existing batch of Enviro200 single deckers, introduced to services at the beginning of the year. 36831 (GX62BFK) is one of a number of similar buses that are allocated on the Havant - Wecock Farm services, via Crookhorn and Waterlooville. These buses rarely get onto Portsea island itself, unless one strays onto the 20 or 21. 36831 is missing its arrows which inform potential customers of the frequency and other important matters.
The second change is the repainting and rebranding of the '58' plate batch of Enviro300 single deckers, allocated to route 23. The "Surf23" has been dropped for Stagecoach's colour coded route branding and arrows. 27565 (GX58GNO) shows off the new style as it heads down Bishop Crispian Way in Portsmouth. Route 23 serves The Hard on a Sunday, which brings these buses to this location.
Finally, the new order for route 20 and 21 are another batch of Enviro300s. 27862 (GX13ANV) is one of a number of similar examples being introduced into service at the moment. As illustrated, there seems to be space for a similar style of branding to be added to this bus.
Following these upgrades, the oldest buses in service from Farlington depot will be found on the 30/31 Hayling Island services, which will be no more than a decade old. Brand new Enviros on the 20/21, three year old Enviros on the 700, five year old Enviros on the 23 and seven-eight year old Tridents filling in where appropriate, and on the 37. First have announced 37 Streetlites will be introduced onto Portsea island too by November, so things are certainly looking up!
you know when you posted when first group made major changes to its services in portsmouth can you do one on southampton im sure a lot of bus spotters would be interested rather than getting put off by the massive complaintes made by locals about its services
ReplyDeleteI'll try over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, this may be helpful:
ReplyDeletehttp://firstprovincial.webs.com/southampton.htm
Some more great bus photos bus80d
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for the streetlites in Portsmouth
The 20/21, 23 and 39 will all be branded in a similar style - but the sides and lower rear panels on some buses will be kept free of branding to enable commercial advertising to be carried, as shown by the two different photo's in the blog. Hoverbus is expecting an upgrade too :)
ReplyDelete36831 is not missing its arrows. If one looks closely, there is an arrow partially covering the large 39 at the rear of the Bus. Others with the large side arrows do not feature this small arrow thus there are two variants of the branding.
ReplyDelete