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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2017 20:39:24 GMT
Yes - brief history from Wiki below Also as a result of deregulation, in the mid 1980s Ensignbus expanded into tendered London Buses work in East London. Starting with one or two routes, Ensignbus gained a network of routes, using several second hand vehicles and batches of new vehicles: 8 1989 built Alexander bodied Leyland Olympian double-deckers 5 1989 built Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympian double-deckers 16 1988 built MCW Metrobus double-deckers[8] In July 1989, it purchased the business of Frontrunner South East from Stagecoach East Midlands with route 248 and 252.[9] In December 1990 Ensignbus sold its London tendered bus services to Hong Kong company Citybus with the Dagenham depot and 87 buses. It was rebranded as Ensign Citybus and then Capital Citybus.[10] Ensignbus briefly re-entered London tendered service[when?], taking over routes 324 and 348 from First Capital who had bought Capital Citybus. Routes 325 and 509 were later added. before once again selling its London services in December 1999, this time to Town & Country Buses.[2] That last paragraph isn't quite correct - the routes mentioned were commercial, not tendered London ones. Ensign haven't run tendered London services (other than rail and emergency work) since they sold to Citybus back in 1990. Typical Wikipedia
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Post by snoggle on Aug 15, 2017 20:47:01 GMT
Ahh, I'm late, but I see I'm not the only one who wants Ensigns to man up... In fact almost every time I see their bus I say, 'Ensign should just get their [three letters] to London' Am I right in thinking Capital Citybus was linked to Ensigns back in the day before First made the grab for it? Others have dealt with the broad history. The demise of London Forest was also a significant factor in boosting Capital Citybus. When the initial contracts for the 97A and 215 moved across the LT leaflets had blue and silver "sketch" buses on the front and I think the company was advertised as Ensign Citybus at that early point. Having checked it seems the Ensign Citybus name lasted for two months - Sep 91 to Nov 91. Not long after we had the switch to yellow livery and Capital Citybus name when routes like the 97 and 123 were taken on. And then we had the ultimate example of Hong Kong influence. Capital Citybus 331 123 Seven Sisters 2 by plcd1, on Flickr Actually coming back to the theme I wouldn't mind Hong Kong Citybus / NWFB or KMB having a "London adventure". They are both highly competent operators.
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Post by Alex on Aug 15, 2017 21:15:32 GMT
Nice one, thanks for that - AVL1 is another bus from my local area that they have. Well (apologies all for going a bit off thread, but I suppose it's about AN operator), Southern Transit do have a Facebook page if you're on there with quite a bit of stuff on. I'm not on FB (or anything else - this forum is the nearest I do to social media) so don't usually look but just been on there as a guest and AVL1 and TA1 have pics. Their flagship vehicle last time I went was RML2660 (which went through a massive restoration project, I remember when it first arrived), the previous flagship vehicle of L1 had sustained some pretty bad roof damage.......
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2017 7:55:28 GMT
I would like First to come back. I couldn't agree more. Metroline West have screwed up most of their services. 100% of UX staff I have spoken to preferred First to Metroline.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Aug 27, 2017 13:26:44 GMT
I mean like TFL contracted services, rather than services independent of TFL OK then - that rather restricts the innovation that some operators might bring in. The obvious suspects are Go Coach - probably just small scale routes Lothian Buses Reading Buses Nottingham City Transport Harrogate and District (part of Blazefield who have, of course, run in London before) Ensignbus (even though they never ever will as TfL are too restrictive for their tastes) OK Travel (long gone I know but they were probably my favourite North East independent operator) There's no point in quoting any companies that are part of a big group so that rules out Oxford Bus Co or Brighton and Hove. I'm not bothered about First Group - far too inconsistent across their company. They have good pockets of operation but too many places are poorly run. There are few remaining operators of any great note or distinction left. Too many decent independents have given up or been bought out. The rest is all large groups who are strongly represented in London already and who have good and bad operations right across the country so it's a bit meh. Now that Arriva's former London Country garages running London buses have been brought into Arriva London, I would like First to run a handful of east and west London routes from Chelmsford and Slough garage respectively. I would similarly like Stagecoach to gain a foothold around Kingston to supplement route 715. Rotala's best bet could be routes nearer Heathrow. Uno already run route 383. I hope they gain routes 389 & 399 too.
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