View allAll Photos Tagged Axcess
This Bramley-based Scania L113CRL/Wright Axcess Ultralow is photographed here on New Station Street in Leeds. The bus is on a 19 journey, which finishes on Farrar Lane in Ireland Wood. This bus sports First West Yorkshire's old standard livery.
Photo Reference Number: FWY_61071_01
16/08/2012 | © Michael Mills
For years Wright 'Axcess' bodied Scanias have been the staple 'big bus' in First Potteries' fleet and, it was a batch of 9 new examples that brought 'barbie 3' livery and low floor buses to North Staffordshire way back in 1998. Now though with some examples approaching their 17th birthdays their reign looks to be nearing an end as the transfer in of some marginally newer B7L's from Leicester and some brand new (yes BRAND NEW!) Wright Streetlites later in the year looks set to make a dent in their numbers - some have already succumbed to the scrapman. S350MFP (60006) which is a Scania L113CRL with Axcess-Ultralow bodywork started its life in Leicester but has been serving this area for some time now, it is seen here arriving in Hanley on a 7A.
Still the Scanias survive at Bracknell.
Along with Trident 33153 and the John Nike Scania running the 171/2 in place of Citaros, another Scania, 65602 (S102 CSG) was out too - seen here on the 171.
Bracknell bus station, Bracknell, Berkshire.
Here we have an interior shot of 61137 S101CSG at Bury Bus Station, a First Manchester Scania L94UB with Wright Axcess-Floline bodywork on the 524 service to Bolton Bus Station!
Wrightbus Axcess Floline Scania L94UB new, 9/1998, as Newport 14. Taken at Newport Transport's Depot.
The buses of Scotland - FifeFirst
This particular bus was new as Midland Bluebird 578 in October 1996. However its claim to fame for the purposes of this article is that it was then transferred to fellow Firstbus company Lowland Omnibues Limited (still numbered 578) in May 1997 for use on "FifeFirst" services.
You may struggle to recall FifeFirst. It was a short lived venture by Firstbus to extend competition with Stagecoach into Fife which barely lasted a few years despite a promising start. However it owes its very existence to Stagecoach’s decision to launch an invasion of Glasgow against Strathclyde’s Buses.
Stagecoach had made no secret to its desire to gain a foothold in Glasgow, which had some of the best bus operating territory anywhere. At deregulation in 1986, it launched Magicbus which competed with Strathclyde’s Buses and Kelvin Scottish too, although the latter was only a limited competition. Magicbus soon carved out a useful niche in Glasgow but opportunities for expansion of it were limited. It looked at purchasing Kelvin Central Buses - the merged Kelvin and Central Scottish - to expand its presence in Glasgow as part of the privatisation of the Scottish Bus Group but when it saw the books of that company at the time it passed.
A second opportunity arose when news broke about Strathclyde’s Buses being potentially sold to its management and employees. Stagecoach lobbied hard that it should be allowed to bid for the company as well and went as far as to sell Magicbus to the more secure by this stage Kelvin Central. This would remove any possible competition concerns but in the end, Strathclyde passed to the employee/management ownership. This meant Stagecoach exited Glasgow for the time being.
The purchase of Western Buses in 1994 gave Stagecoach a way back into Glasgow after these false starts.. It announced at the end of 1994 that it was setting up a Stagecoach Glasgow subsidiary to compete against Strathclyde’s Buses. This looked like a full on bus war and Strathclyde’s Buses went as far as to begin to scour the United Kingdom for vehicles to set up operations competing in Fife and Perth against existing Stagecoach companies there.
At the last moment peace broke out and Stagecoach bought a 20% stake in Strathclyde’s Buses parent company, SB Holdings. As part of that transaction some of the buses intended for the new Stagecoach Glasgow operations passed to SB Holdings, the holding company for Strathclyde’s Buses. As it turned out, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission took an interest in the purchase and instructed Stagecoach to sell it, despite Stagecoach’s protests and, ultimately, a court case which it eventually won against the Commission. In the end, the sale was rendered moot when Firstbus purchased SB Holdings and Stagecoach made a handsome profit on the sale.
Flash forward to 1997 and Stagecoach again targeted Glasgow. It set up a Stagecoach Glasgow subsidiary with its registered office at Western Buses head office of Sandgate, Ayr, and promised to invest £10 million in services and create 250 jobs with over 100 new buses to be used. Again services to Easterhouse, Castlemilk and East Kilbride were to be run but also to new places such as Cumbernauld, Milton, Pollok and Drumchapel.
