New Forest Services

[AdamH]

In January, Stagecoach West won a contract from Gloucestershire CC to run a number of local and connecting services in the Forest of Dean. The contract is currently run by James Bevan and will pass to Stagecoach on 1st April 2019.

Route are as follows...

• 710 and 711 Cinderford Local
• 713 and 714 Cinderford to Mitcheldean
• 717 Cinderford to Lydney
• 727 Lydney to Parkend
• 748 Lydney to Blaisdon (Schooldays)
• 755 Lydney to Chepstow
• 757 Lydney Town to Lydney Rail Station
• 761 Chepstow to Beachley

This work will be run from Gloucester depot by a new rota made up of volunteer drivers, and I'm please to say I will be on that rota. Yes, logic would say the routes should run from Coleford Outstation, but at this time they are short of staff.

Route learning took place on Sunday 3rd using an Optare Solo (fleet number 47357) that was borrowed from Cheltenham depot, because at the moment Gloucester don't have any vehicles small enough to make the tight turns around Cinderford. Gloucester are expecting four SWB Enviro200s to run these routes. Three will be used each day and one spare. I have already seen one parked in Gloucester depot, and I believe the other three are stored at Stroud depot waiting for refurbishment. If they are not ready, we'll be borrowing Solos from Cheltenham again!

[AdamH]

Update... The vehicles to be used by Gloucester will B29F Enviro200s acquired when they bought Wessex last year, with registration numbers YX09Hxx and will have Stagecoach fleet numbers 363xx. All will be fully refurbished to Stagecoach colours inside and out before entering service, and I believe this includes new engines too.

Hopefully I'll get the exact fleet and registration numbers soon.

[MattW]

Looks good mate, you'll definetly need the Forest phrasebook for round there old butt!

[bringstybeast]

With the proposed changes to the 24 and 31 would be expecting the council to see efficiencies and cut the 713 and 746 by the end of the year. But that all might change now Stagecoach have the whole network again...

[AdamH]

I suspect the 713/4 will be merged with the 24 when the changes are announced towards the end of the summer.

We've been told the PVR for Forest routes will not drop, but expect some E400 journeys to be replaced by E300 during off-peak times to try and save fuel.

[AdamH]

Photos sent to me last night showing some of the ex-Wessex E200s in Gloucester depot in various stages of refurbishment. As these are among the first ones to be finished I would imagine they will be 3 of the 4 allocated to Gloucester for the new routes in April.

36376 (YX09 HYW)

36378 (YX09 HZC)

36380 (YX09 HZE)

36380 is seen in the Gloucester depot paint shop (big oven!), so this is the most recent one to have been repainted.

Thank you to Matt560Breese for taking these at the end of his late shift last night.

[sockin-1975]

These Enviro 200's actually have a Worcester past , here are a few shots of YX09HYW and YX09HZC. Astons had the batch of these whilst under their dubious Veolia ownership.
www.flickr.com/photos/westmids-buspics/ ... RzU-aertRc
www.flickr.com/photos/westmids-buspics/ ... 7of-anuN4J

[Matt560Breese]

I better one from tonight of 36380

[AdamH]

These Enviro 200's actually have a Worcester past ...

I had no idea, thanks!

[AdamH]

Next one has turned up at Gloucester.