MidlandRed.net
Midland Red West: Dennis Dart — Type Overview
Introduction
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Vehicles Acquired New
301–313 (R/Nos: N301–N313XAB), renumbered to 47001–47009, 47070 & 47011–47013
In August 1995, Midland Red West Limited took delivery of 13 Dennis Dart single-deck midibuses with DP36F Plaxton Pointer bodywork, built to DPTAC standards. These vehicles were delivered to Worcester depot where they received their legal lettering and fleet numbers etc, before entering service in August and September at Kidderminster depot and its outstations, for use on their network of subsidised Shropshire services.
In April 1997, all of these vehicles except number 313 moved to Redditch depot to provide increased capacity on routes previously operated with Mercedes-Benz L608D minibuses. Between August and December 2000, while all 13 of these vehicles were in service at Redditch, they were re-seated from DP36F to DP35F to combat vandalism problems. This was done by turning the last double seat on the offside to face backwards and removing the last near-side double seat, filling the space with a single seat taken from a withdrawn Mercedes-Benz L608D that faces inwards. The first vehicle to be converted was fleet number 313, in August 2000, when it finally joined the rest of the batch at Redditch.
In late 2001 and early 2002, three of these vehicles, fleet numbers 309, 310 and 312, passed to First Cymru in exchange for the return of three larger Dennis Lance buses, fleet numbers 218, 219 and 220. These Lances had originally been new to Midland Red West in 1994, but passed to First Cymru in 1997 and 1998, shortly after Digbeth depot had closed.
In early 2003, as more modern low-floor vehicles became available at Redditch, the remaining vehicles from this batch moved to Hereford depot to replace their ageing fleet of Mercedes-Benz minibuses, although one vehicle, fleet number 306, operated from Worcester depot for a while. While at Redditch, some of these buses had been repainted into FirstGroup “Barbie2” livery, but repainting seemed to come to a halt when they moved to Hereford. Those vehicles that did carry FirstGroup livery received red colour coded route branding for Service 74 shortly after moving to Hereford. In 2005, the repainting program started again, and by the end of summer 2007 all the vehicles from this batch had received FirstGroup “Barbie3” livery.
341 (R/No: N341EUY), renumbered to 42641
In April 1996, as part of the same order that saw the acquisition of 301–313, Midland Red West Limited acquired their first Dennis Dart SLF low-floor bus, fleet number 341. This vehicle was acquired with the aid of funding from Shropshire County Council and was operated from Kidderminster depot on services sponsored by the council, mostly in the Bridgnorth and Ludlow area.
In the summer of 1999, when the contract for the Shropshire services ended, 341 found use on general services at Kidderminster depot. From September 2000, she was mainly used on the new Service X33 between Kidderminster and Redditch's Alexandra Hospital, and on the extended 303 service as a backup vehicle for 371 and 372. After those services were taken over by Pete’s Travel in April 2002, she was again used on general county services from Kidderminster such as the Service 192 between Kidderminster and Birmingham, and the Service 143 between Birmingham and Redditch.
At the end of 2002, just after Christmas, 341 was taken off the road to be repainted. She returned from the paint shop on the morning of Thursday 9th January 2003 in full FirstGroup “Barbie” corporate livery, thus becoming the first vehicle acquired new by Midland Red West to receive this livery after a repaint. Shortly afterwards she re-entered service at Worcester depot on local Worcester City services, becoming the first Dennis Dart to enter normal service at that depot.
In September 2003, when First Midland Red regained the Service 303 and Service X33 contract from Pete’s Travel, she returned to Kidderminster depot for use on these services, and while there she was renumbered to 42641 as part of FirstGroup’s national numbering system. Kidderminster depot took delivery of five new Alexander-Dennis Pointers (fleet numbers: 42889–42893) to operate these services in December 2004, and N341EUY returned to Worcester depot at this time for use mostly on Worcester Overground Service 35.
For more details of this vehicle, including the routes operated under contract by Shropshire County Council, see the “Midland Red West: Dennis Dart - Marketing” page of this website.
42889–42894 (R/Nos: VX54MUC/O/P/U/V & VX05JWW)
In December 2004, First Midland Red took delivery of five new Alexander Dennis Pointers. These vehicles arrived at Worcester depot where they were stored for about two weeks while being prepared for service.
