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First Greater Glasgow

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awsnews

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A number of GALs WS class (LJ13 registrations) have been noted at Hants & Dorset Trim following return to Ambro Leasing. As an aside at least one has been converted to single door which has required the fitting of an offside emergency exit. It is probable that those in Glasgow are from the same batch.
 

JumpinTrainz

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A number of GALs WS class (LJ13 registrations) have been noted at Hants & Dorset Trim following return to Ambro Leasing. As an aside at least one has been converted to single door which has required the fitting of an offside emergency exit. It is probable that those in Glasgow are from the same batch.

I wonder if these will be introduced to the rest of the fleet of Streetlites in Lanarkshire for local services or whether they’ll go to FSE. They seem to have a fair number of them.
 

lastbus

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I wonder if these will be introduced to the rest of the fleet of Streetlites in Lanarkshire for local services or whether they’ll go to FSE. They seem to have a fair number of them.
They are for First Glasgow as far as I’m aware.
A number of GALs WS class (LJ13 registrations) have been noted at Hants & Dorset Trim following return to Ambro Leasing. As an aside at least one has been converted to single door which has required the fitting of an offside emergency exit. It is probable that those in Glasgow are from the same batch.
It is these ones not sure if any more are due.
 

JumpinTrainz

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They are for First Glasgow as far as I’m aware.

It is these ones not sure if any more are due.

I hope they aren’t internally hammered having being used in London... we all know what it was like last time that happened!
 

TheGrandWazoo

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I hope they aren’t internally hammered having being used in London... we all know what it was like last time that happened!

Take it you're referring to the early Tridents 1998-2000 regs rather than the later ones? Bristol had a number donated from Glasgow and they were terrible with the bulkheads still in situ. Apparently, they drove well but as a passenger....

How old were they when they went to Glasgow? These Streetlites are a bit newer?
 

JumpinTrainz

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Take it you're referring to the early Tridents 1998-2000 regs rather than the later ones? Bristol had a number donated from Glasgow and they were terrible with the bulkheads still in situ. Apparently, they drove well but as a passenger....

How old were they when they went to Glasgow? These Streetlites are a bit newer?

Absolutely I am. We’ve just managed to shake them with a small minority left. I think the influx of them started in about 2008 (could have been earlier) with the majority coming 2009-2010. Making the oldest ones by that point about 10 years old. I recall the really bad snow in 2010 and them really struggling to get up the hill at Baillieston road on the 62.

The tridents coming to Glasgow killed off decent travel imo. Especially routes in the east end which once got new stock - went completely back the way (ie the 40 and 61). I think you may be talking about the W reg ALX400s they were horrid buses and way too old. Internally they were better than the T and V reg ones but overall they were awful.

The Streetlites I imagine aren’t that old but seems odd they’re bringing London cast offs to Glasgow and not using their own native Streetlites.
 

lastbus

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Absolutely I am. We’ve just managed to shake them with a small minority left. I think the influx of them started in about 2008 (could have been earlier) with the majority coming 2009-2010. Making the oldest ones by that point about 10 years old. I recall the really bad snow in 2010 and them really struggling to get up the hill at Baillieston road on the 62.

The tridents coming to Glasgow killed off decent travel imo. Especially routes in the east end which once got new stock - went completely back the way (ie the 40 and 61). I think you may be talking about the W reg ALX400s they were horrid buses and way too old. Internally they were better than the T and V reg ones but overall they were awful.

The Streetlites I imagine aren’t that old but seems odd they’re bringing London cast offs to Glasgow and not using their own native Streetlites.
How are they not using their own?
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Absolutely I am. We’ve just managed to shake them with a small minority left. I think the influx of them started in about 2008 (could have been earlier) with the majority coming 2009-2010. Making the oldest ones by that point about 10 years old. I recall the really bad snow in 2010 and them really struggling to get up the hill at Baillieston road on the 62.

The tridents coming to Glasgow killed off decent travel imo. Especially routes in the east end which once got new stock - went completely back the way (ie the 40 and 61). I think you may be talking about the W reg ALX400s they were horrid buses and way too old. Internally they were better than the T and V reg ones but overall they were awful.

The Streetlites I imagine aren’t that old but seems odd they’re bringing London cast offs to Glasgow and not using their own native Streetlites.

