View allAll Photos Tagged transdev
Possibly the working of the year Transdev Keighley Olympian 988 S58VMN seen on the 760 0915 from Keighley to Leeds seen at Calverley on Monday 22 December 2014
Transdev The Burnley Bus Company B7BVD 2706 seen on Chorlton Street prior to running on WitchWay X43 to Burnley
N424JBV Volvo Olympian / Northern Counties, Transdev Lancashire United 17. new 1995 to London Central.
Tetouan, 17 March 2025.
Imported from Sofia in Bulgaria where it operated for Karat-S (Карат-С).
Transdev Rosso DX12OWA 1714 seen loading up in Bury Interchange on Tottington Line 469 to Tottington
Mercedes Benz Intouro II n°24500 - ligne Express 21
Transdev SETRA / IDFM - Gare de Boissy Saint Léger
Quite a good capture I think of a CityZap boarding before returning via the M62 to Leeds with the other Transdev Brand, WitchWay, parked up further behind after arriving from Burnley before pulling up once Zap leaves and return to Burnley or Skipton.
Transdev The Burnley Bus Company 'WitchWay' BF63HCV 2775 seen in-between duties on Chorlton Street, Manchester
Fleet #: 2017
Registration: SK70 BWO
Operator: Transdev York
Taken looking down on Station Road, York. 22nd September 2021.
Transdev The Harrogate Bus Company H1ESU seen leaving Harrogate Bus Station on service 1A the St James Retail Park
A Transdev Van Hool Altano T917 in Annecy on 14th May, 2019.
VIN: YE2917SU339D53059, new 1/09, matriculation 1/19.
MX54KYF Transdev Burnley and Pendle Starship mini bus 1255 in York. Optare Solo M850, new 2004 to Dearden of Darwen.
Well after about 8 years of operation having been started by York Pullman, the Unibus 44 service finally bows out thus closing the book on York's long-running 'bus war' along the university corridor. The service started off to meet the requirements from the University of York of having a regular bus service to serve the Heslington East campus which at the time was being built and only had one or possibly two completed buildings which were in use - the university had contacted First York at the time on several occasions but the company had been unwilling to extend route 4 beyond Heslington Hall as it would require an extra vehicle to run on the then-branded 'FTR' route which have have meant obtaining another Wright Streetcar (even though at the time one which had originally been trialled in York had been down at Luton and wasn't required so easily could have been brought back up north).
As First wouldn't entertain the idea of serving Heslington East, the university contacted York Pullman and a deal was struck for a new service every 20 minutes between Merchantgate and the new campus where a turning circle was provided outside what is now the Ron Cooke Hub - the route was numbered 44 as if to compliment the 4 running along the same route, but the 44 was operated under a subsidy from the University over a deal of several years whereby the subsidy would decrease as passenger numbers increased with the eventual hope of the service being commercially viable in its own right. As time went on the passenger loadings on the 44 grew and so did the route to reflect this, extending first to the rail station and Nunnery Lane with then some journeys running right through to Acomb... and whilst Pullman had run a variety of vehicles on the service (including both an ex-Weardale low floor Ikarus bodied Daf SB220 and a step entrance version, a Scania Wright Solar, a BMC Condor) the time came in 2010 to have a dedicated fleet of vehicles and so a number of Olympians received conservative branding and the route name 'Unibus' - a single Leyland Olympian from Preston joined the fleet along with a single ex-Dublin Volvo Olympian and two ex-Lothian volvo examples; BUT at the same time Pullman purchased two brand new ADL Enviro 200's built on MAN chassis to make up a full contingent of vehicles to operate the increased length and frequency of the 44, whilst a Plaxton primo was purchased for a new aspect of the contract which was a free campus-to-campus shuttle bus service called the Ub1.
Pullman had been operating the 44 for some time in addition to other subsidised bus services around York, but a decision was made that in early 2012 all stagecarriage operations would be sold along with a number of vehicles in order to focus on schools and private hire work - this saw all such operations sold to Transdev York along with the full Unibus fleet; the vehicles stayed in York Pullman livery but received a simple vinyl overlay to cover the York Pullman logo with the Transdev York white rose logo, but vehicles route and frequency remained the same - though there was a brief period whereby some 44 services were extended beyond the university to Stamford Bridge however this was short-lived.
To reflect the changing requirements of the students, the university made it clear they wanted to see an increasing amount of buses being used with step-free access for the 44 route, and so Transdev introduced two ex-London Plaxton Presidents to the service which were later joined by two ex-Lancashire examples - these replaced Olympians on the route and at the same time introduced everybody to a whole new look for the Unibus. The buses were presented in a smart cream and indigo livery with a fade-out graphic to seperate the two colours vertically whilst a "looney tunes" style skyline graphic of York was used along the skirts to seperate the colours horizontally, whilst the university mascot of a duck also appeared on the buses. Shortly after introducing the double deckers, the two Enviro's purchased from Pullman went to the paint shop and gained the new branding identity whilst the Plaxton Primo gained a controversial pink graffitti livery - though the Primo only lasted about a year with Transdev before being exported to New Zealand due to it being non-standard.
