I must apologise for the lack of updates to Southbus recently. This is because I will shortly be abandoning Colchester in favour of the Big Smoke and there has been much to do. However I decided that I really couldn't leave without taking a final swipe at my special friends in Magdalen Street.
First Essex have been very busy in Colchester recently, introducing a number of smart new Scania Solar low floor single deckers on service 65 between Highwoods and Tollgate. The previous low floor Scania L94s have been cascaded to the 64 group and both routes carry branding indicating main points, frequency and details of FirstDay tickets.
Arriva Colchester's depot in Magdalen Street by contrast, is looking like a rest home old buses. Some the only low floor buses in the fleet (Dennis Darts SLF with Plaxton Pointer bodywork) have been sent to Gillingham, Kent (to which I have no objections at all). The depot is reminiscent of an unsuccessful independent, the newest buses in the fleet being a brace of Mercedes-Benz Vario/Plaxton minibuses.
I'm not sure (and haven't been for a while) why Arriva stay in Colchester, other than to dump unwanted buses from elsewhere. They seem oblivious to the efforts made by their First Group neighbours and as reported before, show little enthusiasm for operating a bus service outside shopping hours on Mondays to Saturdays. It can only be a matter of time before like me, they up sticks and head to greener pastures.
Link: Pictures of First Essex Scania Solars in Colchester