The Coaches that often operate Ipswich rail replacements for the last year or so are by Angies from Lowestoft who sometimes have a modern coach like a King Long on such services, but more often than not it's a H, P or T reg vehicle which at best is 20 years old. Goodness knows how someone with limited mobility could cope.
Most days I see an Angie's coach parked up at Ipswich station for the last few months at various times of the day which gives me the impression that they are standby vehicles to be drafted in when a trai...sorry, I mean a fault with the signalling system occurs. This indicates to me it is indeed a booked standby coach.
The thing is, there's a bus company around the corner that is perfectly willing to supply rail replacement vehicles (Ipswich Buses) and this is the company that Greater Anglia always turn to if they need extra standby coaches because they need to cover more than the one train and the Angie's coach has already been used on something else or there is major events.
Probably getting someone to supply a 20-25 year old plus coach that probably only does school runs and little else is a far cheaper option, even if passengers deserve something better. When there has been both Angie's and Ipswich buses vehicles parked up before at the front of the station it's been pretty plain to see that they only use the Ipswich ones if Angie's can't cope with demand or they need to sub for another train cancelled due to a 'signalling fault'
Nobody expects a rail replacement coach to be a luxury, however they do expect something that was built this century, to be a sufficient temperature. If Greater Anglia have to stump up a few quid more to ensure that, then that is what they should do. It's totally wrong to keep putting their excellent front line staff in awkward positions with lots of unhappy passengers time and time again. Honestly some of them looked totally embarrassed this morning.
