Nottingham's Buses 2022

This thing doesn't really have a name, but since the end of 2018 I've taken to making one of these montages for uploading on the last day of the year, where I pick one photo I've taken each month that is at least partly relevant to some kind of event that occurred with buses in Nottingham or Lincoln in the past year. This time around it's almost exclusively Nottingham, with Lincoln just getting in on a technicality. And, obviously, more than just twelve things happened this year, so what I've got here is by no means covering everything.

 

First up in January is the Centrebus 19 from Melton Mowbray to Nottingham; a sight that won't be seen anymore as the route was withdrawn in the spring and Centrebus no longer serve Nottingham. A far cry from when the 19 was the lengthy 'Five Counties' route stretching all the way from Nottingham to Peterborough! This ended up being the last 19 I saw (I narrowly missed seeing the last ever one, sadly), and MCV bodied B8RLE 632 is pictured on Arkwright Street.

 

This year has seen some very prominent vehicle types in the NCT fleet get reduced down to small numbers. The 33 seat Enviro 200s were heavily culled once the old Network brown and purple routes were steadily transitioned over to double deckers, with most leaving the fleet without ever receiving the current livery. The original fleet of twenty two has been reduced down to just four, with two in use as driver trainers, one in sky blue line livery and one in spare livery. 372, one of the withdrawn vehicles, is seen on the 15th of February while still in service with NCT.

 

N230UD Omnidekkas have also gone the same way as the E200s, with numbers being whittled down over the course of the year, so that as I'm writing this, only the navy 4s and a couple of spares remain. This photo of 997, on Mansfield Road with a 58 on 28.3.22, doubles up to show the revised branding that was applied to many vehicles around that time. Service levels had just been scaled back slightly, resulting in more routes interworking, and brown, lilac, orange, lime and purple line buses received common branding for multiple routes. This resulted in the 58 regaining branded Omnidekkas, albeit briefly, after having E400s and then E400 Cities since 2014.

 

2022 really has been the year of things disappearing, whether it be routes or vehicles. After using them extensively on the Medilink, CT4N sold off their Optare Tempos, but as well as those, most of the City Council electric buses that were new around 2012/3/4 have gone. Some have moved to 2nd owners, but most seem to have gone on the scrapheap, because their batteries became life-expired. The last time I saw one of the blue Solo EVs was back in April, when 990 was passing City Hospital here with an L14.

 

One thing we've done well for this year is NCT E400s in special liveries, because there have been loads. Some are advertising wraps, while others like 660 here were liveries by NCT themselves to celebrate different things. 603 is the Pride bus, 627 has 125 Years of Public Ownership, and 660 was celebrating the Platinum Jubilee. It's since been changed to be in Honour of HM The Queen, and I coincidentally saw it this morning on the 36, but here is 660 in its original guise, with a 17 on the 7th of May.

 

June, with all its Bank Holidays, was the month of the 20; TrentBarton's Sunday (and Bank Holiday) combination of the Mon-Sat 18 and 21, even though the 18 is in the hands of CT4N nowadays. However, neither the 21 or the 20 lasted until the end of the year as both were withdrawn in October as part of TrentBarton's recast of their network around Ilkeston. On a bright and sunny 3rd of June, Solo 473 is seen in Chilwell with a 20, unusually operating on a Friday thanks to the extra Jubilee Bank Holidays.

 

Bit by bit, TrentBarton are still phasing out their Wright Solar bodied Scania L94UBs. Although Trent haven't bought any new buses in a couple of years, buses released by service reductions have displaced a few Scanias, and the number of operational examples has shrunk to just four. Gone now are the temporary spares in their ex-Sixes yellow colour, such as 659 in this photo. It is on Hucknall Road on the 23rd of July, working route 141; another thing that TrentBarton have given up.

 

The long-awaited final batch of biogas buses for NCT began to enter service in August, with the first being the orange line examples. All but one arrived with '22' registrations (one is a '71') after delays set back their introduction by a few months. Here is 526 on Angel Row, with a 35 to Bulwell on the 28th of August.

 

With TrentBarton withdrawing the 141 commercially, it became a Nottinghamshire County Council contracted route, running for a one-year pilot. Stagecoach now run it, almost exclusively providing Enviro 200s with nicely programmed destination blinds for the route. Up in Hucknall, 37002 is part way through its journey from Mansfield to Nottingham on 14.9.22

 

Sticking with Stagecoach and the theme of Mansfield to Nottingham, here's a Pronto for October. However, it's one of three Pronto buses which have been exiled to Lincoln for the majority of this year. The rest of Lincoln's bus happenings have just been vehicle transfers and some repaints, which aren't unique to 2022 and only the Pronto liveried ones seemed interesting enough to include - plus they have that connection to Nottingham for something titled Nottingham's Buses 2022. 10972 is on Oxford Street, Lincoln, with a 3 on 15.10.22

 

The new Broadmarsh bus station fully opened in the autumn, and I had my first look at the buses using it in November. After five years of building work, Nottingham has two city centre bus stations again. Also in this photo is Kinchbus 9, showing another Wellglade operator ditching its Wright Solars. The 9 has run with L94UBs for as long as I've known it, but now it's in the hands of branded Mercedes Citaros and, in this particular instance, a Solo SR as a stopgap measure while the Mercs were prepared. Kinch 501 is departing Broadmarsh on 12.11.22

 

December's picture shows a Marshalls 90 being run by a double decker, which isn't anything old, new or unique to this year. It is, though, rather indicative of the times with ongoing rail strikes disrupting train services on pretty much a weekly basis, and Marshalls tend to put at least one decker on the 90 on strike days. With the number of strike days soaring, so have the appearances of double decker 90s, and here on Carrington Street was my 'rail replacement' from Newark to Nottingham, with Trident DD106 on the 3rd of December.

 

So, that's your lot. Another year, and a rather grim one for the public transport industry at that, with the driver shortages and all. In last year's one of these I mentioned Stagecoach being sold to NatEx at the end, but that didn't end up happening and now they're owned by some investment firm. Going into 2023, there's the £2 single fare price cap scheme which might bring some positives, although I reckon there will be more service cuts at some point. Going for some wild predictions, I'm going to guess the 141 will end and get partly replaced by a Nottsbus connect route, and TrentBarton will order a small number of new buses for a single route (The Keyworth, perhaps?), freeing up a few B7RLEs just to see off the last Solars and give themselves a couple more spare saloons.

 

Hope you have a happy new year, anyway, whatever you get up to during 2023 :)

Done