Just because they're bringing 7 year old ex London vehicles up, it doesn't mean that other native ones might also arrive. First in Bristol have been steadily reducing their fleet over time, with Glasgow/FSE being the recipients for a number. Perhaps it might be a sensible cheap purchase in order to replace stuff like the Caetano Darts?

The old ones 328**/329** were god awful. Can't recall what the 333** ones in Glasgow are like but travelled on the same batch elsewhere and they seemed to get a much better smartening up/conversion on movement out of London.

Unfortunately, it was a problem across First Group. Little available money to spend in 2008-2012 and it largely went to London with penny numbers to the provinces (like the hybrid e400s and the e500s).
 

smtglasgow

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The tridents coming to Glasgow killed off decent travel imo. Especially routes in the east end which once got new stock - went completely back the way (ie the 40 and 61). I think you may be talking about the W reg ALX400s they were horrid buses and way too old. Internally they were better than the T and V reg ones but overall they were awful.

I reckon that the mess First made of Glasgow between 2010ish and Simplicity did real damage to public transport in the city. Those Tridents were very obviously pre-loved – punters could tell they were being fobbed off with cast offs. This was also the period of big frequency reductions (just about every route went down from 10 to 12 minutes) and steep fare increases (remember they had to cut the day and weekly ticket prices about the time of Simplicity). I don’t suppose there’s much love for First nowadays, but pre-Simplicity is was just too obvious that we were all being screwed! I was living in London at the time and I remember coming back and being shocked at how bad things had got in such a short time. Even though they've slimmed down even more since, at least you get the sense that Jarvis is interested in growing the business.
 

route101

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Absolutely I am. We’ve just managed to shake them with a small minority left. I think the influx of them started in about 2008 (could have been earlier) with the majority coming 2009-2010. Making the oldest ones by that point about 10 years old. I recall the really bad snow in 2010 and them really struggling to get up the hill at Baillieston road on the 62.

The tridents coming to Glasgow killed off decent travel imo. Especially routes in the east end which once got new stock - went completely back the way (ie the 40 and 61). I think you may be talking about the W reg ALX400s they were horrid buses and way too old. Internally they were better than the T and V reg ones but overall they were awful.

The Streetlites I imagine aren’t that old but seems odd they’re bringing London cast offs to Glasgow and not using their own native Streetlites.

I had it late 2007 the first influx of tridents to Glasgow. The seats in V to w reg ones were not the rock solid ones.
 

scosutsut

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Buying the streetlites makes business sense of you think about it. They have LEZ targets to meet in more and more operations and they've chronically underinvested for years in stock meaning they haven't got the time to be picky.

Despite their pretty much universal unpopularity on here, First like Streetlites - it's hard to get a hold of them new - and some turn up on the open market - that other operators are probably wary of due to the situation over at Wright's - allowing First to get them on the cheap I'd suspect.

Operators have finally woken up to doing proper refurbishments too - and in this modern age of waste reduction and recycling, it ticks a few of the corporate objectives off. Win win for them.

Look at Lothian's ex London B9s. Heavy refurb means they are much nicer to travel in (imo) than native examples of the same age simply because the spec they've been done to is so high.

Plus on the bright side it makes things interesting for enthusiasts! (Not a driver for First I'm sure!)
 

cnjb8

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Buying the streetlites makes business sense of you think about it. They have LEZ targets to meet in more and more operations and they've chronically underinvested for years in stock meaning they haven't got the time to be picky.

Despite their pretty much universal unpopularity on here, First like Streetlites - it's hard to get a hold of them new - and some turn up on the open market - that other operators are probably wary of due to the situation over at Wright's - allowing First to get them on the cheap I'd suspect.

Operators have finally woken up to doing proper refurbishments too - and in this modern age of waste reduction and recycling, it ticks a few of the corporate objectives off. Win win for them.

Look at Lothian's ex London B9s. Heavy refurb means they are much nicer to travel in (imo) than native examples of the same age simply because the spec they've been done to is so high.

Plus on the bright side it makes things interesting for enthusiasts! (Not a driver for First I'm sure!)
Will First conduct an interior refurb?
 

