Where to best find ALX400s

[465 SE]

Hello. Thought I’d create a quick thread, to see if anyone knows where best to find ALX400s, mainly in the south of England, near London. Thanks.

 

[fgwrich]

Stagecoach in the Basingstoke / Winchester / Aldershot areas have a number of them. Mostly 04 to 06 plate examples.

Reading Buses also has 2 former Stagecoach Devon (via south) 04 plate examples, taken on when Reading Buses took the Reading to Fleet half of the former Reading to Aldershot route.

 

[TXMISTA]

Cardinal Buses in Surrey has two or three if my memory serves me correctly, all ex-London types from RATP Group or Stagecoach.

 

[JonathanH]

Cardinal Buses in Surrey has two or three if my memory serves me correctly, all ex-London types from RATP Group or Stagecoach.

SWR rail replacement seems to be a good place to get ALX400s with Cardinal and other operators frequently turning these out.

 

[jonesy3001]

Most of the Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire ALX400 tridents are now based at lillyhall.

 

[Grahamk748]

First Essex still have a few B7TLs and Tridents. If you wanted to venture a bit further afield there a some W reg Tridents at Luton, mainly on school runs but see use on normal service occasionally especially during the school holidays. Stagecoach at Northampton still have quite a few tridents left in service also and National Express West Midlands also have Volvos and Tridents spread all over their area.

 

[PJ19826]

I was in Wolverhampton today and there were lots of 03 and 53 registered examples.

 

[route101]

West Midlands still has loads. Y, 51, 02, 52 plate still out. Some Stagecoach areas still have them running. The 69 Fareham to Winchester route often has one. I do find Stagecoach seem to run them on short town services now.

 

[MacT]

First Wessex down in Dorset have a trio of 2000 registered B7TL ALX400s, all should be out on or around the 29th of May.

 

[duncombec]

Arriva in the Medway Towns (and a few in Maidstone) are a particular stronghold of the type on Volvo B7TL chassis - look out for the 6401-6449 batch on Bustimes. 6005 and 6007 are two DAF examples at Tunbridge Wells, but check before you travel.

Various examples with Stagecoach East Kent, too - Thanet and Ashford, including two open-toppers at Thanet on service 69 (only 1 in service each day when it's operating).

 

[MotCO]

Cardinal Buses in Surrey has two or three if my memory serves me correctly, all ex-London types from RATP Group or Stagecoach.

They still have at least one - I saw it today parked up between duties near the M25.

 

[LordCreed]

Reading Buses also has 2 former Stagecoach Devon (via south) 04 plate examples, taken on when Reading Buses took the Reading to Fleet half of the former Reading to Aldershot route.

I believe both were finally withdrawn a couple of months ago unfortunately.

 

[fgwrich]

I believe both were finally withdrawn a couple of months ago unfortunately.

That was a quick withdrawal, I last saw one of them in March / April by Reading Station.

It seems that they haven’t gone far though, as they are now with Aldermaston Coach Lines.

 

[Simon75]

First Potteries have 3: 2 51 plate and 1 54 plate.

 

[railwaytrack]

I think that Seaford & District and Southern Transit both have a few each which get used on rail replacement bus services.

 

[RJ]

SWR rail replacement seems to be a good place to get ALX400s with Cardinal and Bear Buses frequently turning these out.

Bear Buses don’t currently have any in their fleet, but a few ALX400s can be seen on those routes with other regular operators including Zinc, THZ, Candy Coaches and Replacement Bus Hire.

 

[Peter Philips]

Stagecoach South West Tridents in Torbay and North Devon (plus a couple seem to be hanging on in Exeter).

 

[Flange Squeal]

Stagecoach's Aldershot depot still has a fair number of ALX400-bodied Tridents which are primarily used on the 4xx Farnborough Colleges and All Hallows School routes, however these are interworked with various daytime routes during term time. Daytime public routes that are pretty guaranteed to turn out primarily ALX400s during weekday term term time are the 9 (Farnborough circular), 10 (Farnborough to Church Crookham), and one of the two vehicles on the 41 (Frimley Park Hospital to Ash). The latter is generally the 0930 Ash-FPH, 1035 FPH-Ash, 1120 Ash-FPH and 1225 FPH-Ash duty. Therefore I'd say Farnborough is a good place to see a good variety, as you'll see all these three routes there as well as some on long layover been school runs in the main road laybys directly opposite the main Kingsmead bus stops.