Popularity of the Unibus grew ever-further and so the university required route frequency to increase, and so three Volvo B10BLE Wright Renown single deckers joined the fleet - these had been new to Yorkshire Coastliner and so to see them back in York was somewhat pleasing. At the time though there were increasing occurances whereby maintenance schedules or breakdowns meant a non-branded vehicle or two were appearing on the 44 and the university weren't pleased... as a result, Transdev brought across another Renown (1051) from lancashire which was 'officially' referred to as being in a dual-purpose livery - even though everybody else could see it as just being a half-arsed paint job that wasn't finished, as it had the base colours of the Unibus livery minus the blue sweep under the windscreen nor any of the graphics (just a simple white sticker with the new-style Transdev logo and a corny corporate motto)... eventually this did receive the full livery minus the bluue sweep under the windscreen. In addition to the 44 and the Ub1, the contract with the university also saw Transdev run an early-morning service from the university to the hospital one-way only (Hb1) as well as overnight services during term time for students wishing to go clubbing (Cb2) or for access to the university library for pre-exam study (SS1).... the Cb2 had been operated by York Pullman previously on select weekdays, whilst a Cb1 route had also been registered and operated by them on other days of the week.
Everything changed in 2015 however, when the Unibus contract had come up for re-tender and the new contract was awarded to First York - which was in a strange way surprising and yet not surprising all at the same time, as everybody knew First York strongly despised having subsidised competition to and from the university, and so it was an easy guess that First would put in an incredibly strong bid for the uni contract. It had been considered that Transdev would be gracious in defeat and quietly withdraw the 44 service so that the route and number could pass over to the new incumbent; however that didn't happen and instead Transdev registered the 44 route commercially with a slight route alteration due to no longer being authorised to run buses along Lakeside Way and so would have to terminate at the Heslington East interchange near Badger Hill, the route which First's number 4 had been doing for some time prior to winning the uni contract. The other change for the 44 Unibus was the streamlining of the fleet: all four double deckers left York for pastures new (Keighley) whilst the Enviro's went to the paint shop again to receive the white rose livery applied to buses being used elsewhere in the York operation, and the 4 Renowns were then joined by Renowns 1054, 1059 and 1076 and all were given a mildly revised livery which had all aspects to denote a partnership with the university having been removed.... all 7 vehicles were then refurbished with new seating, new interior panelling, free wi-fi and USB chargers. Online, Transdev started a questionable social media campaign to try and assert that they were the better service provider and that even though others were 'copying' the Unibus there would only ever be... ahem... "only one unibus". The commercially-run 44 could not offer the same high frequency of every 7-8 minutes being offered by First, but that didn't stop Transdev from arranging their timetables to arrive at key stops about 3 minutes before the First service, and likewise the 44 would be timed to wait around at city centre stops such as the rail station and merchantgate so as to try and draw as many passengers as possible on board. Likewise the university required First York to run the 66 as a 24-hour operation during term time with services overnight for students having a night out in the city centre, with the overnight services running once an hour - Transdev got wind of this and registered the 44 to also run 24 hours a day, with the hourly overnight services just so happening to depart from the city centre on the opposite side of the hour to First's service. This 24-hour service didn't last long however, but when Transdev launched the York-Leeds Cityzap limited stop service the decision was made to extend friday/saturday late night services arriving into York at 3am and 4am to go beyond the city centre to the university - the service was timed as such with the one simple hope that the zap service would arrive at the rail station and more importantly into merchantgate before the overnight First service so as to abstract passengers away. This didn't really work either and so that ploy was eventually dropped and so for the last few months the Unibus 44 has simply been plodding along with a regular 15-minute service between the uni and the city with every other service extended under subsidy from the council to Acomb via Holly Bank to replace the 13A service which First York had withdrawn.
Just over 6 weeks ago the announcement was made that at the end of the winter university term the unibus 44 service would cease, though the 44 between the city centre and acomb would continue as a standalone operation - the company statement made was along the lines that "other operators copying our service" had caused the unibus to no longer be viable, though it is very much worth noting that the person who first devised the 44 route with York Pullman is the same person who arranged First York's 66 service which officially replaced the 44. The very last day of the Unibus was December 3rd 2016, and here at Morell Library on central campus is B10BLE Renown B10YKS... it is fitting for this to be one of the last two unibus vehicles I photograph on the route, as this was the first Unibus renown I got a photo of when it arrived in the city under its original registration of YD02 UMV having been new to Yorkshire Coastliner.
Transdev The Burnley Bus Company 'WitchWay' BF63HCY 2777 seen coming onto Chorlton Street, Manchester to pick up service X43 to Burnley then Skipton
Team Pennine YX68UJS 730 seen coming into Huddersfield Bus Station on service 303 from Scapegoat Hill