Scott mac

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Heard more will be on the way plus deckers to get rid off the alx400 and the 53/54 plate deckers dont think their will be a big order next year for new buses
 

JumpinTrainz

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Heard more will be on the way plus deckers to get rid off the alx400 and the 53/54 plate deckers dont think their will be a big order next year for new buses

I did actually think they would have announced some sort of order this year but now I’m not so sure. Glasgow has had a lot of new stock from 2018-2019 so I’m thinking perhaps this may be the year of transferring newer cast offs into the fleet from other subsidiaries. They still have until 2022 which is another 2 years away so some more cast off conversions and another big order in 2021 could wipe out the non LEZ fleet.

Probably unpopular opinion here but I actually like the Streetlites they’re decent enough buses and internally they’re quite nice compared to the likes of the B7RLEs. FIG have kept them more in Lanarkshire after the 90 and 34/34A lost them however perhaps with the new transfers we may see them used from Scotstoun/Caley and the likes to comply with LEZ. It would be nice to see some of the 14 plate E400s from the Commonwealth Games return as they were good buses. Also some Streetdecks if that was ever an option. I know it was speculated on here a few months back but never came to light.
 

Jordan Adam

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There's around 9 Streetlites on their way, could possibly be more i'm not too sure. They're also buying some Ex-London deckers for BBT.
 
Last edited:

lastbus

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There's at least 9 Streetlites on their way, could possibly be more though among other vehicles. They're also buying some Ex-London deckers for BBT.
Any idea what route the streetlites are for? Plenty of rumours about them as usual.
 

Jordan Adam

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Any idea what route the streetlites are for? Plenty of rumours about them as usual.

Not a clue, it's been stated that it's a "surprise". If i was to guess they'll probably be to replace the remaining B10s at Dumbarton or Caetanos/Darts on the Clydebank services.
 

JumpinTrainz

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Not a clue, it's been stated that it's a "surprise". If i was to guess they'll probably be to replace the remaining B10s at Dumbarton or Caetanos/Darts on the Clydebank services.

They do look like smaller Streetlites as opposed to the Streetlite Max so that was my first thought.
 

SarahDFIG

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wonder who confirmed that on here previously regarding more wright vehicles arriving :rolleyes: .... plenty more "Wright" vehicles coming along with other things :wub:

B10BLE's/"few"B7RLE's/Caetano Darts/Solo's/ALX400 and 33120 - clock is ticking :wub::cake:

back to my cave I go
 

JumpinTrainz

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wonder who confirmed that on here previously regarding more wright vehicles arriving :rolleyes: .... plenty more "Wright" vehicles coming along with other things :wub:

B10BLE's/"few"B7RLE's/Caetano Darts/Solo's/ALX400 and 33120 - clock is ticking :wub::cake:

back to my cave I go

Streetdecks? Gemini 2s?
 

JumpinTrainz

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I noticed that Blantyre aren’t branding all of the E300s for the 201. Spotted 67843 today which hasn’t been branded. I wonder if the plan is to cascade more E300s over to Blantyre with new buses coming in.
 

PaulMc7

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I noticed that Blantyre aren’t branding all of the E300s for the 201. Spotted 67843 today which hasn’t been branded. I wonder if the plan is to cascade more E300s over to Blantyre with new buses coming in.

Hope not tbh because the main buses I use are all majority operated with E300s and they've been fairly good to use. Problem comes with how many you'd need for the 1s/2/3. Practically close to 100 just for 3 services
 

lastbus

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I noticed that Blantyre aren’t branding all of the E300s for the 201. Spotted 67843 today which hasn’t been branded. I wonder if the plan is to cascade more E300s over to Blantyre with new buses coming in.
Can’t brand them all they are used on other routes on a Sunday.
 

lastbus

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wonder who confirmed that on here previously regarding more wright vehicles arriving :rolleyes: .... plenty more "Wright" vehicles coming along with other things :wub:

B10BLE's/"few"B7RLE's/Caetano Darts/Solo's/ALX400 and 33120 - clock is ticking :wub::cake:

back to my cave I go
What depot are these streetlites for then?
JumpinTrainz was more talking about the E300s that have purple fronts but are yet to get vinyls, of which there seems to be quite a few.
Awaiting vinyls same as with the ones on the 2 and 3 that only have the coloured fronts.
 

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