Yes it is i believe
Part 1 was going to be this weekend, so see what happens!
In this case he was correct.It wouldn't surprise me if the MMC's were never going to leave Southend in the first place, apparently the man who first brought this to everyones attention on Flickr has a history of saying this will happen or that will happen etc that turns out to be incorrect
About the only time he ever has been
About the only time he ever has been
Unless somebody is breaking into the depot and changing official sources there is no way that a non-employee could be the one responsible for a bus being pained into the wrong livery (and I'd be highly suspicious of any information from sources that were claiming otherwise, as at the very least they seem to be scapegoating him for an internal (quite possibly their own) failure). If the lines of communication are so poor that those involved in painting are relying on non-official sources there is a much bigger problem that has led to such mistakes than the fact that a non-official source said something.
JL's dislike of ASC is pretty obvious when you see some of the flickr albums on his stream with catty comments directed at the then management with gushing comments directed toward First Essex. Most of the management of that time are now working for Stagecoach South East. When I joined ASC (at head office) I was told they had contacted Buses Magazine withdrawing access to JL for any of their promotional events. Which is their right of course.
Not just the depot he was banned from, take that to read official events. Such as new vehicle launches etc.
I'm not saying that he isn't a pest and a compulsive liar (although I really don't know enough to say anything on those comments either way), but to blame a non-employee for an extremely basic internal mistake is simply nonsensical. If a bus manages to be painted into the wrong livery there is a major issue with internal processes and they are extremely lucky that it was something as harmless as a paint job that alerted them to it (to the extent that it wouldn't surprise me if a transport commissioner got involved if it was publicly being blamed on an outsider as it suggests a failure to keep accurate maintenance records and a toxic culture where mistakes are blamed on outsiders without sufficient internal investigation or responsibility being accepted).
Not sure I understand your response, were you replying to me or to an earlier post?
That's such a shame. The UK Buses site would and could be really useful, but as you say it is totally riddled with errors
There are 5 E400MMCs for Leicester from Gillingham, the rest of the replacements are Volvo B9/Optare Olympus from Yorkshire. The first few of each type are already in service in Leicester.