First retaliated by setting up a new FifeFirst company. This was to be run by Lowland Buses, competing with Stagecoach in Fife. At the same time, SB Holdings subsidiary Kelvin Central Buses began a service in Ayrshire competing against Western Buses on its prestigious former A1 Service. First also invested heavily in its Glasgow fleets.
Although there had been many skirmishes since deregulation between two buses companies, this was probably the first case of two super bus groups competing head on. It looked like Stagecoach intended to and was going to carve out a significant part of the Glasgow bus market. At the same time, First was determined to protect some of the most lucrative bus operating territory in the United Kingdom and it was opening up new fronts against Stagecoach with rumours of expanded operations against Stagecoach in Manchester by First owned Greater Manchester Buses North and a new operation against Stagecoach in Newcastle, where First had no presence.
However, unlike in Newcastle, where the proposed First operation never happened, in June 1997, the company launched the FifeFirst brand, in order to compete with Stagecoach Fife, who had recently started competing with First's Glasgow operations. Stagecoach had begun short operations between Cumbernauld and Glasgow using its Fife Scottish operations which ran from Fife through Cumbernauld to Glasgow.
To hit back, First launched a new operation in Fife. This was with service 56 from Edinburgh to Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath and Ballingry using a combination of 12 new Wright Axcess-Ultralow bodied Scania L113s alongside examples transferred from Lowland Scottish, Midland Scottish and Rider York, all painted in an allover red livery. In addition to these were a few Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart SLFs. The service mirrored two existing Stagecoach Fife services in part with extensions across to Edinburgh where the terminus was St Andrew’s Bus Station. It was actually quite an innovative service as previously some of the communities it served had to change around Dunfermline to get to Edinburgh. So that gave them useful links and an incentive to use it.
As mentioned the buses were painted allover red, the red being the same as the new allover red being applied to First’s new Glasgow fleets. However the red was very historically accurate for the area as following the split of the huge Alexander’s Empire in the 1960s, a red and cream colour scheme was adopted for the Fife region, for the company which later evolved into Fife Scottish and continued up until it was obliterated by Stagecoach’s corporate colours upon its acquisition. The fleet name chosen was FifeFirst and was added in white. Route branding showing were the buses went was also added to the upper panels.
A sub-depot was established in Dunfermline, with SMT’s Westfield - by this stage part of Lowland - providing most of the vehicles used. It set fares broadly similar to existing Stagecoach services but its main selling point was its use of accessible vehicles whereas as Stagecoach still used step-entrance Volvo B10M-55/Alexander PS-types.
At the time there were rumours of additional services being launched in Fife and it looked as though FifeFirst may go on to be a profitable venture. However it wasn’t to be. Unlike Firsr’s Ayrshire operations which lasted well into the naughties, FifeFirst barely made the millennium. As competition was scaled back in Greater Glasgow, FifeFirst it was felt had became a bit of an outlier, with little room for expansion. Stagecoach by this stage had also introduced accessible vehicles on the competing services, negating First’s main selling point.
When First introduced its new corporate livery, it saw the First name gain more prominence with the Fife name relegated to under the driver’s window or beside the entrance. So I suppose technically it became FirstFife then maybe? None of the vehicles were repainted in First’s new livery but technically none qualified to be fair, as they didn’t have the new corporate interiors. But what eventually did for FifeFirst was the closure of St Andrew’s Bus Station in Edinburgh for redevelopment. First took that as an opportunity to cull the service and it lasted until a few days after the closure of the bus station in July 2000. The buses all went back to Midland Bluebird for use in the Falkirk area.
So ended an interesting escapade when a former Scottish Bus Group company based in the Scottish Borders, used a depot of another Scottish Bus Grpup company based in Scotland’s Capital City against another Scottish Bus Company’s services in Fife with buses in the colours of what at one stage been the municipal operator in Glasgow. Who says the Scottish Bus industry is boring?
The emergency bus NJZ 3359 is now on the 190 service to Foxholes from Malton and is seen here in Malton after a great thrash from driver Nickos
Newport Transport 13 (S113 TDW), Scania L94UB fitted with Wright Axcess Floline B46F body, new 9/98.
Number 13 on an 8A Ringland working departing Ringland Circle on 04/05/99.
Coming up to 20 years old but still going strong is ex First Leeds 60133 which is seen here surviving for a little longer with ConneXionsbuses before retiring into preservation. Used mainly as a school bus for the 636H this sees normal service use if a bus brakes down. This was new to Rider York in 1995 to operate the Park & Ride services in York until 2002 where it was transferred to somewhere in West Yorkshire before moving to Leeds where it was withdrawn by First late 2014
One of the latest additions to First Potteries Adderley Green depot from the now defunct First Northampton, Scania L113CRL/Wright Axcess-Ultralow R261DVF (65561) is seen arriving in Hanley on local route 5 to Abbey Hulton. Given its battered and mismatched panels and permanently misted up nearside window you would have thought it had been here for years!! 08/04/2014.
