Three Norwich Park & Ride routes taken over

Friday 28th March saw the last day of BRAHAM operating the Costessey Park and Ride service with Plaxton Presidents. These Plaxton Presidents were collected by NorwichBus yesterday ready for service with them. The Costessey Park and Ride service is now operated by BetterBus.

From today, BRAHAM will be operating the Airport, Harford and Sprowston Park and Ride services. The Airport Park and Ride will be operated by 58-plate Alexander Dennis Enviro400s while the Harford and Sprowston Park and Ride routes will be operated by brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro400s. All Park and Ride buses will have free Wi-Fi for all passengers. We also have three grey Park and Ride liveried Enviro400s as spares for all of the Park and Ride services.

Harford Park and Ride service 602 will now be operated with brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro400s and will operate every 12-16 minutes between Monday and Saturday. The buses that are to be used on this route are 689-91 AU14 DLU-V/X.

Airport Park and Ride service 603 will now be operated with 58-plate Alexander Dennis Enviro400s and will operate every 15 minutes Monday to Saturday and every 30 minutes on Sundays. The buses that are to be used on this route are 670-3 SN58 CGE-G/K.

Sprowston Park and Ride service 606 will now be operated with brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro400s and will operate every 15 minutes between Monday and Saturday. The buses that are to be used on this route are 692-4 AU14 DLY, DOA/D.

The spare buses for all of the Park and Ride services are grey liveried 58-plate Alexander Dennis Enviro400s. They are 674-6 SN58 CGO/U-V.

In time all Park and Ride buses will receive rear adverts for the Park and Ride services.

Demo for Norwich route 10

After having Optare Versa ex-demonstrator YJ62 FFB operating route 10 from Norwich depot for a few weeks awaiting the take over of route 42 from GreenBus.

Now, we have Wright Streetlite DF demonstrator SK63 GAA on loan from Wrightbus for route 10 operated from the Norwich depot. It has been given fleet number L1.

 

L1 SK63 GAA will enter service with us tomorrow.

As you can tell by us operating both of these buses on route 10 we are hoping to launch brand new buses on the route later this year. The current 07-plate Wright Solars on the route will operate other routes from Norwich or transfer to another depot within the company.

656 SN58 CFV gets the Nandos touch

Over the course of yesterday after, Aylesbury-based Alexander Dennis Enviro400 656 SN58 CFV was given an all over advertisement for the new Nandos restaurant in Aylesbury. 656 will continue to operate both routes 50 and 61 from time to time.

After the one month advertising campaign is over it will return to the TravelAylesbury livery.

Fleet Update

After loan to NorwichBus, 108 AU63 FLP was returned to us last night nearly a month early. 106 AU63 FLM and 107 AU63 FLO remain on loan with NorwichBus.

Towards the middle of next month we will be opening a new depot in Great Yarmouth. Operation of route 10 (Great Yarmouth - Acle - Norwich) will transfer to the new depot. New route 6 will also be operated from the Great Yarmouth depot. We hope to operate other routes from the new depot in the future.

Our management are currently working on a premium brand service just like Stagecoach's Gold services. Our premium brand services will be named 'DIAMOND'. More information coming soon...

Norwich-based Plaxton Presidents 700-5 LR02 BCF, BDF, BBZ, BDO, BCU and BBO have been sold to NorwichBus. These will pass over to NorwichBus after operation of the Costessey Park & Ride service finishes on the evening of 29th March.

Loans to NorwichBus

On Sunday evening, NorwichBus HQ in Postwick, Norwich was destroyed by an arson attack which burned over forty of there buses and the workshop to the ground. Due to this many services operated by NorwichBus were cancelled on Monday. By Wednesday, all services except one were operating normally using loaned buses from a number of bus companies. BRAHAM sent six buses on loan to NorwichBus.

After the decrease in frequency on Purple Line 39, we now currently have four spare Enviro200s at Norwich which of three were sent to NorwichBus. These were 106-8 AU63 FLM/O-P and these will say with NorwichBus until the service revisions on the 20th April.

Also sent were ex-GreenBus (owner of NorwichBus) W263-5 CDN which currently do not hold fleet numbers with us. These will also stay on loan to NorwichBus until the 20th April and of which W265 CDN is the only one in BRAHAM livery with the others still in orange.

We have also brought a number of other buses from NorwichBus for the service revisions on the 20th April. These were brought before the arson attack at there HQ in Postwick, Norwich.

Updates from Norwich

From the 17th March, the Purple Line 39 will have a reduced frequency of every 30 minutes due to fierce competition from NorwichBus. All of the Enviro200s at Norwich have be repainted into the current version of fleet livery ready for the change of timetable. Two of them have lots Purple Line 39 branding.

From the 20th April, BRAHAM will be taking over routes 41, 42 ,43 and 51. Route 41 will be renumbered route 6 to avoid confusion with our current route 41 in Norwich. These routes are all currently operated by GreenBus.

Ready for the take over of route 42 we have brought ex-demonstrator Optare Versa YJ62 FFB. It has been given fleet number 208. Currently it will see service on other routes such as route 10 into Great Yarmouth.

New arrivals at Aylesbury

From tomorrow, TravelAylesbury will be taking over Blue Route 2 and route 61.

For the Blue Route 2, TravelAylesbury have brought two Dennis Darts from Ensign Bus with one acting as a spare. They are 110 SN06 JPV and 111 SN06 JPX.

For route 61, TravelAylesbury have brought two Scania OmniDekkas and three East Lancs Myllennium Lowlanders from NorwichBus. The Scanias are 600/1 YN54 AFU/V and the East Lancs are 611-3 YJ05 PZE, YJ55 WPA and YJ07 JPV. One of these will act as a spare each day.