They entered service at Kidderminster depot just before Christmas 2004, for use on the Services 303 and X33. Service 303 operates between the Worcestershire Royal Hospital at Newtown, Worcester, via Worcester City Centre, Ombersley and Kidderminster Town Centre, to Kidderminster General Hospital. The service then changes to an X33, which runs back to Kidderminster Town Centre then to the Alexandra Hospital at Redditch, via Bromsgrove Town, Bromsgrove Hospital and Redditch Town Centre.
Calling at so many hospitals, it not surprising that these services are subsidised by the county council and the hospital trust, and the conditions of the contract state that low floor vehicles are to be used. Prior to the arrival of these new vehicles, the services were operated using Dennis Darts 47641 (registration number N341EUY), 42217, 42219 and 42220 (registration numbers R217, R219 and R220MSA). With the new deliveries, these four vehicles have become surplus to requirement at Kidderminster and have been moved to Worcester depot to provided low floor vehicle access on their Overground services.
On 18th February 2005, a sixth example, registration number VX54MUW, was delivered to Worcester depot and was stored for a number of weeks while First Midland Red tried to locate its lost paperwork. By the time the paperwork was ready, the “54” registration number that had been reserved was out of date, and the vehicle received the number VX05JWW. The vehicle finally joined the others from the batch in mid-March 2005 at Kidderminster depot.
All of these vehicles, except number 42891, recieved “catch the CONNECTION” route branding for services 303 and X33 in June 2005, featuring a large picture of a nurse on the sides. In September 2006, following changes to Services 303 and X33, these vehicles had their route branding removed and two vehicles, fleet numbers 42892 and 42893, moved to Worcester depot, and one vehicle, fleet number 42894, to Hereford depot.
[ Page Top ]Leased Vehicles
351–354 & 356 (R/Nos: Y351–Y354AUY & Y356AUY), renumbered to 42351–42354 & 42356
Early in 2001 First Midland Red Buses Limited won the contract to operate the new Worcester North Park+Ride service, which was due to come into operation on 17th April 2001.
For the contract First Midland Red leased five new Low Floor B34F Caetano Nimbus Dennis Darts, fleet numbers 351-354 and 356, which were delivered on the 11th and 12th April in purple and orange “Worcester North Park+Ride” livery. Also, to fulfil contract requirements, fifteen volunteer drivers were sent on a three day training coarse and these drivers now work special shifts which includes the Park+Ride services.
One of these vehicles was in Worcester for one day in March 2001 for evaluation. It was seen at Crowngate Bus Station and at the Park+Ride site, unregistered and running on trade plates with no marking or livery. However these vehicles were not used for driver training, a Caetano demonstrator (registration number W809VMA) was used at Worcester depot from March 2001 for all training requirements (see the “Dennis Dart - Miscellaneous” page for details of this vehicle).
During normal operation four of these vehicles were used to provide a ten minute service between the purpose built Park+Ride site at Perdiswell, Little London, Forgate Street Rail Station, and the Crowngate Bus Station in the City Centre. The remaining vehicle was kept at Worcester depot as spare to allow for breakdowns and servicing requirements. However, in the run up to Christmas the Park+Ride service was so popular that all five vehicle were required in service at the same time.
On 5th September 2005, Worcester City Council re-launched their park and ride services in the City of Worcester under the new brand name “Worcester Express,” and introduced two new limited stop circular park and ride services, the W2 and W3, running between the City Centre, Perdiswell Park and Ride site, Warndon, Worcester Royal Hospital and the City Centre every 20 minutes. At the end of August 2005, the park and ride vehicles operated by First had their branding removed, and operated for a few weeks without any branding. Shortly after the re-launch, they were re-branded with “Worcester Express” logos and dedicated route branding for either the W2 or W3 services. The original Park+Ride route was renumbered to W1 at this time and operation of this service was taken over by two Alexander Dennis Enviro 300 buses.
The dedicated route branding for individual services on each vehicle proved to be problematic as vehicles could only be used on their allocated route, and the Council clearly saw this situation as being less than idea, but in 2006, the 5-year lease on the vehicles expired and First Midland Red took the option to purchase them. Now that the vehicles were owned by the company and their long-term use on the services assured, the Council paid for all five to have had their individual route branding removed new LED destination displays fitted, at the cost of approximately £10,000 per vehicle, which allowed them to be used on any of the park and ride routes. The purple and orange livery with “Worcester Express” branding remained.
