Nottingham Coaches X227 FBB
Among the uploads I recently did featuring Yourbus photos taken in the mid-2010s, one of the pictures had the Nottingham Coaches 17 in the background. Given the oddity THAT operation was, I figured I’d re-upload the few photos I got of it with marginally better editing than my 2015 attempts. I only saw the thing 2 or 3 times, and the photos I got weren’t that bad to begin with, so there wasn’t much of an improvement to be made besides some less severe cropping.
Thanks to my general ignorance at the time, I didn’t keep much track of what changes were being made to the local buses and so the story of the 17 (and so many other things like the Yourbus operations) is just what I can piece together retrospectively. Luckily, timetables are still available online 9 years later through an outdated Stapleford community news website, and a handy route map of the 17’s later incarnation. The version of the 17 into Beeston was launched in December 2014 (after Chilwell Road reopened) and only lasted until summer 2015. “Following changes to where we can stop in Beeston Town Centre we will be altering our Service 17” is the quote on the web page, so possibly Nottingham Coaches weren’t able to secure stand space for the opening of the new Beeston Interchange.
The Route:
So what was the 17, anyway? Well, if you look further down this upload you’ll see the 17 was previously a Nottinghamshire County Council contract route that ran from Beeston to Stapleford via Attenborough and Toton, run by Premiere travel. Premiere collapsed and I’m not sure what happened after that, but considering the route is basically the Nottsbus 510 with small changes I’d be willing to bet the County Council just took the operation in-house and renumbered it.
Nottingham Coaches is essentially Premiere mk2 – the red livery and some coaches being emblazoned with PREMIERE being the clue – and they decided to revive the 17, with alterations, as a commercial route. The core Beeston – Toton – Stapleford section remained (but cut out Attenborough as far as I can tell), and was extended to Beeston Dennis Avenue at one end, and through Sandiacre down to Long Eaton at the other end.
From June 2015 it morphed into a circular affair linking Long Eaton to the NET tram terminus at Toton Lane, totally cutting out the Beeston section. At some point the circular 17 faded away, which on reflection isn’t surprising since all the links it made could be done via other bus routes. All the 17 really did was make direct connections between places that would otherwise need a change, such as Beeston to Sandiacre, or Long Eaton to Toton Lane (and reasonably why would Long Eaton folk catch the 17 and then tram when they could directly access tram destinations on the indigo?)
The Buses:
The only vehicles I ever saw on the 17 were ex-Go North East X-reg Super Pointer Darts X227 FBB and X232 FBB, plus X224 FBB which I once photted with the 17 slip board but not actually on the route itself. As far as I know, no other buses besides the X-FBB Darts were used on the 17. When I took these photos in February it was quite obvious where the Northern names had been peeled off 227, and it was grubby as anything. 232 looked even worse with select bits of GNE lettering left over because the bare minimum had been removed.
Although it was Nottingham Coaches running the service, they called themselves Nottingham Buses for their local bus work and that name stuck around on a few subsequent buses they bought – the name might still be around today but it’s been a couple of years since I last saw anything of Nottingham Coaches. Their colours have moved over to mostly green and white, but around 2015/16/17 time they were definitely still going for Premiere red. The Darts came in red anyway though could have perhaps done with a fresh coat just to get rid of the GNE branding residue.
One amusing factor of them using Dennis Darts on the route was that, when they ran to Beeston, the destination was Dennis (Dart) Avenue. I distinctly remember a photo of one appearing in a bus magazine highlighting the fact, and in the following month’s issue someone had found a corresponding Dart road name to go with it.
Taken 13.2.15
Uploaded 11.8.24
The timetable web page:
www.staplefordcommunitygroup.org.uk/2014/11/08/new-17-bus...
Nottingham Coaches X227 FBB
Among the uploads I recently did featuring Yourbus photos taken in the mid-2010s, one of the pictures had the Nottingham Coaches 17 in the background. Given the oddity THAT operation was, I figured I’d re-upload the few photos I got of it with marginally better editing than my 2015 attempts. I only saw the thing 2 or 3 times, and the photos I got weren’t that bad to begin with, so there wasn’t much of an improvement to be made besides some less severe cropping.
Thanks to my general ignorance at the time, I didn’t keep much track of what changes were being made to the local buses and so the story of the 17 (and so many other things like the Yourbus operations) is just what I can piece together retrospectively. Luckily, timetables are still available online 9 years later through an outdated Stapleford community news website, and a handy route map of the 17’s later incarnation. The version of the 17 into Beeston was launched in December 2014 (after Chilwell Road reopened) and only lasted until summer 2015. “Following changes to where we can stop in Beeston Town Centre we will be altering our Service 17” is the quote on the web page, so possibly Nottingham Coaches weren’t able to secure stand space for the opening of the new Beeston Interchange.
The Route:
So what was the 17, anyway? Well, if you look further down this upload you’ll see the 17 was previously a Nottinghamshire County Council contract route that ran from Beeston to Stapleford via Attenborough and Toton, run by Premiere travel. Premiere collapsed and I’m not sure what happened after that, but considering the route is basically the Nottsbus 510 with small changes I’d be willing to bet the County Council just took the operation in-house and renumbered it.
Nottingham Coaches is essentially Premiere mk2 – the red livery and some coaches being emblazoned with PREMIERE being the clue – and they decided to revive the 17, with alterations, as a commercial route. The core Beeston – Toton – Stapleford section remained (but cut out Attenborough as far as I can tell), and was extended to Beeston Dennis Avenue at one end, and through Sandiacre down to Long Eaton at the other end.
From June 2015 it morphed into a circular affair linking Long Eaton to the NET tram terminus at Toton Lane, totally cutting out the Beeston section. At some point the circular 17 faded away, which on reflection isn’t surprising since all the links it made could be done via other bus routes. All the 17 really did was make direct connections between places that would otherwise need a change, such as Beeston to Sandiacre, or Long Eaton to Toton Lane (and reasonably why would Long Eaton folk catch the 17 and then tram when they could directly access tram destinations on the indigo?)
The Buses:
The only vehicles I ever saw on the 17 were ex-Go North East X-reg Super Pointer Darts X227 FBB and X232 FBB, plus X224 FBB which I once photted with the 17 slip board but not actually on the route itself. As far as I know, no other buses besides the X-FBB Darts were used on the 17. When I took these photos in February it was quite obvious where the Northern names had been peeled off 227, and it was grubby as anything. 232 looked even worse with select bits of GNE lettering left over because the bare minimum had been removed.
Although it was Nottingham Coaches running the service, they called themselves Nottingham Buses for their local bus work and that name stuck around on a few subsequent buses they bought – the name might still be around today but it’s been a couple of years since I last saw anything of Nottingham Coaches. Their colours have moved over to mostly green and white, but around 2015/16/17 time they were definitely still going for Premiere red. The Darts came in red anyway though could have perhaps done with a fresh coat just to get rid of the GNE branding residue.
One amusing factor of them using Dennis Darts on the route was that, when they ran to Beeston, the destination was Dennis (Dart) Avenue. I distinctly remember a photo of one appearing in a bus magazine highlighting the fact, and in the following month’s issue someone had found a corresponding Dart road name to go with it.
Taken 13.2.15
Uploaded 11.8.24
The timetable web page:
www.staplefordcommunitygroup.org.uk/2014/11/08/new-17-bus...