All three routes fall within the Blackwater Valley DayRider area and, for reference, Farnborough is around a 40-50 minute train journey from Waterloo (on the South Western Railway line out through Surbiton).

Tridents also make frequent sightings on the 65 between Guildford and Alton between school runs on the St Peter's School PTx routes (so 1025, 1125 and 1225 off Guildford and 1120, 1220 and 1320 return trips from Alton). The KITE between Guildford and Aldershot is another place they pop up quite a lot. Guildford is around 35 minutes from Waterloo, also on South Western Railway.

They still have at least one - I saw it today parked up between duties near the M25.

There are currently three left in the fleet - TA324 (SN03 EAE), TA717 (SN53 KHR) and TA950 (LX53 JYO). The older Darts and Tridents are gradually being replaced by Enviros retrofitted to Euro VI though, as a lot of their rail work now falls within the tightened up Low Emission Zone, but the Tridents are currently still hanging on on school routes and some rail. The sighting by the M25 was likely - if at the DVSA layby near Junction 9 - between school runs on the St Andrew's routes. Rather than run three buses dead back to depot in the morning and then out again in the afternoon, to save fuel and wear/tear at least one bus is generally parked there and the two drivers come back in one bus together (and the reverse in the afternoon).

 

[465 SE]

Thank you all very much for your help.

 

[galwhv69]

Not a regular service, but on the 10th July there is the Bromley Bus Preservation Group Low Floor Running Day, so a few preserved ones should appear

 

[83G/84D]

Arriva North East have some with the majority based at Durham.

 

[Gc1986]

Stagecoach West have quite a few in Swindon

 

[WM Bus]

West Midlands still has loads. Y, 51, 02, 52 plate still out. Some Stagecoach areas still have them running. The 69 Fareham to Winchester route often has one. I do find Stagecoach seem to run them on short town services now.

Acocks Green Garage use 51 plate B7TL ALX400 and 4301. They are common on the 11A/11C.

 

[Wyrleybart]

Acocks Green Garage use 51 plate B7TL ALX400 and 4301. They are common on the 11A/11C.

Walsall bus station and around Wolverhampton can be quite busy with National Express West Midlands ALX400s. I made a car journey about three months ago from Wolverhampton's New Cross hospital to Great Wyrley in south Staffs and counted sixteen in service, although a few may have been Volvo B7TL rather than Trident chassis - difficult to tell the difference unless you know what to loom for.

The twenty new NXWM hydrogen buses which are still not in service are probably keeping some of the Tridents in traffic and NXWM are still MOT ing them I believe.

Go to stand F in Walsall bus station and you cannot go wrong.

 

[WM Bus]

Walsall bus station and around Wolverhampton can be quite busy with NXWM ALX400s. I made a car journey about three months ago from Wolverhampton's New Cross hospital to Great Wyrley in south Staffs and counted sixteen in service, although a few may have been Volvo B7TL rather than Trident chassis - difficult to tell the difference unless you know what to loom for.

Walsall and Wolverhampton would have all been Tridents I think.
Also Yardley Wood and Birmingham Central have lots of Tridents as well. YW ones do 49, 18, 76.
BC ones 03 and 54 plates do 14 & 97 mostly and have been upgraded to euro 6 and still run into Central Birmingham.

 

[CBlue]

First operate a batch of ALX400 bodied B7TL's around Ipswich - new to the depot in 2003, and regardless of refurbishments and repaints they've had over the years are getting very, very tired now.

 

[37114]

Faresaver in Chippenham had 4x B7L AlX400s in use until very recently, 2 have definitely gone, other 2 are for sale but still in use so may go any day

 

[Jordan Adam]

Wrong end of the country but Stagecoach Bluebird still operate a trio of Ex-Dublin Bus Volvo B7TLs ALX400s (X plate, 51 plate & 02 plate).

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Wrong end of the country but Stagecoach Bluebird still operate a trio of Ex-Dublin Bus Volvo B7TLs ALX400s (X plate, 51 plate & 02 plate).

With bench seats, as I discovered a few weeks ago

 

[Stephen1001]

As other posts may have implied there are still quite a lot of these around! Another example in the south east is Stagecoach East Kent (mostly out of Thanet) and there are many more elsewhere such as Arriva Merseyside and First Buses of Somerset. It's more of a challenge if you want to find ALX400s on a DAF DB250 chassis (Tridents and B7TLs being the vast majority of what's left) - best bet is probably the two at Tunbridge Wells as mentioned earlier, but there's one still with Arriva in High Wycombe too.