In October 2007, it was announced that First Midland Red had lost the contract to operate the park and ride in Worcester, and thus the W1, W2 and W3 services would end in February 2008. From this time, the County Council operated the W1 service in-house with a fleet of new vehicles in red and silver “Whoosh” branding, while the W2 and W3 services were temporarily replaced with X22 and X23 services operated semi-commercially by First from 25th February 2008. Once the X22 and X23 services started, First Midland Red immediately begun a program of repainting these vehicles into corporate livery, and while they were mostly used on the X22 and X23, they did start to appear on other routes which in turn led to them being fitted with safety screens in the cabs during the summer of 2008.
The temporary X22 and X23 ended on 30th August 2008, and was replaced by First Midland Red with a fully-commercially operated extension to their existing 31 service. While the standard 31 service continued to be operated with the Optare Solo vehicles, the former park and ride Darts were used on the extended part of the route, running as services 31A and 31C—Service 31A for anti-clockwise replacing service X23, and 31C for clockwise replacing service X22.
371 & 372 (R/Nos: X371–X372CUY)
From 4th September 2000, the Service 303 between Kidderminster and Worcester was extended and re-routed to serve the three branches of Worcester’s Royal Infirmary at Castle Street, Ronkswood and Newtown. The service, which is subsidised by Worcestershire County Council under the “easyLINK” scheme, was also increase to operate on an hourly frequency from every two hours during the daytime, and additional journeys were added in the evenings.
First Midland Red leased two new short-wheelbase Dennis Dart SLF buses, registration numbers X371CUY and X372CUY, from Minstral Group PLC to meet contract requirements that called for easy access vehicles to be used. Both vehicles were fitted with Plaxton mini-Pointer bodies and came into service on 4th September 2000 at Kidderminster depot with fleet numbers 371 and 372. Their original overall white livery remained, with “easyLINK” route branding carried on the sides and rear.
Although both these vehicles featured route branding for the Service 303, from time to time they could also seen operating on the Service X33 which runs between Kidderminster, Bromsgrove and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, and is operated as part of the same contract.
From Monday 8th April 2002, the contract for Services 303 and X33 was taken over by Pete’s Travel. Both of these vehicles were withdrawn from service with First Midland Red on Saturday 6th April 2002, then taken to the body shop at Worcester depot to have all their markings and fittings removed. They were then repainted in plain white livery and passed back to the lease company.
By the end of May 2002, registration number X372CUY was in service as a Park & Ride bus at the Eden Project near St. Austell in Cornwall.
[ Page Top ]Vehicles Acquired Second-Hand
314 (R/No: K903CVW), renumbered to 46103
K903CVW was new in 1993 to Thamesway (part of the Eastern National company) as fleet number 903. It is a standard Dennis Dart with Plaxton Pointer bodywork and 35 seats. It passed to First Northampton as fleet number 693, and had a brief spell at First Leicester before joining First Midland Red in August 2003, as fleet number 314. It was repainted into FirstGroup Barbie 2 livery during September 2003, and entered service at Kidderminster depot shortly afterwards.
On 12th June 2005, with the restructuring of most of Worcester City “Overground” services, this vehicle moved to Worcester depot along with fleet numbers 40068 and 40093, for use on “Blue Line” Service 32. This service had previously operated at a 15-minute frequency using Mercedes 0.814 Vario minibuses, but the changes saw this reduced to a 20-minute frequency and the route changed to accommodate these larger vehicles. Five of the Mercedes minibuses were withdrawn from Worcester at this time due to these and other changes.
327, 329 & 330 (R/Nos: R217, R219 & R220MSA), renumbered to 42217, 42219 & 42220
On Wednesday 20th March 2002, First Midland Red took delivery of a Dennis Dart, registration number R220MSA, from First Cymru, which was rumoured at the time to be the first of ten low floor Dennis Darts that First Midland Red had acquired for use at Redditch depot. It is fitted with a B37F Plaxton Pointer body in standard FirstGroup “Barbie” livery, and was new to First Aberdeen as fleet number 220 before passing to First Cymru (Swansea) with the fleet number 653.
After arriving from First Cymru it was allocated the fleet number 330 and spent about two weeks in storage at Worcester depot, then Redditch depot before it was loaned to First Northampton, without being used in service by First Midland Red. It returned to First Midland Red in the first week of May 2002, and entered service at Redditch depot on Monday 13th for use on local Redditch services, mainly on the 57/58 “Circle Line” services.