Yorkshire Rider 8193 is back in West Yorkshire after spending time with First in the Potteries and now carries First Leeds fleet number 60065. Seen here passing the construction site for Pudsey's new bus station, it is a Wright Axcess Floline bodied Scania L94UB. Here it is operating the 91A to 'Jimmys' or officially St James Hospital, Leeds.
First Scania L94UB/Wright Axcess Floline 61672.V122FSF crosses Argyle Street, Glasgow on the 13th June 2012.
New in August 1995 to White, Bridge of Walls.
11000cc.
B47F.
Previously Registered as N162KPS.
Sandbach Bus Station on 21st July 2014.
9595RU.
1399 (aka 7065) P399FVP, a Scania L113 with Wright Axcess ultra low bodywork, seen here dumped at Miller Street with 678 S678VOA, a Volvo B6LE. 1399 was new to Walsall garage in October 1996 and also spending a short time at Birmingham Central before going where a lot of non standard types end up, Dundee. Returning to The West Midlands during 2010, 1399 patiently awaits her fate.
First Potteries Scania L94UB / Wright Axcess Floline 61143, S361 MFP, is seen in Hanley whilst operating the 20A to Talke Pits.
Showing a clean pair of heels is First Potteries 60073 which passed me as I was strolling close to the Deltabus homestead yesterday. 60073 (V831GBF) was new to First PMT as 831 in 1999. It was one of 3 Scanias with Wright Axcess Floline bodies delivered new in that year. The bus was later transfered to First Manchester, and spent a short time with First Edinburgh before returning home in August 2007. At that time, several of these Scanias were route branded for Service 25 Hanley-Newcastle-Keele University, on which route 60073 is seen.
Now a rare breed is this Axcess-Ultralow resident at GVVT Bridgeton, seen here outside Buchanan Bus Station operating a service back to the museum during their annual open weekend.
The yellow and blue buses of South Lancs Travel are a common sight in Bolton and Wigan. This is their fleet number 68, a Wright Axcess Floline bodied Scania L94UB which was new to Dunn Line. It is seen here arriving at Wigan bus station before turning around for a route 132 journey to the Trafford Centre.
First West Yorkshire Limited 61072 R458 JFS, a Scania L113CRL built 1998 with a Wright Axcess-Ultralow B40F body on New Market Street in Leeds by the Corn Exchange bus station with the 14:33 Aberford (Old Café) to Gildersome (Moorland Avenue) via Barwick and Leeds 64 service followed by First West Yorkshire Limited 39206 BJ60 BZF, a Volvo B5LH built 2011 with a Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 H41/23F body with a Primley Park to Leeds (Wellington Street) via Carr Manor Road 7 service and passing by First West Yorkshire Limited 37127 YK57 CJO, a Volvo B9TL built 2008 with a Wright Eclipse Gemini H45/29F body. Saturday 9th July 2011
Note, R458 JFS was originally owned and operated by Yorkshire Rider Limited which was purchased by Badgerline Group plc on 18th April 1994, and in June 1995 GRT Bus Group plc and Badgerline Group plc merged to form FirstBus plc. It was transferred to First West Yorkshire Limited on 24th March 2003
Ref no IMG_0492
Delivered to MTL Merseybus, in 08/1996, this Scania is one of the more modern buses now entering preservation. It is seen here negotiating the gyratory system at Woodside Ferry Terminal, Birkenhead, whilst attending The 2013 Wirral Bus and Tram Show, on a warm and sunny 06/10/2013. © Peter Steel 2013.
Scania L94UB, Wright Axcess Floline - B43F
Transdev York - fleet no 1106
York, Station Road
21 September 2012
P1090413
Operator: Sanders Coaches Ltd
Fleet No: 311
Registration: T362JWA
Body/Chassis: Scania L94UB Wright Axcess-Floline
Chassis No: 1834949
Seating: B43F
New: May 1999
Ex: Apcoa
Livery: Sanders Services
Date: Wednesday 15th January 2014
Location: Norwich Bus Station
Route: X44 (Sheringham Express)
Seen withdrawn at Bramley depot, 18/08/14.
UPDATE 18/03/15: 61069 was sold to Harrogate Coach Travel (Connexions Buses) back in late 2014/early 2015. Due to being stored outside at Bramley depot, the environment had taken a toll on 61069, and when sold to HCT, it was in such a state it was sent to Geoff Ripley scrappers shortly after arriving.