On 10th & 31st May 2002, two more vehicles from the same batch passed to First Midland Red. These were registration numbers R219 and R217MSA (fleet numbers 652 and 650 in the First Cymru fleet). Both vehicles were kept in storage at Worcester depot for a short time while being made ready for service, then entered service with R220MSA at Redditch depot with the fleet numbers 329 and 327. Despite the early rumours that 10 of these vehicles would be acquired by First Midland Red, these three were the only ones to arrive.
On the 6th Janurary 2003, First Midland Red upgraded three of their local Worcester City services, the 21, 28 & 32 to run with larger, low-floor vehicles, even though no low-floor vehicles were available at the time! Shortly afterwards, Dennis Dart number 327 moved to Worcester depot for driver training and was later joined by fleet numbers 329, 330 and 341 in service at Worcester, replacing Mercedes 0.814 Vario minibuses which had previously been used.
First Midland Red regained the contracts for the Service 303 between Worcester’s Royal Hospital and Kidderminster, and Service X33 between Redditch's Alexander Hospital and Kidderminster from the 4th September 2003. As these service require the use of low-floor vehicles, 327 and 329 moved to Kidderminster depot at this time, with fleet number 330 following a few weeks later, for use on these services. On 13th March 2004, while in service at Kidderminster depot, they were renumbered to fleet numbers 42217, 42219 and 42220 as part of FirstGroup's national vehicle numbering system. All three examples returned to Worcester depot when Kidderminster took delivery of five new vehicles to operate the Services 303 and X33 in December 2004, and were put into service on Worcester Overground Service 35, receiving yellow route branding for that service on Sunday 20th February 2005.
Note: There are a total of 15 vehicles in this batch (registration numbers R207–R222MSA) which were all new to First Aberdeen in March 1998. Two of these vehicles (registration numbers R221–R222MSA) are now in service with First Avon at Bristol, with the remainder with First Cymru. It is unlikely that any more these will find their way to First Midland Red.
40068, 40072, 40086, 40088, 40092, 40093 & 40096 (R/Nos: J901/5SEH, K919/21/5/6/9XRF)
In the Spring of May 2004, the traffic commissioner reduced the operating licence of First PMT due to their poor vehicle maintenance record. This forced them to withdraw a number of services in the Stoke-on-Trent area, leaving them with a surplus of vehicles. Five of these surplus vehicles passed to First Midland Red, with the first examples arriving at their Worcester depot on Sunday 16th May 2004. Four of these five vehicles were in yellow and red First PMT livery, with the fifth, fleet number 40096, carrying FirstGroup “Barbie2” corporate livery. All were stored at Worcester depot while they were prepared for service, and entered service at Hereford depot from 24th May 2004.
In June 2004, a sixth example, fleet number 40068 (registration number J901SEH), passed to First Midland Red in FirstGroup “Barbie2” corporate livery. This remained stored at Worcester depot for several months and finally entered service at Kidderminster depot in September 2004.
Of the four examples acquired in yellow and red First PMT livery, number 40093 (registration number K926XRF) received FirstGroup “Barbie2” corporate livery July 2004 and then moved to Kidderminster depot, while the remaining three ran at Hereford depot in PMT livery until May 2005 before repainted began.
On Friday 18th February 2005, First Midland Red staff went to collect another two of these vehicles from the First West Yorkshire depot at Halifax. However, only one of these, fleet number 40088 (registration number K921XRF), managed the journey to Worcester, with the other braking down on the M6 near Stoke-on-Trent. This was later recovered by First PMT engineers and never made the remainder of the journey. 40088 was stored at Worcester depot for several weeks before entering service at Hereford depot in April 2005.
On 12th June 2005 two of these vehicle, fleet numbers 40068 and 40093, moved to Worcester depot along with fleet number 46103. These vehicles were moved for use on Service 32 “Blue Line” which had previously used smaller Mercedes 0.814 Vario minibuses. These vehicles were later joined at Worcester depot by 40072 and 40088, while 40068 and 40092 moved to Kidderminster depot.
Most of these vehicles were withdrawn in February 2008, but a few examples remained in service until August of that year. On withdrawal, all were stored at Kidderminster depot. By the end of 2008, all had passed to PVS Carlton (dealer) for scrap.
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